Nayivis Cunill, Nicole Lassiter, Samantha McDonald, Charli Tyree, and Dr. Lourdes Sánchez-López. It was a grand day for the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at the UAB EXPO 2016. Both DFLL faculty and students were recognized and awarded in front of a multitude of students, faculty, and upper administrators. Professor Erika Hille Rinker was awarded the Provost’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Education Abroad. She gave an elegant acceptance speech were she encouraged students to “read a book, learn another language, and study abroad.” Congratulations to Erika.

Once again, our majors and certificate students represented our Department extremely well, with more than 400 students participating. The department congratulates DFLL majors Nayivis Cunill, Nicole Lassiter, Samantha McDonald, and Charli Tyree for winning second place in the Arts and Humanities category for their research project titled "Linguistic Landscape: Visual Language Accommodations in Birmingham Hospitals." This is a very important achievement right before graduation. Other student participants were Kim Burleson, Savannah Gress, Brandon Schoening, Emma Schroer, Michael P. Steinkampf, Angélica Jaimes, Érika Pérez Ibarra, Melanie McDonald, Taylor Bartlett, Angela Hollowell, Jalen Wesley, Tina Etminan, and Meghan Ryan.