I am so happy to announce that after a year-long effort of personally nudging the administration and formally requesting that Albanian be taught at Penn, the course Elementary Albanian I is now available for the upcoming Spring 2024 semester. I hope that we all recognize what a historical moment this is for us as a group on campus, and for our beautiful and unique language to be taught at the oldest American university. Elementary Albanian will now be offered amongst many other languages in the languages department and it will be accessible to all students at University of Pennsylvania. Although I have graduated this May, I am incredibly proud to witness the creation of the first class to ever solely highlight Albanians at Penn.
Our language has miraculously survived hundreds of years of foreign occupation. I wanted to see it live even more years, documented in our University’s historical archives, as a language that persists within a nation of endurance. This course will serve as a gateway for students to learn more about our language and our history, and it will serve as a vehicle for our first-generation, second-generation, and even third-generation Albanian-Americans to be able to keep speaking Albanian for generations to come. I call on all current students to take the course and leave a mark on your transcripts and your education at Penn as fighters who are doing what it takes to keep our language spoken and alive.
I hope that you all remember to never stop advocating for your people and for your language.
Ne jemi një, ne jemi shqiptarë.
Gjithë të mirat, Ballina Prishtina