Un Gran E-X-I-T-O ... A big s-u-c-c-e-s-s

Weber State’s student chapter of Sigma Delta Pi, the National Collegiate Hispanic Honor Society, hosted Utah’s first statewide Spanish spelling bee in 2015, and the turnout was estupendo, estupendo, estupendo — great, great, great! Isabel Asensio, associate Spanish professor and Sigma Delta Pi advisor, helped organize the event, which featured Spanish- and non-Spanish-speaking elementary and junior high school students from St. George, Utah, to Ogden. Fifth-grader Raul Martinez, from Dixie Sun Elementary in St. George, took first place.

The event was such a success that a second was held in 2016, with Lauren Cornell, a seventh-grader from North Davis Preparatory Academy, coming in first. The first-, second- and third-place winners each received copies of Don Quijote de la Mancha to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the death of the book’s author, Miguel de Cervantes.

Language Diversity Research

Isabel Asensio and colleagues Gina Shelley, assistant professor of teacher education, Pamela Payne, assistant professor of child and family studies, and Electra Gamón Fielding, assistant Spanish professor, received a 2016 Hemingway Faculty Excellence Award for their work on a research project titled “At Home: Parents’ Perspectives on Raising Bilingual Kids and Bilingual Education.” The findings will provide a better understanding of parents’ and children’s needs in terms of language diversity and resources in Ogden.