Meghan Brooks selected for U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarship program
Nazareth College student Meghan Brooks '22, a double major in Spanish and Chinese who wants to teach, was awarded a U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarship to advance her study of Mandarin. Due to the global pandemic, the majority of CLS institutes in 2021 were virtual programs. Brooks studied Mandarin virtually this past summer for eight weeks through Tamkang University in Taiwan.
Brooks said the intensive program was rewarding. "At first, I found myself overwhelmed by the pace of the class, and the fact that it was entirely in Mandarin, but by the time the third or fourth week rolled around, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was keeping up. By the end of the program, I could understand nearly all of what the teacher was saying, and I was confident to speak up in class and talk about complex topics like women's rights and environmental protection."
She says the class spent 20 hours a week in various classroom experiences — language class, cultural class, office hours, and conversation practice — and she realized "how much I had learned when I came back to Nazareth this semester and didn't panic when my teacher began speaking to me in Mandarin."
The U.S. Department of State's Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program is part of a U.S. government effort to expand the number of Americans studying and mastering critical foreign languages. CLS scholars gain critical language and cultural skills that enable them to contribute to U.S. economic competitiveness and national security. Brooks is one of nearly 700 competitively selected American students at U.S. colleges and universities who received a CLS award in 2021.
"Besides my language gains, it was the people who made this program worth it," said Brooks. "My fantastic teachers, who didn't take 'I don't know' for an answer and went above and beyond to help me solve the problem. I had great language partners who were forgiving of the (plentiful) mistakes I made and encouraged me to practice speaking on topics I was unfamiliar with, and amazing classmates who became good friends through the many hours of homework help, emotional support, and laughter that reigned our long days."
She says she's already looking forward to applying to the program again next year to help her continue her language studies in graduate school, and to become better qualified for a career as a language teacher.
The CLS Program provides opportunities to U.S. undergraduate and graduate students to spend eight to 10 weeks studying one of 15 critical languages: Arabic, Azerbaijani, Bangla, Chinese, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Swahili, Turkish, or Urdu. The program includes intensive language instruction and structured cultural enrichment experiences designed to promote rapid language gains. The CLS Program is developed in partnership with local institutions in countries where these languages are commonly spoken. CLS scholars are expected to continue their language study beyond the scholarship and apply their critical language skills in their future careers.
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