College of Arts & Sciences, Press Releases, Students - Sunday, April 22, 2012 3:27 pm

UNCG student selected for U.S. State Department Critical Languages Scholarship

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Kelly M. Donovan, a junior at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro from Boiling Springs, N.C., will be studying in China this summer through the U.S. State Department’s Critical Languages Scholarship Program.

Donovan will study intermediate-level Chinese at Beijing Language and Culture University from June 4 to August 6. This fall, she will continue her studies at Beijing Normal University on an exchange program. At UNCG, Donovan is a 4.0 Dean’s List student majoring in Spanish and Asian Studies, and she is a student in the Lloyd International Honors College (LIHC). Her career goal is to be a translator or interpreter for international government service.

“Kelly’s accomplishment is a testament to her talents and to the quality of the academic experience she has had at UNCG and in the Honors College” said Dr. Jerry Pubantz, dean of LIHC. “In our growingly interdependent world with many serious threats, the United States needs linguists who can negotiate between cultures. Foreign language ability is more important today than ever before. I am pleased that UNCG’s International Honors College can support Ms. Donovan’s further language and culture study at Beijing Normal University once she completes the CLS program.”

The CLS Program is part of a U.S. government effort to expand the number of Americans studying and mastering critical foreign languages. CLS institutes provide fully-funded, group-based intensive language instruction and structured cultural enrichment experiences for seven to 10 weeks for U.S. citizen undergraduate and graduate students. Languages offered include Arabic, Azerbaijani, Bangla/Bengali, Chinese, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Punjabi, Russian, Turkish and Urdu.

Finalists picked for the 2012 CLS Program are from all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia and represent 239 institutions of higher education. During CLS Program outreach activities, particular attention is paid to states/regions of the U.S. that have been historically under-represented in the CLS applicant pool and to students from diverse backgrounds and academic majors.