Seven GS Students Receive Renowned Fellowships for Foreign Language Study

April 26, 2019

This spring, seven GS students, including three in the Dual BA Program Between Columbia University and Sciences Po, have received competitive scholarships to study foreign languages over the summer. These students will be traveling to countries around the world to refine their language skills and immerse themselves in new cultures

John Ballew '19, Genevieve Grant '21, Javier Moraleda '21, and Taylor Miller '19 have all received the Critical Language Scholarship for Summer 2019. The Critical Language Scholarship Program is part of a U.S. government effort to expand dramatically the number of Americans studying and mastering critical foreign languages.

Miller has also received a Fulbright Scholarship. Thus, after spending the summer in Brazil for the CLS program, he will be returning there in February 2020 as an English Teaching Assistant.

“My goal this summer is to become as fluent as possible. I've been studying Portuguese all year, and I will have eight weeks of intensive training in Brazil to really boost my level. I am also really excited to see a new part of the world. My time in the Navy afforded me with the opportunity to live abroad for six consecutive years in Japan, Italy, and Bahrain. I learned something about myself in each location and it's given me great perspective. I know Brazil as well. The CLS will be a great jumping off point for my time in Brazil with Fullbright,” Miller said.

On the other side of the Atlantic, Nicholas Mancini '19 and Ryan Zohar '19 will be studying Arabic in Jordan. Nicholas has been awarded the Boren Scholarship. The Boren Scholarship is offered to “U.S. undergraduate students to study abroad in areas of the world considered critical to U.S. interests and underrepresented in study abroad.” Through this scholarship, Mancini will be able to immerse himself in Jordanian culture over the summer.

GS student Ryan Zohar

Zohar has been awarded the CASA fellowship. This fellowship offers advanced level training in Arabic language and culture to qualified American students at The American University in Cairo and at the Qasid Arabic Institute in Amman. After spending a year in Amman refining his Arabic skills, Ryan will be heading to the University of Michigan to pursue a P.h.D. in anthropology.

“While I was studying Arabic in Cairo during the past two summers, I met many other students who were studying Arabic in the city. From them, I began to hear about the CASA program. There are dozens of intensive Arabic programs in Cairo, many of which were known for their rigor. Among them, however, CASA seemed to have an almost mythical status. Its reputation was really unparalleled. If I was truly serious about Arabic, I couldn’t let the opportunity to participate in the CASA program pass me by,” Zohar said. “Dean Sara Remedios at GS and Jodi Zaffino, Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs, Undergraduate Fellowships, were incredibly helpful throughout this process as were my professors in the MESAAS and Anthropology departments.”

To learn more about fellowship opportunities, visit our Fellowships page.

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