Three
from Smith Awarded State Dept. Scholarships
 Three Smith students were recently
awarded Critical Language Scholarships (CLS) from the U.S.
Department of State to support their intenstive summer study
of critical languages.
They are: Breanna Lindo ’14,
who will study Korean in South Korea; Katey Pillars ’11
and Sarah Tucker ’13, both of whom will study Russian in
Russia.
The students are among the
approximately 575 U.S. undergraduate and graduate students
who received a scholarship from the U.S. Department of State’s
CLS Program in 2011 to study Arabic, Azerbaijani, Bangla/Bengali,
Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Indonesian, Japanese, Persian, Punjabi,
Russian, Turkish, or Urdu languages. U.S. students will spend
seven to 10 weeks in intensive language institutes this
summer in 14 countries where these languages are spoken.
The CLS Program provides fully-funded, group-based intensive
language instruction and structured cultural enrichment experiences.
CLS Program participants are expected to continue their language
study beyond the scholarship and apply their critical language
skills in their future professional careers.
The 2011 CLS
Program received over 5,200 applications. Representing all
50 states, students from a range of academic disciplines
and U.S. colleges and universities were selected for scholarships
in 2011 through a merit-based selection process.
The U.S.
Department of State launched the Critical Language Scholarships
for Intensive Summer Institutes in 2006 to increase opportunities
for American students to study critical-need languages overseas.
The program is part of a wider U.S. government effort to
expand the number of Americans studying and mastering critical
languages.
CLS Program participants are
among the more than 40,000 academic and professional exchange
program participants supported annually by the U.S. Department
of State’s Bureau
of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) to promote mutual
understanding and respect between the people of the United
States and the people of other countries. The CLS Program
is administered by the Council of American Overseas Research
Centers (CAORC) and American Councils for International Education.
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