FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Des Moines, IA—The Iowa World Language Association (IWLA) is pleased to announce the 2015 Teacher of Promise has been awarded to Robert Benesh, a recent graduate with a Masters of Arts in teaching from the University of Iowa. He has endorsements in ESL and Japanese. 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.

One of his former professors described him as “inquisitive, thoughtful, iconoclastic, and sensitive to the needs of his students.” In describing his early experiences with Japanese, this TOP awardee stated, “I began to look at the world around me differently. Information and ideas I used to take at face value had taken on a new level of complexity as I learned that values and beliefs are a part of culture, and that every person in the world has a unique and equally valid perspective. I knew then that I never wanted to stop learning language.”  IWLA would like to congratulate Robert as our 2015 IWLA Teacher of Promise.

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.