2012 CLS Participants from HBCUs

The United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, would like to extend congratulations to the following HBCU students, who have been awarded the Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) to study critical languages during the summer of 2012:

First Name	Last Name	Level 2	CLS Language	College
Erin	Adamson	Intermediate	Chinese	Spelman College
Gary	Davis	Advanced	Arabic	Howard University
Marjani	Hall	Intermediate	Chinese	Spelman College
Myles	Postell-Reynolds	Intermediate	Chinese	Morehouse College
Michelle	Spears	Beginning	Urdu	Howard University

These students are among the over the approximately 630 U.S. undergraduate and graduate students selected for the U.S. Department of State’s CLS Program in 2012 to study Arabic, Azerbaijani, Bangla/Bengali, Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Indonesian, Japanese, Persian, Punjabi, Russian, Turkish, or Urdu languages.  

The CLS Program is part of a U.S. government effort to expand dramatically the number of Americans studying and mastering critical foreign languages. Selected finalists for the 2012 CLS Program hail from all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia and represent 239 public and private universities from across the United States, including land-grant universities, liberal arts colleges, minority-serving institutions, and community colleges.

Tori Badgett

Alumni Highlight

Every year, the CLS Program selects 20 outstanding alumni to serve as Alumni Ambassadors. This year, we were pleased to select Tori Badgett, who applied for the Urdu language program in Lucknow, India, while attending Howard University. Tori’s Alumni Ambassador profile can be found here: http://www.clscholarship.org/alumni/ambassadors/2011/ToriB.htm.

2012 CLS Participants from Community Colleges

The United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, would like to extend congratulations to the following community college students, who have been awarded the Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) to study critical languages during the summer of 2012:

First Name	Last Name	CLS Language	Level	College
Lyudmila	Anderson	Hindi	Beginning	Montgomery College
Miah	de Graft-Biney	Arabic	Advanced Beginning	Georgia Perimeter College
Heather	DeField	Russian	Intermediate	Portland Community College
Inshirah	DuBose	Arabic	Intermediate	Community College of Philadelphia
Meredith	Fletcher	Japanese	Intermediate	Northern Virginia Community College
Heather	Lamb	Korean	Beginning	Tulsa Community College
Noelle	Little	Turkish	Beginning	Los Angeles Pierce College
Michelle	Pelescak	Arabic	Advanced Beginning	Howard Community College
Tam	Phan	Arabic	Advanced Beginning	Grossmont College
Thomas	Taylor	Chinese	Intermediate	Bellevue College

Nick Martino in Oman 2011

These students are among the over the approximately 630 U.S. undergraduate and graduate students selected for the U.S. Department of State’s CLS Program in 2012 to study Arabic, Azerbaijani, Bangla/Bengali, Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Indonesian, Japanese, Persian, Punjabi, Russian, Turkish, or Urdu languages.

The CLS Program is part of a U.S. government effort to expand dramatically the number of Americans studying and mastering critical foreign languages. Selected finalists for the 2012 CLS Program hail from all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia and represent 239 public and private universities from across the United States, including land-grant universities, liberal arts colleges, minority-serving institutions, and community colleges.

Alumni Highlight
Every year, the CLS Program selects 20 outstanding alumni to serve as Alumni Ambassadors. This year, we were pleased to select Nicholas Martino, who applied for the CLS Program while attending Front Range Community College in Colorado. Nicholas studied in Muscat, Oman in 2011 and will be returning for his second CLS Program award in Amman, Jordan this summer. Nicholas’s Alumni Ambassador profile can be found here: http://www.clscholarship.org/alumni/ambassadors/2011/NicholasM.htm.

2012 CLS Participants from Hispanic-Serving Institutions

The United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, would like to extend congratulations to the following students from Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) who been awarded a Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) to study critical languages during the summer of 2012:

Language	First Name	Last Name	Educational Status	College/University
Arabic	Anna	Rosen	Undergraduate Student	California State University, Dominguez Hills
Japanese	Samantha	Setyakarya	Undergraduate Student	California State University, Fullerton
Turkish	Ananzah	Talavera	Graduate Student- Masters	California State University, Long Beach
Arabic	Laura	Brantley	Undergraduate Student	California State University, San Bernardino
Chinese	Jie	Dong	Graduate Student- Masters	CUNY-City College of New York
Hindi	Ishtiaq	Alam	Undergraduate Student	CUNY-City College of New York
Korean	Diana	Panora	Undergraduate Student	CUNY-City College of New York
Chinese	Julia	Beabout	Graduate Student- Masters	Florida International University
Japanese	Joshua	Trinidad	Undergraduate Student	Hunter College
Turkish	Noelle	Little	Undergraduate Student	Los Angeles Pierce College
Arabic	Holly	Gerrity	Graduate Student- Doctorate	University of California, Riverside
Arabic	Jennifer	Sayers	Undergraduate Student	University of California, Riverside
Indonesian	Christopher	Margono	Undergraduate Student	University of California, Riverside
Arabic	Jay	Jackson	Undergraduate Student	University of Houston, Downtown
Chinese	Alicia	Najera	Undergraduate Student	University of Incarnate Word
Arabic	Carlo	Aragon	Undergraduate Student	University of New Mexico
Arabic	Hannah	Brown	Undergraduate Student	University of New Mexico
Chinese	Evan	Hubbard	Undergraduate Student	University of New Mexico
Korean	Jose	Bonilla	Undergraduate Student	University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras
Korean	Ethel	Rios Arroyo	Graduate Student- Doctorate	University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras
Japanese	Elizabeth	Costales	Undergraduate Student	University of Texas at San Antonio

These students are among the over the approximately 630 U.S. undergraduate and graduate students selected for the U.S. Department of State’s CLS Program in 2012 to study Arabic, Azerbaijani, Bangla/Bengali, Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Indonesian, Japanese, Persian, Punjabi, Russian, Turkish, or Urdu languages.

The CLS Program is part of a U.S. government effort to expand dramatically the number of Americans studying and mastering critical foreign languages. Selected finalists for the 2012 CLS Program hail from all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia and represent 239 public and private universities from across the United States, including land-grant universities, liberal arts colleges, minority-serving institutions, and community colleges. 


Erica Vasquez (far left) and classmates in Tangier

Alumni Highlight
Every year, the CLS Program selects 20 outstanding alumni to serve as Alumni Ambassadors. This year, we were pleased to select Erica Vasquez, who applied for the CLS Program while attending the University of California at Berkeley. Erica has been instrumental in encouraging historically under-represented students to apply for the CLS Program by conducting outreach sessions and providing advice to prospective students. Erica studied in Tangier, Morocco in 2011 and will be returning for a second CLS Program this summer. Her Alumni Ambassador profile can be found at: http://www.clscholarship.org/alumni/ambassadors/2011/EricaV.htm.