Colorado State University Foreign Languages Department Chair Honored with Leadership Award

Note to Reporters: A photo of Paola Malpezzi Price is with the news release at www.news.colostate.edu.

Paola Malpezzi Price, chair of Colorado State University’s Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, received the Program Leadership Award from the Colorado Congress of Foreign Language Teachers, or CCFLT.

Malpezzi Price was nominated by four colleagues for the award, which is presented annually to “a world language educator who has provided exceptional leadership and innovation in programs beyond the classroom level,” according to the CCFLT website.

“Dr. Malpezzi Price has been a driving force in the promotion of foreign language learning and teaching in Colorado for almost 30 years,” said Mary Vogl, associate professor of French and director of the Language and Culture Study Center, who nominated Malpezzi Price for the award. “Her creativity, enthusiasm and ability to reach out to a multitude of constituents make her an exceptional advocate for the prominent place of world languages in Colorado and therefore highly deserving of this award.”

Malpezzi Price has been teaching at Colorado State for 27 years and has been chair of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures since 2007. She has worked to integrate foreign languages with other departments and fields of study. In her time as department chair, Malpezzi Price helped to start an interdisciplinary studies minor in Italian Studies and is working on other similar programs.

Malpezzi Price also initiated a Council of Friends of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, bringing together advocates for foreign language study from the university, local businesses and the Poudre School District. The department hosts Language Days, in which students from local high schools come to campus to interact with students and faculty. The event offers students college credit for their high-school language study.

“The diversity of our language offering is a strength for our department, our campus, our community and our state as few universities can offer this diversity,” said Frederique Grim, associate professor of French, who supported Vogl’s nomination. “Dr. Malpezzi Price makes our department visible at every level of the College of Liberal Arts, in other colleges and in the administration of Colorado State University.”

The Colorado Congress of Foreign Language Teachers Inc. is organized for the purpose of the advancement of the study and teaching of foreign languages in schools, colleges and universities of the state of Colorado.

“CSU does not have a language requirement, but Dr. Malpezzi Price is constantly reminding administrators, professors, advisors and students that language skills and cultural knowledge are crucial in this globalized world,” Vogl said.

Special instructors Lynne Barnes and Marie-Jo Hoffman praised their department chair for her respect for contingent faculty and her tireless work to support her colleagues’ endeavors.

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