Participation
Teachers who wish to belong to FLAIR should email Dr. Nicole Meyer, nimeyer@augusta.edu, to be added to our FLAIR list. Membership is free and open to all language teachers in the CSRA.
The contact person for the FLAIR honor society is Dr. Jana Sandarg at jsandarg@augusta.edu. Please email her if you have any questions.
The FLAIR honor society is for high school students only. The rules for eligibility are as follows:
Requirements
*An “A” average over three semesters (students should be in year two of the language) *Students must be recommended by their teacher.
Question: A student in 9th grade says he is already a member.
Answer: It’s fine if the student took the first year of foreign language in middle school. Students in middle school often tell their high school teachers that they are already members of the FLAIR Honor Society, but they are not. The middle school teachers awarded “FLAIR Certificates of Merit” to their outstanding middle school students. This is NOT the same as membership in the FLAIR Honor Society, which is for high school students.
Question: What if the students are new and in a higher level?
Answer: Students will become FLAIR members and request a 3rd year medal or 3rd year certificate. If they are in their 4th year of the language, they can request the 4th year pin or 4th year certificate. If they are in their 5th year, they can request the 5th year medal or 5th year certificate. To get medals or pins, they must be a member. Membership and certificates are free, but if the school gives medals and pins, teachers need to collect money from the students to cover the cost of the medals and pins. This is typically $5 per medal or pin.
Procedures
Ceremony
Each school will hold a ceremony or a virtual ceremony for their school only. It can be in conjunction with Honors Night at the school, or an initiation of a language honor society, or a language club meeting. The date will be set by the school’s language teachers. Another option is for schools to participate in a joint ceremony for their students. For example, the Richmond County public schools joined together to offer one big ceremony for all their students. Reach out to other schools if you wish to offer a joint ceremony. FLAIR will share the pledge and the candlelight ceremony script with all participating schools to use at their ceremony.
Membership Certificate
*Each school that has participated in the past has the FLAIR template for the membership certificate. If you or your school are new to the honor society, FLAIR will send one contact person per school the template for the membership certificate.
*The teachers or school will provide the paper for the certificates. If funds are available, purchase the linen paper at Office Depot or Office Max:
The brand is Southworth by Neenah
Linen business paper, 24-pound weight
Color is ivory
If funds are not available, just use copier paper.
*There is no need to ask the students joining to pay anything if the school prints the certificates. However, if the school does not provide printing services, the teachers can charge the students a minimal fee to cover the paper and/or printing costs. The teachers will collect those fees and spend the money on paper and printing.
*Each school will maintain a membership list each year.
Seals
Seals for the diploma or certificate are optional. Each school that has participated in the past has the FLAIR template for the seals. If you or your school are new to the honor society, FLAIR will send one contact person per school the template for the seals. If you decide to use seals, each school is responsible for purchasing the seals and printing them. If your school will not cover the purchase of seals or the printing, then you may collect a small fee from the students to cover these costs. You can order the seals in a packet of 10 sheets (24 seals per sheet) from www.DesktopSupplies.com. Order gold foil seals (labels), 1 2/3 round, or 1 5/8 round. The product number is 69293-10. You can choose different seals if you are affixing them to the FLAIR certificate. The 1 2/3 inch or 1 5/8 inch seals are small enough to fit on a high school graduation diploma, if that is where you affix them. You can also choose not to have any seals.
Medals and pins
Not all schools choose to use medals or pins, and they may award certificates instead. If you wish to give medals and pins, you will need to order them. The medals and pins are from the Award Emblem School Awards Catalog: www.awardemblem.com. Search for academic medals and pins.
*Third-year medal: dog tag medallion, number 10454, “Lamp of Knowledge.”
*Fourth-year pins are all “Academic pins” and you can choose just the language on the pin or you can choose year 4 for them (if available) since this is a fourth-year pin. You can search for French, German, Latin and Spanish pins. If you have Chinese, you can order the “engravable pin” where they will put “Chinese” at no extra cost (maximum of 7 characters to be engraved). The pins come in a free presentation box.
*Teachers may choose to give a paper certificate for the third year, fourth year and fifth year. Then there will be no charge to the student, unless you need to buy linen paper or pay for printing. You could print the paper certificate on a copier, using standard copier paper (white, ivory or colored paper).
School Student of the Year (SOTY)
*Each school may also choose its Student of the Year (SOTY). We call this the School SOTY. FLAIR has provided the template for the certificate and the teachers at the school print it and award it. If you do not have the template for the School SOTY for your school, FLAIR will provide it to you.
*Each school may provide a gift to the SOTY recipient, which could be anything the school chooses. If the school has no funding, then perhaps you could find a donation from the parent/teacher association or other groups. A gift is not required, but it is a nice gesture.
FLAIR SOTY
*Schools may nominate their School SOTY to compete for the overall FLAIR SOTY award. FLAIR will acknowledge the recipient with a certificate, which can be presented at the school’s FLAIR induction ceremony. Submit these names to Dr. Nicole Meyer, nimeyer@augusta.edu
*Schools must submit the nomination form for the overall FLAIR SOTY, which is on the FLAIR web page.
Teacher of the Year (TOTY)
*Schools or a language teacher may nominate a language teacher to compete for the FLAIR Teacher of the Year (TOTY) award. The nomination form is on the FLAIR web page. FLAIR awards the recipient a certificate, which may be presented at the induction ceremony at the teacher’s school. Submit these names to
Dr. Jana Sandarg, jsandarg@augusta.edu.