UNL students earn Critical Language Scholarships from State Department

University of Nebraska-Lincoln students will focus on the Chinese, Japanese and Turkish languages in the highly competitive Critical Language Scholarship Program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Four students were chosen by the scholarship program, which offers intensive summer language institutes overseas in 13 critical-need foreign languages for summer 2010. The Critical Language Scholarship Program selection process is administered by the Council of American Overseas Research Centers and the American Councils for International Education.

The scholarships are particularly important because of their highly competitive nature and because they give students intensive, in-country language immersion experience that is so useful for their continuing study. They can also sometimes serve as a gateway to encourage students to other international scholarship programs, like the Fulbright U.S. student program, said Laura Damuth, UNL's undergraduate scholarship adviser.

The selected students:

* Michael Moses of Omaha, is an ethnic studies and international studies major with minors in mathematics and Japanese. After a study-abroad program in the Dominican Republic this spring, he will study Japanese in Japan this summer.

* Katie Sisneros, a graduate of the University Honors Program, is a master of arts candidate in the department of English. Originally from Gothenburg, she will study Turkish in Turkey.

* Nicole Starkey of Grand Island majors in political science, economics and international studies. She will study Chinese in China.

The fourth student, Jessie Cleveland, a political science and international studies major from Grand Forks, N.D., was offered an award to study Urdu in India. She has instead accepted an internship in Washington, D.C., at the Henry L. Stimson Center, a nonprofit, nonpartisan institution devoted to enhancing international peace and security.

Critical Language Scholarship Institutes provide fully-funded, group-based intensive language instruction and structured cultural enrichment experiences for seven to 10 weeks for U.S. citizen undergraduate, master's and Ph.D. students. The program is part of a U.S. government effort to expand dramatically the number of Americans studying and mastering critical-need foreign languages. Participants are expected to continue their language study beyond the scholarship period, and later apply their critical language skills in their future professional careers.

Undergraduate and graduate students of diverse disciplines and majors are encouraged to apply. Students interested in learning critical languages (Arabic, Bangla/Bengali, Hindi, Punjabi, Turkish, Urdu, Chinese, Korean, Persian, Russian and Azerbaijani) during summers in future years at certain institutions abroad should visit www.clscholarship.org for more information (the 2010 application deadline has passed). They are encouraged to contact Damuth by e-mail for assistance with applications.

WRITER: Kelly Bartling, University Communications, (402) 472-2059