Latin American Indigenous Language Learning Program
Program History
The Latin American Indigenous Language Learning Program is the brainchild of Kellogg Faculty Fellow and Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, CSC, Professor of Arts and Letters Sabine MacCormack, who initiated the idea of offering Quechua language instruction at Notre Dame soon after joining the faculty in 2003.
Thanks to her advocacy, the University began offering classes in Quechua in 2004–05, utilizing the skills of a rotating team of visiting instructors from Peru who are able to offer instruction in Quechua culture as well as language. Two of the four instructors were trained in a program in Cusco founded by Kellogg Faculty Fellow Rev. Gustavo Gutiérrez, OP.
The program garnered national attention in spring 2008 when Notre Dame student Justin Perez ’10 was awarded the prestigious Boren Undergraduate Scholarship to further his study of Quechua in Peru. Perez was Notre Dame’s only Boren winner and one of only seven students nationwide to receive Boren funding to study in Latin America.
In fall 2008, MacCormack institutionalized the study of Quechua at Notre Dame through her $500,000 endowment of the Latin American Indigenous Language Learning Program. Funding for the endowment originated in the Mellon Foundation’s Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Humanities, which MacCormack received in 2001 and brought with her to Notre Dame.
