Alumni Achievement Award (AAA)
The AAA is given to alumni who have excelled in their profession by contributing extraordinary advancements to their field or improving the quality of life in a certain area of society through their professional achievements.

S. Paul Sandrock ’73, World Language Education Consultant
Middleton, Wis.

Like his alma mater, S. Paul Sandrock ’73 is fully committed to a global perspective, and, more specifically, global literacy.

Sandrock recently stepped into a new role as assistant director of the Content & Learning Team for the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. He served as the World Languages Education Consultant there for the previous 15 years, and he continues to play a vital role in promoting second-language study in the state.

After majoring in Spanish and English at St. Olaf, Sandrock went on to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, receiving his secondary teacher certification in Spanish and English in 1975 and completing his M.A. degree in Spanish and Curriculum & Instruction in 1981.

Sandrock began teaching Spanish in the public schools in Appleton, Wis., and soon became interested in the bigger picture. He joined the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), served on its board from 1999-2002 and from 2005-07. He also was president of the 10,000-member organization in 2006, an accomplishment that is a testament to his distinguished career and ongoing commitment to the advancement of teaching world languages.  

Sandrock dedicates his time to numerous other organizations. He is former president of the National Council of State Supervisors for Languages and served on the Board of Directors for the Joint National Committee for Languages. He has worked on state and national initiatives including standards for learning world languages, the Modern Language Association’s articulation project, the ACTFL Integrated Assessment Project, and is currently directing Wisconsin’s educational initiatives through the Partnership for 21st Century Skills and the American Diploma Project.

Sandrock’s work and dedication were formally recognized in 2003 when he received the State Supervisor of the Year award from Pearson-Prentice Hall and the National Council of State Supervisors for Languages. Additionally, his diplomatic efforts with the ministries of education in France, Japan, and Thailand helped earn the Goldman Sachs International Education Award for the state of Wisconsin, positioning the state as one that excels in international education efforts. Recently, Sandrock secured a federal grant to increase the number of Wisconsin schools offering Chinese language instruction.

Sandrock is a frequent keynote speaker at education conferences around the country, and his many publications have brought new and improved teaching strategies to American schools. In particular, Planning Curriculum for Learning World Languages, for which Sandrock facilitated development and edited, serves as a curriculum guide for educators across the country and is often a main text used in collegiate-level methods classes. 

From the thousands of teachers who have attended his presentations and read his works, to the thousands of children each of those teachers has taught, Sandrock’s influence has climbed from a local to a national to a global scale. His ability to measure the pulse of the world in terms of communication through language has improved world language curricula across the nation.

Sandrock truly lives with a global perspective, and through the teaching of world languages encourages others to learn to function effectively with and within other cultures. His accomplishments speak well of himself, his colleagues, the organizations he serves, and the liberal arts education he received at St. Olaf.

“[I] learned not to just accept what is but to create what can be, and to see through the eyes of others,” Sandrock says of his St. Olaf education. “St. Olaf gives its students new perspectives and skills for taking on future challenges, more important than ever in the 21st century."