I recall a day during the first semester of my master’s studies in TESOL when my professors told us about TESOL International Association and encouraged us to join. In fact, they handed out a paper copy of the membership application to each student in class! Following their advice, I joined the association immediately, and now, 25 years later, I have to say it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made! Throughout my career, I have taught in the United States, Latin America, and the Middle East. I’ve taught all language skills and all proficiency levels. Yet no matter where I have been teaching or what new teaching challenges I have faced, TESOL has been a source of support and inspiration. Knowing that I am a member of a global community dedicated to excellence in English language teaching has helped me form my identity as a TESOL professional.

Now I am a teacher educator myself. I also encourage my TESOL students to join TESOL—even though I cannot put the membership application into their hands as my professor did! Joining the association as a student provides many benefits. First, student membership is only US$35 a year and offers students all the same privileges as professional members, like participation in the interest sections. Second, there are a number of grants for participating in TESOL’s annual convention, some of which are designated for graduate students, like the Albert H. Marckwardt Travel Grants. Finally, the association hosts the Master’s Student Forum and the Doctoral Research Forum in conjunction with the annual convention. These forums are opportunities for graduate students to present their research and to receive feedback from both their peers and established researchers (see the article about these forums by Michael Karas and Natalia Balyasnikova in this issue). As teacher educators, we are in a prime position to invite students into TESOL and to make them feel welcome in our professional “home.”

I met Natalia Balyasnikova, one of the organizers of the graduate student research forums, at the 2017 annual convention. We discussed the role of the student research forums in promoting student participation in TESOL and its annual convention. We also brainstormed ways that the 21 interest sections could support the more active involvement of graduate students in their activities. How can we recognize graduate students as valued members of our professional communities? One idea we came up with was to feature student research in the interest section newsletters. I proposed to our TEIS newsletter editor, Fatma Ghailan, that TEIS could lead the way in showcasing the work of our graduate students (and future teacher educators!) by publishing a special issue dedicated to their research on teacher education issues. And here it is! Thank you, Fatma, for following up on this idea, and thank you to our student authors for sharing their work with us! We are proud of you!