CLS Chinese Alumni Attend Event with First Lady Michelle Obama




Photo by Justin D. Knight, Howard University

In January, nearly 20, mostly DC-area, CLS alumni of institutes in China had the opportunity to participate in a study abroad event with First Lady Michelle Obama at Howard University in Washington, DC. At the event, CLS alumna Nicole Baden participated in a panel discussion about study abroad in China. Alumni of other State Department programs, including the Fulbright and Gilman Programs, also attended.


The First Lady spoke in honor of Chinese President Hu Jintao’s four-day visit to the United States. Mrs. Obama spoke to a group of high school and college students about the importance of young Americans engaging people around the world. She also encouraged young people to make study abroad a part of their high school and college plans.

Nicole Baden, who studied intermediate Chinese in the CLS Program, shared her experiences in Beijing last summer. Baden is currently a senior at Howard University and a CLS Alumni Ambassador. Her participation in the CLS Program was the first time she had traveled outside the U.S. On the panel, Baden said she felt welcome in China, and her host mother was a strong force in helping and encouraging her to learn Chinese.

Mrs. Obama spoke in support of the President’s “100,000 Strong” initiative, which he announced in 2009 as a national effort designed to dramatically increase the number and diversity of American students studying in China. The initiative seeks to prepare the next generation of American experts on China, who will be charged with managing growing political, economic, and cultural ties between the two countries. The Chinese government strongly supports the initiative.

“Studying in countries like China is about so much more than just improving your own prospects in the global market,” said Mrs. Obama. “The fact is, with every friendship you make, and every bond of trust you establish, you are shaping the image of America projected to the rest of the world… And these experiences also set the stage for young people all over the world to come together and work together to make our world stronger, because make no mistake about it, whether it’s climate change or terrorism, economic recovery or the spread of nuclear weapons, for the U.S. and China, the defining challenges of our time are shared challenges.”

Alumni of the CLS China program who attended the event included:
• Adi Robertson (CLS 2009)
• Alison Goodrich (CLS 2008)
• Antonia Dionne (CLS 2009)
• Anna Mayr (CLS 2010)
• Benjamin Dooley (CLS 2008)
• Christopher Appel (CLS 2008)
• Elizabeth Tseng (CLS 2009)
• Elizabeth Wesner (CLS 2007)
• Gustavo Hernandez (CLS 2010)
• James Tobyne II (CLS 2008)
• Jessica Cox (CLS 2008)
• Jessica Karlow (CLS 2009)
• Julie Starr (CLS 2010)
• Megan Wiegand (CLS 2009)
• Nathan Beauchamp-Mustafaga (CLS 2009 & 2010)
• Ros Lary (CLS 2010)
• Sharone Tobias (CLS 2008)
• Sherri Metzler Puzey (CLS 2009)

Read a transcript of the First Lady’s remarks: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/01/19/remarks-first-lady-her-100k-strong-state-visit-event
Watch video of the event: http://www.vimeo.com/18991021

Institute Profile: CLS Oman

Location: Muscat, Oman

Host institution: World Learning Oman Center, in partnership with the School for International Training

Nizwa Souq

Language: Arabic

Levels: Advanced Beginning and Intermediate levels

Students: Twenty-seven CLS students at the high intermediate and low- to mid-advanced levels studied in Oman in 2010. In 2011, CLS Oman will also host advanced beginning and low-intermediate level students.

Location: Oman is perched on the southeastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, and has long served as a bustling entrepôt for merchants crossing over from Southeast Asia. The CLS host city, Muscat, is the capital of the country, home to over a million residents, and wedged between the mountains and the sea.

Academics: CLS Arabic students can expect an intensive academic program, including 20 hours per week in the classroom. Language socialization activities, cultural clubs, and daily meetings with language peers complement formal classroom work. The diglossic nature of Arabic demands that students take classes in both MSA and the Omani dialect in order to maximize language proficiency gains.

Housing: CLS students reside in double-occupancy hotel rooms at the Midan Hotel, about a twenty-minute bus ride from the Oman center on the western edge of Muscat.

Cultural excursions: The highlight of CLS Oman 2010 was a trip to the mountains in the interior, a respite from the heat and humidity of the capital region. Students toured date farms, visited local families, and camped under the stars in the desert. Students also had the opportunity to enjoy Wadi Shab, visit a dhow shipyard, and observe the National Turtle Sanctuary at night.

al-Khareef Festival in Salalah

Cultural activities: Cultural activities included films, calligraphy, poetry readings, and day trips to nearby towns to lunch with families and learn more about rural Omani life.

Fun Fact: Al-Khareef is an Arabic term used by Omanis to describe the annual south-west monsoon season that sweeps across the Indian Ocean. For several months during the year (typically June—September) Al-Khareef transforms southern Oman into a lush, tropical forest. At the center of it all, is the town of Salalah, which holds an annual Al-Khareef festival. Visitors from all over the Gulf and surrounding countries travel to Salalah, to relax in moderate temperatures and enjoy the festivities.

Testimonials:

• “I think the greatest strength of the program is that it exposed me to a part of the Arab world that is off the beaten track for most Arabic language learners, and I found that the culture of the Gulf is quite distinct from the culture of the Maghreb and Levant regions.” –Sharon C.

• “The instructors were much more professional than my previous university instructors in terms of their knowledge of Arabic grammar and their technique in teaching and engaging the class.” –Jill G.
• “I made many friends in Oman and found the people, Arab and immigrant, to be friendly and welcoming in the extreme. Both Arabs and Indians were eager to make my acquaintance and share their culture with me.” –C.J.

