Rhodes College on Sept. 27 hosted a gathering of the Multilingual Memphis Coffee Chat, a regional network that brings together educators, administrators, and community organizations working to better serve second-language learning communities.
The Coffee Chat, which rotates among local institutions, recently included K–12 teachers, district administrators, and community organizers. Rhodes faculty members and students joined the conversation as well.
This fall’s session featured presentations by Dr. Catherine Sundt on multilingual advocacy and Dr. Elizabeth Pettinaroli on the Memphis Cartonera, which is a sustainable, cooperative publishing project dedicated to literature, art, and writing. Four Cartonera Fellows—Dania Verbena ’27, Yesica Trejo ’26, Alex Moreno-Espinosa ’27, and Ivana Blanquel ’29—also shared their personal experiences with the project, reflecting on its impact both on their own learning and on the Memphis community.