Portland, ME: On Saturday, March 18th, Educators for a Multilingual Maine (EMME) announced Ellie Nichols as their 2023 Student of the Year. The honor was bestowed upon Ellie by Stephanie Carbonneau, EMME President, at the organization’s annual conference. This year’s conference was co-hosted by the Department of Linguistics at the University of Southern Maine in Portland.

Ellie was nominated for this recognition based on her outstanding scholarship and service to her school. She has studied both Chinese and Spanish for the past four years at Bangor High School and is a member of four honor societies – National, Chinese, Spanish, and Social Studies. She is also an active member of the Cultural Exchange Club where she enjoys meeting students from other cultures and learning about their stories, foods and interests. She looks forward to traveling to Spain this year with her school.

While cultural activities and languages are her passion, Ellie also believes in service to others both at home and abroad. She tutors others in several subjects and helped run the fundraiser for Ukraine at her school. She is also the co-founder and president of the Teen Mindfulness Club at Bangor High School where she advocates for her peers’ wellbeing.

About EMME: Educators for a Multilingual Maine is a non-profit organization whose purpose is to promote and improve the teaching and study of languages and cultures of the world. EMME also strives to further the common interests of teachers, students and others in the state of  Maine, for whom languages play an important role. EMME was formerly known as FLAME, the Foreign Language Association of Maine. Learn more about EMME at www.emmaine.org.