Student Spotlight

Ilsa stands out as a scholar, a collaborative classmate, and an involved member of the WWU linguistics community. Her drive to identify important research questions across a wide range of languages and then dive into that research is unparalleled among undergraduates. She has a forthcoming article on Ket (a language of Siberia), co-authored with two faculty members. She presented her research at the Linguistic Society of America annual meeting, and she will present work on Asante Twi (a language of Ghana that she has conducted fieldwork on) at the Northwest Linguistics Conference. Ilsa received a grant through WWU’s Research and Sponsored Programs to conduct independent research on Asante Twi, and she received funding from the Dean’s Fund for Excellence to attend the Linguistic Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst last summer, and she was awarded one of the Department of Linguistics scholarships for 2023-24. Ilsa is also very involved in the life of the department, helping to organize the Student-Faculty reading group in linguistics, and being a kind and calming presence in our department.

Ilsa O'Rollins

2023-2024 Department of Linguistics Outstanding Graduating Senior

Royce Gibson is a consummate scholar. Faculty comment that he is “academically brilliant,” “a fantastic researcher,” “kind,” and “modest” He is extremely enthusiastic, and always challenges himself. Royce participates above and beyond; he is very eager to learn and takes course assignments and projects to the next step. In addition to being a “true scholar”, a term several faculty used to describe Royce, he is also an intuitive teacher. Many faculty note that Royce contributes to a collaborative learning environment. “He makes great observations and shares them with the class,” several note, but in an unassuming and very helpful way. He is a simply superb student with a depth and breadth of knowledge and a sincere desire to keep learning.
 

Royce Gibson

2022-2023 Department of Linguistics Outstanding Graduating Senior

Niko Attebery is outstanding in every way: as a linguist, a mentor, a collaborator, and a colleague. He goes above and beyond in the classroom and in linguistics extracurriculars like the Linguistics Club and the department’s podcast, “The Podling,” which he co-hosted with a goal of bringing linguistics topics and issues to a larger audience. He also worked as a Linguistics Department support staffer for the 2021-22 year. His positive attitude, kindness and generosity are infectious, inviting others into each community he is a part of. With a minor in Japanese, Attebery plans to apply to the Japan Exchange Teaching program to teach English in Japan before applying to graduate schools for linguistics.

Niko Attebery

2021-2022 Department of Linguistics Outstanding Graduating Senior

The WWU Linguistics faculty are so enthusiastic about the questions we pose as students — I was always encouraged to explore my own interests through assignments and extracurricular projects. The support and mentorship I felt from the Department’s chair, faculty, and manager were vital, and I went after more opportunities than I even knew were available to me. I found a love for linguistic communications, using my linguistic training to communicate ideas and attitudes about language in environments beyond academia. Professors guided my cultivation of this interest and helped me learn that linguistics is a field where anyone’s tools and passions can fit in, because language encircles us all. The proficiencies and growth I’ve gained at Western have already begun to open exciting doors, and I’m so excited to see what will follow!

Jess Costanza

2020-2021 Department of Linguistics Outstanding Graduating Senior

My classes in the Department of Linguistics have given me a stronger understanding of what appeals to me about language and how I can continue to investigate it. More than anything, this became clear through my work applying linguistic principles to the second language classroom. I hope to use the teaching, research, and scholarship experience that the linguistics major afforded me to keep developing my knowledge of human language.

Brahm vanWoerden

2021 Presidential Scholar of the Humanities Division of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences

 

When I applied to Western, I was interested in language learning and teaching but unaware that an entire field was dedicated to the study of language. I didn’t know that language could be studied systematically, much less through an analytical or philosophical lens. It was in my first linguistics course that I realized that the field of linguistics allows us to ask bigger questions about the role of language in our society and culture. Through Western’s Linguistics Department, I attended countless research presentations and met linguists from across the nation and around the world. I proposed original ideas and worked closely with my professors to write papers on everything from linguistic theory to the applications of linguistics in second language acquisition and teaching. I was able to meet native speakers of the languages I studied and incorporate their questions and examples into my work. The tremendous instruction, feedback, and mentorship that I received from Western’s linguistics professors taught me how to think critically about language, draw my own conclusions, and substantiate my claims with examples. Western’s Linguistics Department provided me with a skill set that complements my background in TESOL and Spanish and translates into my future work as a teacher and researcher.

Emily Hillman

Outstanding Graduate, 2020

Laura Munger

From Western Today: Laura Munger of Portland, Oregon, graduated magna cum laude and with University Honors in June with a Bachelor of Arts degree. She majored in linguistics with a minor in Arabic and Islamic studies. During her time at Western, Munger pursued major-concentrations in second language acquisition and language change, all while maintaining a 3.98 GPA. Her capstone project involved exploring the changing uses of taboo words in English over time. She also worked as a research assistant for Western Talks, helping to raise awareness of linguistic diversity in the WWU community. After graduation, she plans to pursue a doctorate in linguistics at the University of Washington. Munger is a graduate of Central Catholic High School.

Laura Munger

2018-2019 Department of Linguistics Outstanding Graduating Senior

Upon my arrival to Western, I was immediately drawn to the Linguistics Program having always had a love for studying languages. The professors and the corresponding classes they taught within this program were insightful and engaging, resulting in my staying and seeing Linguistics through as a major. Since graduating, I have not only been able to apply what I learned from this program in my own personal endeavors with learning new languages, but have also been able to apply it to my students' language acquisition in teaching them English as their second language.

Kailey Hegedus

Outstanding Graduate, 2018