LEAP over the airwaves Published May 28, 2018 By Jasmine Bourgeois, AFCLC Outreach Team MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. -- An Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, Laura Hunt admits she was nervous when she walked into AFN Kaiserslautern radio station. It was an early Friday morning and Hunt was getting ready to go live over the American Forces Network airwaves. Her job: tell all of their listeners about the Language Enabled Airman Program. “My husband, a retired colonel, had me practice my over and over again to make sure I wasn’t nervous or stumbling over my words. I’d never been live on air before, so I’ll admit, it was scary at first”, Hunt said. She was scheduled to do five different segments during the 7AM broadcast. The show was live and she knew hundreds of people heading to Ramstein Air Force Base would be listening that morning. As the first music break came to an end, she watched as the red “On Air” light came on. Hunt said she pushed her notes and her nerves aside and started sharing her story and telling the world about LEAP. “The host, Staff Sergeant Lindsey Gulliver totally put me at ease. I listen to her on my way to work every morning. She’s energetic and easy to talk to. She said you know this program, you don’t need those notes. And she was right! I just put my papers down and started talking,” Hunt said. A member of the Air Force Culture and Language Center’s Language Support Staff, Hunt helps spread the word about LEAP: AFCLC’s career-spanning program. Employing a two-part education and sustainment system, LEAP consists of eMentor online language classes and Language Intensive Training Events (LITEs). So far, 2,841 Airmen have been honing their language and cultural skills in LEAP and falling in line with the Continuum of Learning model. During the radio show, Hunt encouraged Airmen to apply for the program. “My big focus was to let people know that it is open season to apply for LEAP,” Hunt said, “this is an excellent program and I want everyone to know about it. I’ve already had people here telling me that they heard our segment on the radio”.
