Over 1200 people participated in the Multilingual Education Fair of Washington, DC last Saturday at Gallaudet University. The event attracted families, educators, students, employers, job-seekers, and language enthusiasts looking to impact their lives through language and culture. Over 100 exhibitors across 17 languages were present and filled the air with excitement and multilingual buzzing.

I was invited to give a keynote on the Bilingual Revolution and how communities, and parents in particular, can change the educational landscape by creating their own dual-language immersion programs. My talk was introduced by Council member Brandon T. Todd who has shown great leadership in support of multilingual education in Washington, DC.

The event was organized by DC Language Immersion Project, a DC-based nonprofit organization which works to “engage families, support educators, research best practices and advocate for a systemic approach to equitably increasing opportunity and strengthening communities through multilingual education.”

The demand for multilingual education and the need for multilingual
employees is skyrocketing nationwide, and DC is not sitting idle thanks to the excellent work done by the volunteers of DC Language Immersion Project, and in particular Vanessa Bertelli, Linsey Silver, Jimell Sanders whom I have watched grow into amazing bilingual revolutionaries over the years.

Last year, I spent three days in Washington DC where I took part in no less than 9 events and talked about my book, the role of parents in creating dual language programs, and how these could benefit DC public schools. You can read about it here.