FLAIR History

The Foreign Language Alliance for International Rapport, FLAIR, was founded in 1985 by two local French teachers: Michelle Edelsberg (Davidson Fine Arts Magnet School) and Terry Meredith (Aquinas High School). Having learned of academic alliances being formed for all academic disciplines, and especially one for world languages already formed at Georgia Southern University, they sent letters to all the local schools in this region calling for world language teachers to attend a meeting to establish an academic alliance for world languages in the Central Savannah River Area (CSRA).

At least 15 teachers gathered to endorse the idea, including Claire Stracke (Davidson Fine Arts), Mary-Kathleen Blanchard (Augusta College), Jana Sandarg (Augusta College), Sandra Deal Carraway (Harlem High School), Enrique Vázquez (A.R. Johnson) and many others. Together, they formed a Steering Committee - open to all - and governed the group by consensus. They published minutes in a quarterly newsletter, sent to all via "snail mail", thanks to the support of Augusta College. The newsletter became digital and a webpage was added, as technology for that became available, which still exist today. The alliance began with quarterly meetings featuring a speaker, and soon afterwards, an annual conference offering professional development for world language teachers was added on a fall Saturday and have continued for over 30 years. When finances allowed, resource grants and travel/study grants were awarded to teachers, and students could also apply for travel/study grants.

In 1987, we created the FLAIR Honor Society for high school students. The teachers of each participating school selected eligible students according to requirements set forth by FLAIR to join the honor society and all schools came together for an induction ceremony in the Butler Hall Auditorium at Augusta College. The numbers grew so much over the the years that the induction ceremony had to be held in the Augusta College Performing Arts Theater, growing so much that two induction ceremonies each for two nights were not big enough to accomodate all of our honor students. Additionally, in the spring or fall, honor society members were invited to participate in organized activities, such as game nights for all languages, movie nights, dance lessons, cooking classes, concerts and cultural fairs. 

In 1990, an award was created to recognize an overall FLAIR Student of the Year (SOTY) and a FLAIR Teacher of the Year (TOTY). Teachers chose their best student in each school to be the representative student of the year in his/her own school. (See FLAIR Honorees page on this site for a list of recipients through the years.) Students chosen by their schools were honored on stage at the induction ceremony, and from those representative students, one student was selected to be the overall FLAIR Student of the Year. Both that student and the FLAIR Teacher of the Year were recognized during the induction ceremony and were presented a plaque commemorating the award, a practice that continues today.

Later, when middle schools began to offer world language courses, eligible students chosen by their teachers were awarded a Certificate of Merit to recognize their achievement. To involve and encourage elementary level students, FLAIR invited elementary school students to perform during the induction ceremonies, as well as other students from all grade levels who wished to perform. Performances included dance groups, skits, plays, poetry recitation, individual singers, choral groups, and even a high school rock band who covered popular Latin music and wrote original music of their own in Spanish. 

In 2020, having outgrown the capacity of the now Augusta University Performing Arts Theater and making changes to accommodate the COVID-19 crisis, FLAIR gave induction ceremonies to the individual schools, providing the materials to create certificates approved by the FLAIR organization and all honorifics for the students of the year at each school. The overall FLAIR Student of the Year and the FLAIR Teacher of the Year still receive a plaque from the FLAIR organization to be presented at their school during honors celebrations or during the school induction service for FLAIR. 

The FLAIR Steering Committee, still open to all interested language teachers in the CSRA, continues to meet quarterly to plan activities for FLAIR honor students once a year and a professional development opportunity for all world language teachers in the CSRA. 

The Foreign Language Alliance for International Rapport, operating without interruption since 1985, is the only surviving academic alliance in the state of Georgia.