1991 Cohort – Institute for Recruitment of Teachers

IRT Advising: Then & Now

Leislie Godo-Solo, IRT ’91
Education Programs Specialist, Institute for Recruitment of Teachers

On June 2^nd, 2025, I began onboarding the 35^th IRT Cohort, which includes 135 Scholars! How time flies, quite literally. It was just yesterday that I found myself on the Phillips Academy campus as a senior planning to apply to a variety of graduate schools in two fields nonetheless – Spanish Literature and Higher Education (sound familiar?), and part of one of the biggest in-person IRT Summer Workshops ever held, numbering 42 individuals. I can tell you stories, lol!

While much has stayed the same, much also has changed as it relates to the IRT Advising program. A dedicated IRT team continues to support IRT Scholars every year as they pursue advanced degrees in the humanities, social sciences, math, and education, and the scholars’ camaraderie remains strong in a virtual world and in the face of great challenges to isolate us from one another. LaShawnda Brooks, Catherine Wong, and I serve as school list advisors and work closely with each scholar to create a well-rounded school list that supports the academic endeavors that each student plans to pursue, and one that considers their personal well-being and the political climate as well. It is no small feat to assist IRT Scholars in this new educational environment.

IRT in Attendance

Phillips Academy Outreach Programs Showcase

In July, IRT staff members Leislie Godo-Solo, IRT ’91, LaShawnda Brooks, Sara Cerretani, and alum Viviana Cordero Garcia IRT ’15 participated in the Phillips Academy Outreach Programs Showcase, an opportunity for the various programs to share their missions and successes with community partners.

UNCF Unite Conference – July 2025

Leislie Godo-Solo, IRT ’91, attended the UNCF’s Unite 2025: Together We Lead Conference in Atlanta and participated in workshops that addressed Black student success, the importance of advising with a racial/cultural lens, and the topic of segregation scholarships, among others.

Leislie Godo-Solo, IRT ’91

Professional Development and a Learning Opportunity for Teachers

From time to time, I find myself reflecting on my career in the field of Education which spans some 30 years and includes teaching high school Spanish in inner city Nashville, a stint as the Coordinator of Minority Teacher Recruitment Center at Western Kentucky University, where I recruited BIPOC students into the College of Education, administrated and awarded the state’s teacher education scholarship, provided support services such as advising and Praxis I test preparation, and designed a residential week-long program for middle schoolers and a two week residential program for freshman education majors.

During my tenure at IRT over the last two decades, recruiting at universities across the country, and serving as a SOP and IRT Advisor, writing curriculum, and co-developing our robust advising program, among other duties, I have staunchly advocated for my own and colleagues’ professional development and personal growth. I welcome the challenge that learning something new can bring, the opportunity to interact with others, and the time to think about old problems in news ways. Moreover, as a perpetual teacher and learner, I find myself regularly contemplating the ways that I can become a more effective advisor by deepening my knowledge of the students IRT serves and, while simultaneously, developing my understanding of content knowledge across various fields, technology, the digital humanities, and place as it pertains to the geographic home countries of IRT Scholars’ families and the diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds that they and our scholars possess. For me, all that I learn informs the way that I show up to mentor and counsel students.

Exploring Russian and Slavic Languages

Leislie Godo-Solo, IRT ’91 recently spoke to A’Yanna Solomon, IRT’21 to discuss her work and interests

On a regular basis, I am captivated by the innovative, interdisciplinary, and relevant scholarship that IRT Scholars are engaging. This sentiment also rings true as it relates to the scholarly work that A’Yanna Solomon, IRT ’21 is pursuing as a second-year graduate student in the Slavic Languages and Literature Department at the University of Michigan.

A’Yanna’s trajectory and interest in Russian and Slavic languages originally began in East Baltimore, Maryland, where she grew up listening to hip hop music which she says resonated with her, much in the same way that Black culture did. A’Yanna knew that she wanted to study Russian because she was fascinated by its phonetics and written script during her youth. Upon enrolling at Goucher College, she majored in Russian and Spanish Languages. Because the Russian program was being phased out of existence at Goucher College, one of A’Yanna’s professors also introduced her to Slavic Studies, Eastern European, and Eurasian Studies which have gained more cache as the focus on Russian language decreases in the field. Within Russian Studies, A’Yanna focused on comparative marginalization and popular culture and the ways that the LGBTQ communities in Russia resisted homophobic queer phobic legislation. In what ways did these communities create and maintain community? This preoccupation with marginalization stemmed from her own treatment as an outsider studying Russian language. Often, a student would lean over quietly and ask her, “This is intermediate Russian, right?” Fifteen minutes would pass, and the same student would respond, “So, do you like speaking Russian?” “Yea, I do, I do.”

Godo-Solo, IRT ’91 Exploring Digital Humanities this Summer

Leislie Godo-Solo, IRT ’91 will be heading to Nashville at the end of June to attend a Summer Institute Towards a More Equitable and Inclusive Digital World in Latin America: A Workshop for K-12 Educators at Vanderbilt University.

This institute is part of a four-year series in collaboration with the Stone Center for Latin American Studies at Tulane University and the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Arizona. This summer’s institute will be hosted by the Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies (CLACX) at Vanderbilt University, taking place on campus in Nashville, TN.