Dr. David Magill, professor of literatures of diversity and chair of Longwood’s English and Modern Languages department, led a faculty team that was recently awarded a $10,000 grant from the Modern Language Association of America to support a new project that aims to increase career development and readiness for students.
Magill and three fellow faculty from English and Modern Languages, are one of 19 faculty teams from around the country selected to receive inaugural Pathways Step Grants to bolster the recruitment, retention and career readiness of undergraduate students, especially students of color, first-generation college students and Pell Grant recipients.
The project, titled “Mapping Your Journey in Language: From Student to Professional to Citizen,” includes initiatives that will make explicit the transferable skills that English and Modern Languages majors develop in their studies and guide students on how to make connections between their coursework and their desired careers. The project also includes the development of an alumni mentoring program.
“We are honored to be one of the programs that the Modern Language Association has included in the inaugural Pathways grant program,” Magill said. “This funding will support our ongoing efforts to show our students how a degree in English or in Modern Languages leads to a wide variety of career possibilities and to recruit future Lancers to our majors.”
The project will begin with a faculty development workshop this summer for 10 English and Modern Languages faculty, who will work to develop a scaffolded career readiness curriculum for their majors. The core course syllabi and assignments will be revised to include career development across the majors and build a robust alumni mentoring program. Alumni will meet with students virtually during their first three years and then in person during their senior capstone.
In addition to Magill, the other Longwood faculty who were part of the grant proposal are Dr. Sean Barry, associate professor of English and program coordinator for English, Dr. Megan DiBartolomeo, assistant professor of Spanish and program coordinator for modern language education, and Dr. Jay Crowell, assistant professor of French and director of French.
Magill and other grant recipients will present their projects at the 2025 MLA Annual Convention in New Orleans in January 2025. The Pathways Step Grants are funded by a generous grant from the Mellon Foundation.
“When we give students permission to focus on the humanities by showing them pathways to success during college and after graduation, they choose the humanities,” said Paula Krebs, the executive director of the MLA. “We are so glad that, with the support of the Mellon Foundation, we can bolster the work of faculty members whose initiatives make a significant difference to their students, departments and institutions.”