Language students at MSMS, led by Foreign Language teacher Lori Pierce, were invited to attend Mississippi State University’s Language Exposition on Thursday, Feb. 20.

The goal of the Language Expo at MSU is for students across the State who are eager to expand their knowledge in their chosen language(s) to learn opportunities for language learning at MSU and also educate their peers through a poster board competition.

Junior and German Club Vice President David Gipson attended the language expo, and attended the event with ardent anticipation.

“I love learning languages so much, and this is another opportunity for me to expand my knowledge,” Gipson said.

The morning started with an introduction from the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at MSU, as well as the Department head of the MSU Classical and Modern Languages and Literature, and a language professor from the college. The students were then separated into two groups for the rest of the morning for a panel discussion and demonstrations of the various types of language clubs at MSU.

French club president and senior Maddie Mitchell was excited about the activities for the morning, as she is very passionate about language learning.

“I am interested in furthering my French education in college, and this is a great opportunity to explore.”

The panel discussion featured three key speakers who were all heavily involved in the language departments at MSU, and they answered a plethora of questions such as what language they find most difficult or what language they think in. The other activity had the students travel across the globe through activities and learn about the unique cultures and languages they could study at MSU.

In the afternoon, the students got ready for the big competition. The participants of the language expo were all required to create a poster board presentation on a language or culture of their choosing. Junior and German student Emily Berry presented with her group about German physicists, and even placed in the top ten out of all of the students at the Expo.

“It was really interesting doing the research, because this was something sort of out of my field. We wanted to combine our language (German) and STEAM together, and this seemed like a really great topic,” she said. Overall, I’m really pleased with how my group came together and it was fun learning about something I really would have never known.”

The students who participated returned to campus with a greater appreciation for the language and culture they are studying and hope to attend again next year. This is the third year of the exposition and the second time for MSMS students to attend.