CLS Updates: 2011 Program Recipients Selected

Congratulations to the 575 students who were selected to receive the summer 2011 CLS award! The CLS Program remains extremely selective with over 5,200 applications submitted for the 2010 program.

The 2011 cohort is the most diverse yet:

• All 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are represented.
• Approximately 30% are graduate students.*
• Over 20% self-identify as a person of color.
• Over 10% are in STEM fields.
• Males make up over 40% of the finalist pool.*
• CLS Program recipients hail from over 200 institutions. These institutions represent both public and private colleges/universities, liberal arts colleges, community colleges, and Minority-Serving Institutions, including Tribal Colleges and Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

*Higher than the national average, according to Open Doors.
How are applicants selected for the CLS Program?

Award recipients are selected on the basis of merit, with additional consideration for:

• Academic record and potential to succeed in a rigorous academic setting.
• Ability to adapt to a different cultural environment.
• Diversity (considered in a broad manner and includes, but is not limited to, discipline, geographic location, institutional type, race or ethnicity, gender, and unique personal qualities or experiences).
• Plan for continuation of study of the language.
• Plan to use the language in future career.

All applicants are initially read by two outside academic readers, and the top applications are reviewed by panels of academic and international education experts in the target language and area. Applicants recommended for selection are forwarded to the U.S. Department of State for final approval.

Life after the CLS Program: Interview with Brandon Marc Higa, Korea ‘08

For CLS alumnus, Brandon Marc Higa, participating in the 2008 CLS Korean institute greatly impacted his studies and future career. How so? Find out below!

CLS Program: How did participation in the CLS Program impact your career?

Brandon at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul

Brandon Marc Higa: Within a few months of returning from the CLS Program in Korea, I was able to achieve one of my life goals – securing a full-time position at the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA)! Participating on the CLS Program and interning at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo helped me land the position with the ECA Office of Alumni Affairs, as an Alumni Coordinator for Asia. At ECA, my portfolio included two regions of the world – East Asia and the Pacific (EAP), and South and Central Asia (SCA).

CLS: How have you been able to use your Korean language skills in previous or current positions?

Brandon: Since I was able to obtain conversational Korean through the CLS Program, it came in handy when greeting Korean exchange grantees in Washington, DC either for their pre-departure or pre re-entry orientations.

In my current position at Kapiolani Community College (KCC) in Honolulu, Hawaii, I’ve been able to use my Korean language skills to interact with international Korean students at the International Café (conversation tables). I’ve sat in on a few of these as a participant, and briefly shared my experiences with the CLS Program and at the State Department, with students interested in going overseas. In addition, I’ve spoken with a number of Freeman recipients, who have asked me about applying for scholarships to study abroad while at KCC or after they transfer to a four-year institution.

On a side note, I live in an area of Honolulu densely populated with Korean nationals and many Korean businesses. It definitely comes in handy for that person to person interaction in daily life here!



Brandon's first meal in South Korea

CLS: In addition to developing proficiency in Korean, what other skills did you gain from the CLS Program?

Brandon: In addition to the language skills the CLS Program gave me, the real life experience of being in the metropolis area of Korea and interacting with local citizens helped me to better understand ways to conduct business, which is a valuable life skill to have. The in-country experience also helped me with my other professional endeavors as an actor and fashion model. I recently modeled for the United Colors of Benetton’s spring campaign and started working on commercials for Asian clients through a local production company.

If there’s anything I’d like to share with CLS alumni, it would be to stay in touch with their cohort, CAORC, American Councils, and the State Department. You just never know how the CLS Program experience will change your life in the most unexpected ways! To think, I was so scared to go to Korea without any experience being there before. Overcoming that fear showed me that anything is possible in life if you just put your mind to it and try.

Brandon Marc Higa currently works as a Grants Development Specialist at Kapiolani Community College, in beautiful Honolulu, Hawaii. View more of Brandon's pictures on the CLS facebook page.

CLS Alumna Presentation at Bangladesh Embassy

On February 20^th, Corinne Hoogakker, 2010 CLS Bangladesh alumna, was featured as one of three main speakers at the 2011 Martyrs’ Day and International Mother Language Day at the Embassy of Bangladesh in Washington, D.C. At the event, Corinne shared the importance of her experience on the CLS Program in Bangladesh and her study of Bangla with the large crowd assembled for the program. Also included in the program was a celebration of 15 countries from around the world, including cultural performances from Sri Lanka, China, Russia, Ukraine, Uruguay and India.

International Mother Language Day was recognized by UNESCO in 1999 "to promote the preservation and protection of all languages used by peoples of the world.”

International Mother Language Day has been observed every year since February 2000 to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. The date represents the day in 1952 when students demonstrating for recognition of their language, Bangla, as one of the two national languages of the then Pakistan, were shot and killed by police in Dhaka, the capital of what is now Bangladesh.

As UNESCO states, “Languages are the most powerful instruments of preserving and developing our tangible and intangible heritage. All moves to promote the dissemination of mother tongues will serve not only to encourage linguistic diversity and multilingual education but also to develop fuller awareness of linguistic and cultural traditions throughout the world and to inspire solidarity based on understanding, tolerance and dialogue.”

Corinne’s remarks highlighted the importance of language in developing mutual understanding between peoples around the world.