Mohamedou Diop, (who is known to many people in the WSD by the shortened version of his name, Mohamed) will be moving into his new role as the Director of Multilingual Learner Programs this July. He will be transitioning from his roles as the Winooski Middle High School Behavior Interventionist and the Hiring and Recruiting Staff of Color Coordinator.
Mohamedou grew up in Mauritania, in Northwest Africa. He discovered Vermont during one of his many vacations to the U.S., which were trips that focused on exploring professional opportunities within the American education system. In Mauritania, Mohamedou was the Principal of a school and worked for the U.S. Embassy, the Washington Post, and the United Nations as an interpreter. “It took me a while to decide to become a U.S. citizen because I had so many opportunities back where I come from,” Mohamedou said. Read more about Mohamed’s amazing work and multicultural background in our Faces of Winooski feature.
During the past seven years, many students and staff have enjoyed the opportunity to get to know Mohamedou, and appreciate his warmth, enthusiasm, and positive attitude. As a multilingual learner himself, Mohamedou believes deeply in the value of speaking multiple languages. Through his role as the Director of Multilingual Programs, Mohamedou will guide our district in becoming a truly multilingual community.
“We are thrilled to welcome Mohamedou into this important Leadership role. As an educational leader, Mohamedou has exceptional credentials and extensive experience. He also brings his multicultural background, which will provide valuable insight into the cultures of the students we serve,” said Kate Grodin, WMHS Co-Principal.
For those of you who don’t know Mohamedou already, we asked him a few questions so you can get to know him better.
You speak many languages and have extensive experience teaching second languages to youth and adults. Why are education and language acquisition so important to you?
Education is important to me because that is what helps us understand the world we live in to better navigate it. Through education, we can also even better understand one another to respect each other.
How can we understand each other without interacting? We need to understand different aspects of communication, therefore language acquisition is important to me because there’s more than just our day-to-today verbal expressions within it. Think of our nonverbal communication, for example, the human face is extremely expressive, able to convey countless emotions without saying a word. While learning a language we also unconsciously learn the culture of the people who speak that language.
I have always prioritized knowing, and understanding our students and their cultural backgrounds to better contribute to their success.
What is your vision for the WSD Multilingual Learning Program? What do you hope to accomplish in your first year in your new role?
In my first year in this role, I’ll review the vision in place, while I develop some professional development sessions around cultural competency to enhance our staff, students, and community members’ relationships. When we understand our students and their parents or guardians, our teaching becomes even more effective. While I believe there’s some great work already in progress, I’ll build upon it to celebrate our success as a teaching and learning community. I’ll also work closely with our students, staff, our school administrators, our community members, and any stakeholder we collaborate with to overcome our challenges.
How do you feel your multilingual and multicultural background will benefit our students and staff?
I believe my multilingual and multicultural background is a reflection of many of our students, staff, and community members. My understanding of our staff and our students’ population background has already been a huge benefit to many within our school district. This asset will remain and become even more effective in my role as the Director of Multilingual Learning in our district because I’ll guide our staff and students towards cultural bridging so that we understand each other even better and celebrate our similarities and differences.
Are you excited about learning certain aspects of your new role?
I am absolutely excited about my new role! As a life-long learner, I am also more than ready to learn first and foremost from our great Kisten Kollgaard through the transition period. Here I come, WSD & ML Team, teach me some more while we work together as a strong family to close the achievement gaps and celebrate our students’ success!
How do you describe your Leadership style?
I am a very respectful leader/human being, knowledgeable but open to learning, observant, and a great listener who scaffolds my staff and provides constructive feedback. I collaborate really well with students, community members, staff, school administrators, and all stakeholders I get to partner with for our students’ success.
What is your proudest accomplishment?
My proudest accomplishment among many is having mentored many students from different parts of the world, some of whom have already graduated from college and are in the workforce. Running into some of those former students, and getting a phone call or an email from them gives me a joy I can hardly describe!