Ithaca College anthropology freshman Melendy Krantz has been awarded a Critical Language Scholarship at the Bangla Summer Institute in Banglades. The program, which is administered through Council of American Overseas Research Centers, is intended to expand the number of Americans studying and mastering critical need foreign languages. The program provides funding for U.S. citizen undergraduate, master’s and Ph.D. students to participate in beginning, intermediate and advanced level summer language programs at American Overseas Research Centers that are affiliated with the Fulbright program.
Melendy, who has a keen interest in sociolinguistics, has already spent a year in Spain studying Spanish under the Rotary Youth Exchange. This Critical Language Scholarship will enable her to fulfil a personal goal of gaining a foothold in Bangla language and culture.
Melendy hopes to use this opportunity to begin forging a path toward a career in international relations. Melendy commented, "I have for a long time been interested in Asian cultures, and now I'll be able to experience one first hand. There is no better way to learn a culture than through learning its language. I'm very greatful for this opportunity." As a part of the program Melendy will also travel and take in cultural events throughout her stay in Bangladesh.
According to David Turkon, Melendy's adviser in the anthropology department, this is the first time that these Critical Language Scholarships are being offered. The scholarships are offered through the Council of American Overseas Research Centers and affiliated with the Fulbright program. Turkon noted that "competition was very keen, and it is a credit to Melendy to have been awarded this scholarship. When you consider that there were only 275 of these scholarships, spread among undergraduate and graduate students and across a variety of languages such as Arabic, Bangla, Chinese, Hindi, Persian, Punjabi, Russian, Turkish and Urdu, you get a sense of just how competitive the process is. Everyone in the anthropology department is very proud of Lendy,"
Melendy will travel to Washington, D.C. from her home in Vermont on June 15 to attend an orientation. On June 17 she will leave Washington for Dhaka, Bangladesh and return to her home on August 20.
This program is part of an initiative aimed at producing 2,000 advanced speakers of Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Persian, Hindi, and Central Asian languages by 2009.
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20060504110848479