Foreign languages are the doorway to the world. She lived in a county outside Richmond, and for years her horizons were not broad. Her frames of reference were pretty much family, school, church, mall, the larger city. Then, because it was required in high school, she took her first French course. She loved it. She practiced her vocab on her cat. She translated verbs while standing in lines. She found a French pen pal. The world and its glorious diversity of people opened up.

Years later, walking the streets of Paris on a winter visit, she marveled about where she was and how far she'd come.

The main goal of Trinity's Foreign Language Department is to take our students "there"-to some state of mind and place of global understanding well beyond the everyday world most of us experience. We want nothing more than to enhance lives, broaden horizons, expand sensibilities. We want to bring with the study of a language a new culture, a new way of looking at life and oneself. We want to reinforce skills useful across the curriculum: an understanding of composition, a sense of how grammar works and-especially with Latin-an appreciation of the origins of words and language.

With a three-year minimum requirement, our students will be able to master most aspects of the foreign language they choose and speak with near-native pronunciation. And, in their own tongue, they will be able to speak more wisely and with far greater understanding of the world they live in and the peoples who share that world.

Isa Dunaway, Department Head Julie Davi Paola Rubio Ludmilla Kovar Basil Georgiadis

Clark Meader Julie Urena Jose Santiago Tammi Reichel