Teaching Honor

Cal State East Bay alumna Ying Jin was recently named the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages’ 2018 National Language Teacher of Year.

Jin, a Chinese teacher in the Fremont Union High School District, earned her single-subject teaching credential from Cal State East Bay in 2008. She is a representative of the Southwest Conference on Language Teaching, and teaches at Cupertino, Homestead and Fremont high schools. Jin has been teaching Chinese to students for 20 years.

She said she’s honored by the award and loves having a hand in influencing young people's lives. 

“Teaching is such a rewarding job because we are shaping future generations of Americans who will lead and thrive in the 21st century and beyond,” Jin said.

The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages is a national association representing education professionals from all levels of instruction. Each year, the organization honors a “teacher of the year,” who then becomes a spokesperson for the language profession in an effort to share the importance of learning languages and cultures with the general public.

President of the ACTFL Desa Dawson congratulated Jin in a statement, saying she knows Jin will “will represent the language field well in 2018 as she advocates for language programs throughout the country.”