Columbia students named 2026 Critical Language Scholars

Congratulations to our 2026 Columbia CLS awardees!

The Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program is a program of the U.S. Department of State with funding provided by the U.S. Government and supported in its implementation by American Councils for International Education. The CLS Program provides immersive summer programs for U.S. undergraduate and graduate students to learn languages of strategic importance to the United States’ national security and economic prosperity. Participants receive the equivalent of one year of language study in eight weeks, through intensive language instruction and cultural activities that reinforce both language learning and intercultural competence.

Andrew Weaver, CC'26 is a senior studying Political Science and Mandarin Chinese. His interests include China’s foreign policy, elite politics, and military affairs. He has supported projects on Indo-Pacific security as an intern for the U.S. Departments of State and Defense, Carnegie China, the American Enterprise Institute, and the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He wrote his senior thesis on the evolution of Taiwanese military strategy since the end of the Cold War. On campus, Andrew is a Saltzman Student Scholar, an Institute of Global Politics Student Scholar, and a leader of the Alexander Hamilton Society—a nonpartisan organization dedicated to foreign policy debate. He was Columbia’s nominee for the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress Presidential Fellows Program, where he researched the impact of U.S. arms sales on Taiwan’s defense reforms. He hopes to pursue a career in the national security field.

As a CLS scholar, Andrew will travel to Tainan, Taiwan, where he will spend eight weeks intensively studying Mandarin this summer.

Congratulations to Ryan (Teddy) Wyche CC'26 who was also awarded finalist status in Portuguese!

URF congratulates Columbia graduate students Zainab Farooqi of the School of Social Work and Grace Rector of SIPA who are awardees in Arabic and Adya Jain of SIPA, who is an awardee in Mandarin!

Students and alumni can learn more about the Critical Language Scholarships and other fellowship offerings through the Undergraduate Research & Fellowships Office.