Where Is Auburn University? Graduate Student and Altamont Teacher Win Top Alabama World Language Honors
where is auburn university has surfaced in statewide recognition of world language teaching this week as Auburn College of Education graduate student Libby Hume was named the Alabama World Languages Association Promising New Teacher of the Year, while Allison Harris of the Altamont School received the AWLA 2026 French Teacher of Excellence and Teacher of the Year awards. The distinctions were handed out at AWLA’s annual conference in Mobile on Feb. 6–7, highlighting both early‑career promise and long‑standing classroom leadership in Alabama.
Development details — Where Is Auburn University recognition
Libby Hume, now in her second year of teaching French at Auburn High School, was selected as AWLA’s Promising New Teacher of the Year, an honor limited to teachers with fewer than three years of experience and presented to just one educator statewide each year. Hume began teaching and simultaneously enrolled in Auburn’s French Education Alternative Master’s Program in August 2024. Her nomination was put forward last fall by Sara Ahnell, an assistant clinical professor and program coordinator for Foreign Language Education at Auburn’s College of Education, who previously received the same AWLA award early in her career.
Allison Harris was named AWLA’s 2026 French Teacher of Excellence and Teacher of the Year at the same conference. Harris joined the Altamont School faculty in 2013 and was cited by the AWLA for exemplifying excellence “through her passion, leadership, and commitment to students. ” Larry McCain, Altamont’s academic director of languages, described her as a student‑centered, tireless advocate for world language instruction. The Altamont School serves students in grades 5–12 and marked 50 years of academic programming; the school reports that 29% of the Class of 2025 graduated with the Seal of Biliteracy in at least one of four languages offered and that 100% of its graduates are accepted into four‑year colleges and universities.
Context and escalation
Both recognitions were announced at the AWLA annual conference in Mobile on Feb. 6–7, the statewide gathering for world language educators where professional development and awards are central elements. Hume’s rapid trajectory — recruited into Auburn’s master’s pathway and mentored by Ahnell while teaching full time — created the conditions for nomination and subsequent selection. Hume has pointed to her own experience as a product of the Auburn High School French Program and credits the College of Education and Ahnell’s mentorship with shaping her pedagogical approach.
Harris’s award reflects a longer arc of program building at Altamont. Her decade‑plus tenure on campus and public endorsements from campus leadership helped elevate her candidacy at the AWLA, while the school’s measurable outcomes — the Seal of Biliteracy rate for the Class of 2025 and a reported 100% college acceptance rate for graduates — framed the program’s success.
What makes this notable is the contrast in career stages the awards highlight: one honor celebrates emerging talent within a structured university preparation program, the other recognizes sustained leadership that has delivered measurable student outcomes over years.
Immediate impact
Hume’s selection raises the profile of Auburn’s language education pipeline and serves as a validation for the French Education Alternative Master’s Program; she says the award motivates her to continue working hard for her students and to pursue her graduate studies while teaching. The AWLA designation, limited to a single Promising New Teacher statewide each year, also places Hume among a select group of early‑career educators whose recognition may influence recruitment and mentoring practices within college programs.
For Altamont, Harris’s awards underscore the school’s investment in world language instruction and support its messaging about student achievement: the Seal of Biliteracy participation and reported college acceptance figures are concrete measures that align with the AWLA citation praising Harris’s leadership. Students, parents and the school’s language department are immediate beneficiaries of the recognition through reinforced program credibility.
Readers asking where is auburn university in Alabama’s teacher‑preparation landscape will find a visible role in both training and mentorship, as evidenced by Hume’s path and Ahnell’s dual role as mentor and former award recipient.
Forward outlook
Both educators will continue in existing roles that were explicitly tied to the recognition: Hume remains enrolled in Auburn’s French Education Alternative Master’s Program while continuing to teach at Auburn High School, and Harris continues her work at Altamont, where she has taught since 2013. The awards were presented at the AWLA conference on Feb. 6–7, reinforcing the association’s annual cycle of professional development and statewide recognition for world language educators.
As these honorees move forward, their awards are set to inform local and institutional conversations about mentoring, recruitment and program outcomes within Alabama’s world language education community.
