HSEL Graduate Students Lobby on Capitol Hill

Over the summer, graduate students Emilie Scott and Monica Turner traveled to Washington DC with Professor Michelle Benegas to represent Hamline University in TESOL Advocacy Action Days. While there, they participated in a legislative conference hosted by TESOL International Association and lobbied their legislators on behalf of multilingual learners of English in Minnesota. Scott, Turner, and Benegas lobbied to release Title III state formula grants, totaling a little more than $890 million for English language education. After being withheld by the federal administration, they were ultimately released.