Student Success

Duolingo Haitian Creole Awarded Silver Recognition at 2023 Anthem Awards

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The Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center (LACC) is pleased to announce that Nicolas André and Nyya Flores Toussaint, creators of the Duolingo Haitian Creole course , have been recognized at the 2023 Annual Anthems Award .

The Anthem Awards celebrates purpose and mission-driven work from people, companies and organizations worldwide across seven core causes: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; Education, Art and Culture; Health; Human and Civil Rights; Humanitarian Action and Services; Responsible Technology; and Sustainability, Environment and Climate. There were nearly 2,000 submissions from 43 countries around the world and over 10,000 reviews from the Academy for the 2023 awards.

The Duolingo Haitian Creole course was recognized at the Silver level under the Education, Art and Culture category for Product, Innovation, or Service Categories (For Profit).

Duolingo is a fun and engaging language-learning platform that uses game-like methods. The first-of-its kind Haitian Creole course on the platform provides the opportunity to learn the language of the first Black independent nation. This free, digital course allows people with connections to Haiti, who have not had formal language learning opportunities, to learn Haitian Creole. With more than 114 lessons, English speakers will connect with the Haitian language, culture, politics, spirituality, and its revolutionary history.

Nicolas André is the Director of LACC's Haitian Studies Certificate and an Associate Teaching Professor for FIU's Department of Modern Languages.

Nyya Toussaint is a former FIU student with certificates in Haitian Studies and Latin American and Caribbean Studies. He studied Haitian Creole with the support of LACC's US Department of Education Title VI Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowship. He is also part of the Department of Education's International and Foreign Language Education (IFLE) office's #BeGlobalReady Initiative. Within this one-year fellowship award, the amount of work that Toussaint has accomplished and the scale of his impact on creating opportunities for learning Haitian Creole are unparalleled.