How did the Chinese language initiatives begin in Utah? What was the inspiration?
Utah is a small state, so for us, economic development and participation in the global community are vital. With this in mind, we realized that developing global citizens is a requirement for Utah students. We selected Mandarin Chinese, French, and Spanish because they are three really important international business languages. Why Mandarin Chinese? Then Gov. John M. Huntsman, who is fluent in Mandarin and now serves as the Ambassador of China, really wanted Utah to focus on economic development with China. To accomplish this, we realized that we need to create a workforce that is proficient in Mandarin Chinese. Three and a half years ago, I was hired by the Utah State Office of Education to lead world language programs into the twenty-first century. During my initial meeting with Gov. Huntsman, he looked me straight in the eye and said, “One of the very first charges I am giving you is to get Chinese language programs into our secondary and elementary schools as soon as possible.” We
