FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Des Moines, IA—The Iowa World Language Association (IWLA) is pleased to announce the 2015 Friend of IWLA Award has been given to Marcia Powell, a consultant at the Iowa Department of Education for Iowa Learning Online. The award presentation was held during the Luncheon of the 2015 Iowa World Language Association Annual Conference at the Downtown Mariott in Des Moines, IA on Friday, October 9th.

Though Marcia has dedicated much of her life to educating Iowa's kids in the area of STEM, it was through her position at the Department of Education that she began working with Iowa world language teachers to develop state standards. Through her hard work, advocacy, and leadership, our state world language standards are now nearly complete. Although not a world language teacher by training, she has shown her commitment to multicultural education and outreach through projects to bring water to South Sudan and the Abdel Kadir project in Elkader, IA. For her outstanding work, IWLA would like to recognize Marcia Powell as a Friend of IWLA.

About IWLA
The Iowa World Language Association (IWLA) represents the more than 1200 world language educators in the state from all levels of instruction and representing all languages. The Iowa World Language Association (IWLA) is devoted to advancing the worldwide mission of education and world languages, literature and culture by promoting the study of world languages and cultures, promoting language curricula, from primary to post-secondary levels, to enable students to become proficient in the target language, and opening the doors for multilingual interaction with other cultures. More information can be found at www.iwla.net.