State Department program sends two UF students abroad to study critical languages

May 8, 2012

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Two University of Florida students have been awarded U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarships to study critical languages this summer.

Sarah Juliachs of Fort Lauderdale is a senior political science major and will study Arabic.

Harry Leeds of Chappaqua, N.Y., is a master’s student in creative writing and will study Russian.

The students are among about 575 U.S. undergraduate and graduate students who received scholarships from the CLS Program to study Arabic, Azerbaijani, Bangla/Bengali, Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Indonesian, Japanese, Persian, Punjabi, Russian, Turkish or Urdu languages.

The students will spend seven to 10 weeks in intensive language institutes this summer in 14 countries where these languages are spoken. The program provides fully funded, group-based intensive language instruction and structured cultural enrichment experiences. Participants are expected to continue their language study beyond the scholarship and apply their critical language skills in their future professional careers.

The 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 institutions of higher education from across the United States, including public and private universities, liberal arts colleges, minority-serving institutions and community colleges.

For more information about the CLS Program or other exchange programs offered by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, please visit our websites at http://www.clscholarship.org and http://exchanges.state.gov.