On March 1, 2024, Vannessa Quintana Sarria and Iuliia Fakhrutdinova, who are doctoral doctorates in the Applied Linguistics Department, presented their JLAP project at the 37th National Convention of Alpha Mu Gamma. The event, titled Creating Connections Through Languages in the 21st Century, was hosted by the Nu Alpha Chapter at the College of DuPage. The JLAP project was created by Dr. Jennifer Sclafani and brought to life by Dr. Jennifer Sclafani, Dr. Panagiota Gounari, Vannessa, and Iuliia.

Their presentation centered on the Justice Language Action Project (JLAP), a project aimed at professional and curricular development. JLAP’s mission is to foster critical language awareness among elementary, middle, and high school students in the Boston area. This is achieved through collaborations with teachers who have completed coursework in the UMass Boston graduate program in Applied Linguistics, as part of their training for the Massachusetts ESL licensure.

Also, there were other significant presentations and interactions involving both current and former APLING students. Brian Kapustka, a student in the MA program, not only moderated the talk given by Iuliia and Vannessa but also gave his own presentation on Neurodiversifying Language Instruction, alongside his colleague from College of DuPage, Learning Technologist Lara Tompkins. Naomi Rockenbaugh, who recently earned her MA from UMB APLING, gave a presentation on Translanguaging as an Approach to FL learning.