Dr. C. Brian Barnett, Director of World Languages at TLC, was in Washington, D.C. last week advocating for language education as part of the three-member Tennessee delegation at JNCL-NCLIS Language Advocacy Days. 

During a full day of meetings on Capitol Hill, the Tennessee team met with offices representing our state, including Marsha Blackburn, Bill Hagerty, Matt Van Epps, and Scott DesJarlais. Many of the staff members they met with were multilingual themselves—speaking Arabic, French, Spanish, Mandarin, and even Tamil at home—and were especially interested in how language skills support workforce development and national security.