May 5, 2014 Dear Selection Committee, I am writing to nominate Victor Santos for the Graduate College Emerging Leaders Academy. I have known Victor for three years while he has been a student in our doctoral program in applied linguistics and technology. During that time he has shown strong initiative and leadership skills within his peer group of graduate student colleagues and beyond. Perhaps most notable was his initiative to form a graduate student club for students working in language testing. His leadership skills and willingness to discover how to develop something new resulted in the founding of the group. He is the president and continues in that capacity to provide leadership. In my view it would be time well spent to invest in developing the leadership skill of a person like Victor, who appears to be a natural leader in this context. I believe that Victor is exactly the type of person who has the capacity to go far in leadership positions in the future. In applied linguistics, there are many opportunities to do so in testing companies, government positions, education and business, for example. I hope you will accept him in the Graduate College Emerging Leaders Academy to help him to maximize his potential. Sincerely, Carol A. Chapelle Distinguished Professor Liberal Arts and Sciences, Iowa State University

Applied Linguistics

Department of English

203 Ross Hall

Ames, Iowa 50011-1201

515 294-2180

FAX 515 294-6814