The Faces Behind OFLA’s Newsletter

Beth Hanlon, Executive Recorder and Editor of The Cardinal
Spanish Teacher, Oberlin High School

OFLA’s newsletter, The Cardinal, is published in the fall, winter, and spring of each school year.  The issues of the newsletter would not be possible without the behind-the-scenes dedication and hard work of the editing team.  They painstakingly comb through all of the articles in search of grammatical and spelling errors and to ensure the “flow” of the articles.

I would like to take this opportunity to spotlight them!  

Roz Terek served as OFLA president 2012-2013 and presented both sessions and workshops at several OFLA Annual Conferences. Additionally, she has served on several OFLA Committees and represented OFLA at an ACTFL Conference as well as at a CSCTFL Conference. Roz retired after teaching French at Struthers High School and online for Mahoning County ESC.  Reading, writing, painting, and baking are Roz’s favorite pastimes.  She has enjoyed reading and writing since she was young so editing The Cardinal during her years on the OFLA presidential track and then on the editing team was a natural fit for her.  Editing took off for Roz in the early 1970s as she edited the newsletter for the Mahoning County Society of Engineers.  She also edited as the advisor for the Struthers High School Yearbook and while volunteering on the ODE Curriculum Model Writing Team.

Lis Ruiz Pham, a Spanish teacher at Shaker Heights High School, has been a member of the editing team for about 7 years.  Her interest in language and writing prompted her to want to join the team.  As she edits the articles, she is also able to learn from them.  Lis enjoys being an integral part of OFLA as well as attending the annual conference.  Lis is a proud mother of three children.  

Laura Penzone, a Spanish at Hilliard Davidson High School, has been on the editing team since its inception.  She joined in order to be more involved in OFLA and to preview the wonderful things Ohio teachers are doing in their classrooms before they are published in The Cardinal. She enjoys attending the OFLA annual conference when possible.  She then enjoys sharing what she learned with her colleagues in Hilliard.  Laura feels fortunate, as a language teacher in Ohio, that we have such a strong state organization. She appreciates how closely OFLA works with the Ohio Department of Education in order to provide excellent professional development to Ohio teachers. 

Juliana Rauch teaches French 1 and French 4/AP at Newark High School and has been a member of the editing team for 7 years.  A self-declared grammar nerd, Juliana also has a degree in English so she enjoys editing.  One of her first jobs after college was editing a newsletter for health care workers around the world.  She joined the editing team as a way to give back to OFLA.  Juliana has taught French for 24 years and feels passionately that learning languages and culture is vitally important to help our students become informed world citizens. She enjoys introducing her students, some of whom have never left their little hometown, to the world. That is a responsibility she takes very seriously and is one of the most important things she does as a teacher.

Kirsten Bardwell teaches French at Mentor High School and has been teaching for 18 years.  She is also licensed in ELA and administration and will finish an intervention specialist license this summer.  She has been a member of the editing team since 2013 and also attends the OFLA conferences.  She enjoys writing so joining the team was the perfect volunteer opportunity for her.  She also used to have a blog and occasionally writes running-related articles for a local race management company.  In her free time, she runs, does triathlons, and is also a second soprano and board member in Windsong, Cleveland’s Feminist Chorus.

If you know or see any of the editing team members, please make sure to thank them for their work – they definitely deserve it!