The Language Flagship represents a major innovation in foreign language education at the post-secondary level in the United States. Contributors to this volume have explored many different aspects of this innovation: the rationale and history of the federal program (Chapter 1); models for Flagship program design (Chapter 2); curricular strategies to promote interdisciplinary learning (Chapter 3) and learner independence (Chapter 4); co-curricular enhancements such as telecollaboration (Chapter 5), online language cafés (Chapter 6) and professional overseas internships (Chapter 9). Contributors also shared findings from research studies that investigated diverse topics such as heritage language learners in Language Flagship programs (Chapter 7), oral proficiency development in telecollaborative learning (Chapter 5), the development of intercultural competence in an overseas immersion setting (Chapter 8) and alumni perceptions of the impact of the Language Flagship program (Chapter 10). Application of Language Flagship design principles to non-Flagship language programs is the subject of the final chapter (Chapter 11).

Authors of these chapters met in person at two annual Language Flagship national meetings to discuss the goals of the volume and to provide input and feedback on each other's work. The collegiality with which authors approached this undertaking is, in our experience as directors of one Flagship program at one university, emblematic of the initiative more broadly: faculty and staff involved in Language Flagship programs are passionate about undergraduate language teaching and learning, and they are eager both to share ideas and to learn from others. It is in the spirit of sharing that we decided to conclude this collection with a brief discussion of some of the challenges that we have collectively faced in designing, implementing and sustaining Flagship programs at our universities.

The most obvious challenges are curricular. All Flagship programs must develop new advanced-level courses and co-curricular enhancements for students at higher levels of proficiency, far beyond what had been offered in the past. Many programs have also had to redesign the curriculum at lower levels of instruction.