Columbia students named 2024 Critical Language Scholars

Columbia CLS awardees, clockwise from top: Adam Kinder CC'26, Gilda DelBianco CC'25, Kaitlyn Sullivan CC'27, Iris Ghorbani GS'26, Thai Loyd CC'26, Valeria Pires GS'24, Maza Reyes CC'27

Congratulations to Columbia’s awardees of the 2024 Critical Language Scholarship!

A program of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) seeks to expand the number of Americans studying and mastering foreign languages that are critical to national security and economic prosperity. The program offers intensive in-person language instruction and cultural enrichment designed to facilitate intensive and accelerated language acquisition. The CLS’s newer offering, CLS Spark, offers a virtual initiative for undergraduate students who seek to learn languages that are similarly deemed essential to “American engagement with the world.” This year, Columbia is proud to have 11 named recipients of the Critical Language Scholarship

Kaitlyn Sullivan, CC’27

Kaitlyn, originally from Jackson, Wyoming, is a rising sophomore majoring in political science and Middle Eastern studies, who will study Arabic this summer in Amman, Jordan. Pursuing Arabic fluency has been a primary goal for Kaitlyn since high school, where she began working with Arabic speaking refugees and joined the National Security Language Initiative Program (NSLI-Y) in Morocco.

Olinmazatemictl ‘Maza’ Reyes, CC’27

Maza, a rising sophomore and prospective history major from Phoenix, Arizona will study Mandarin this summer through the CLS Spark Initiative. He looks forward to challenging himself this summer in beginning his Mandarin language studies, and deepening his understanding of the history and culture of one of the world’s most important global powers.

Adam Kinder, CC’26

Adam, a rising junior and political science major with a special concentration in sociocultural anthropology, will study Arabic this summer in Nizwa, Oman. Adam is originally from Houston, Texas; he looks forward to deepening his understanding of the region and applying some of the knowledge gained in his Columbia classes.

Gilda Del Bianco, CC’25

Gilda, a rising senior and East Asian studies major, will study Korean this summer in Busan, South Korea. From Long Island, NY, Gilda was a CLS’22 Scholar, and she is excited to return to South Korea to further develop her language skills in an immersion environment, while broadening her on the ground experience in South Korea.

Thai Loyd, CC’26

Originally from Minnesota, Thai is a rising junior and political science major. He will study Bahasa Indonesian this summer, in Indonesia. Thai eventually hopes to apply his developed language skills and cultural understanding to helping strengthen the diplomatic and economic ties between the US and Indonesia.

Iris Ghorbani, GS’26

A rising junior and a student in the Trinity College Dublin Dual BA program, Iris is a political science major who is originally from Washington, D.C. Through the CLS program Iris will travel this summer to Dashanbe, Tajikistan to study Persian, and is excited to develop a deeper understanding of Central Asian languages and cultures.

Valerie Pires, GS’24

A journalist, documentary photographer, and filmmaker, Valirie Pires, is a NYC native and a film and media studies major. She applied to the CLS Spark Initiative to gain a foundation in the language and culture of many of the people she meets while on reporting assignments.

Daniel Guzman, GS’27 (Arabic)

Daniel is a rising sophomore in the Dual BA program with Sciences Po. He will study Arabic this summer through CLS.

URF also congratulates the following Columbia graduate students, Mateo Alexander of GSAPP, who will study Portuguese, Katherine Morgan of CUMC, who will study Swahili, and Colin Phelan of GSAS, who will study Hindi with CLS this summer.

Current students can learn more about the Critical Language Scholarship and other fellowship offerings through the Undergraduate Research and Fellowships office.