For George Mason University students in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages (MCL), the Spanish and Korean B.A. foreign language concentrations draw the highest enrollment for both majors and minors.
Associate professor Ellen Serafini, who teaches in the Spanish program and serves as MCL’s director of graduate programs, says this parallels two of the more frequently spoken languages—aside from English—in the Washington D.C., metropolitan area.
“In the region,” she said, “they are two of the languages that have the most visibility, the most ethnolinguistic vitality.”
Building on relationships through community-based service-learning, George Mason has built a partnership with Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) to bolster the growth of literacy in those languages. Thanks to a Summer Team Impact Project (STIP) grant from the Office of the Provost, the department carried out a community-based needs analysis at two FCPS schools with dual language immersion programs.
Focusing on language, educational access, and social equity in local bilingual schools, the STIP was led by Serafini and associate professor Jihye Moon, who teaches in the Korean program and is MCL’s director of undergraduate studies. Both professors already had well-established relationships with two nearby schools—Laurel Ridge Elementary School in Fairfax and Colin Powell Elementary School in Centreville. Laurel Ridge offers a Spanish immersion program and Colin Powell boasts the only Korean immersion program in Virginia.
Eight undergraduate George Mason students (four for each language) and Cultural Studies PhD student, Teo Rogers Mendizabal, were selected among a competitive pool of applicants to work as (graduate) research assistants during the 10-week STIP project. They interviewed teachers, school administrators, parents, FCPS board members, and state administrators to evaluate the effectiveness of the programs in meeting the needs of bilingual students and in decreasing disparities in educational outcomes. In addition, Moon and her four selected George Mason students were able to observe teachers and students at Colin Powell over several weeks.
“The goal of our needs analysis was to explore the perspectives and needs of multiple stakeholders not only within FCPS but also at the state level,” Serafini said. "(Also) to empower students to realize their agency and to become advocates to first learn about dual language immersion—what are the potential benefits of it—but to also be critically aware of its opportunities and limitations.”
In FCPS, dual language immersion (DLI) programs seek to foster grade-level academic achievement and develop bilingualism and biliteracy as well as intercultural competence through bilingual instruction. Students enrolled in dual language immersion (DLI) programs through a lottery process spend half of their day learning math, science, and health in French, German, Japanese, Korean, or Spanish. The other half of the day, students are learning in English focusing on reading, language arts and social studies.
Laurel Ridge Elementary School offers a partial Spanish Immersion Program for students in kindergarten through sixth grade where classes are predominantly filled with learners of the partner language (Spanish). Colin Powell utilizes a two-way DLI program model with a balance of speakers and learners of the partner language (Korean), enabling both student populations to serve as peer language models.
“It was definitely a really valuable and eye-opening experience,” said English and foreign languages major Sarah Choudhary, who observed at Colin Powell Elementary School. “It allowed us to view in-person what are the dynamics in the school.”
Choudhary and research partner Sukyoung Yoon presented their findings from their observations and interviews during the Summer 2025 Office of Student Creative Activities and Research (OSCAR) Celebration of Student Research and Impact last summer at Dewberry Hall in the Johnson Center. Giselle Concepcion and Roslyn Brown also presented their findings on the Korean DLI program while Chloe Davis and Avery Rhoden discussed their takeaways from the Laurel Ridge Elementary study.
Fellow Laurel Ridge researchers Yamileth Hernandez-Becerra (foreign languages major) and Melody Campos (community health) received a Best Poster award for their research entitled, “Community Roots, Linguistic Equity: The Power of Outreach in Dual Language Immersion.”
Among those attending the symposium was Fairfax County School Board at-large member Ilryong Moon, who participated in a district-level stakeholder interview carried out by the Spanish team. He said hearing outside perspectives was refreshing, especially as FCPS plans to start a second Korean DLI program at Halley Elementary School in Fairfax Station.
“(The research is) saying certain things can be improved, should be improved,” Moon said. “That was very helpful to me as a board member.”
March 03, 2026