2014 Critical Language Scholarship Recipients

This year’s total of 9 awards places Maryland among the top 10 schools in the nation for CLS awards earned in 2014.

The Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) program from the US Department of State provides intensive, fully-supported summer language study experiences. Our students will spend this summer abroad studying Arabic, Chinese, Indonesian, Korean, Russian, Turkish, and Urdu.

This year’s total of 9 awards is the highest ever for Maryland, and places the University among the top 10 schools in the nation for CLS awards earned in 2014 – only 5 schools had more CLS awards than Maryland. More information about the CLS award may be found here.

This year’s CLS awardees are:

Anjali Belur (Turkish in Turkey)
Belur is a sophomore in the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences majoring in Government and Politics and minoring in International Development and Conflict Management. She studied for the 2011-12 academic year in Gaziantep, Turkey with the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study program. She is a participant in the Global Semester Program and is currently a research assistant at the Center for Turkish Studies at the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C. Belur is a member of the Honors College.

Zane Buckey (award to study Chinese in China)
Buckey is a senior in the College of Arts and Humanities majoring in Chinese and minoring in Geographic Information Systems as well as Global Terrorism. In 2012-13 Buckey studied at the Beijing center for Chinese Studies with a Boren Scholarship. Last summer he interned at the National Bureau of Asian Research in Washington, D.C. He is a member of the Chinese “cluster” at Language House.

Maya Hardimon (award to study Arabic in Oman)
Hardimon is a sophomore in the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences majoring in Government and Politics. Last spring she was a research intern with the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism. Hardimon is a member of the Honors College.

Katherine Martin (award to study Russian in Russia)
Martin is a senior in the College of Arts and Humanities majoring in Russian Language and Literature and minoring in Global Terrorism. She is studying abroad for the academic year at Russian State Pedagogical University in St. Petersburg, Russia with a Boren Scholarship. She has completed government internships at the city, state, and federal levels. Most recently she interned with the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police in the Homeland Security Bureau.

Maressa McCall (award to study Indonesian in Indonesia)
McCall is a master’s student in the College of Arts and Humanities School of Music’s Musicology and Ethnomusicology Division. At Maryland McCall has taught sections on popular music of the world and identity. Previously she worked for nine months as an associate music coordinator at Pravah, a youth citizenship organization in New Delhi, India. Last summer McCall studied Hindi in India with a Critical Language Scholarship.

Norine McKee (award to study Chinese in China)
McKee is a senior in the College of Arts and Humanities majoring in English Language and Literature as well as Chinese. She is also minoring in Creative Writing and won first place for prose in the 2013 Jiménez-Porter Literary Prize competition. McKee studied in China during summer 2012.

Patrick Niceforo Korean South Korea
Niceforo is a senior in the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences majoring in Government and Politics and minoring in Global Terrorism as well as Korean Studies. Last spring he studied abroad at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea. Niceforo is a participant in the Global Semester program and is currently interning at the American Foreign Service Association’s Executive Office. Previously he was a Special Projects Division Intern with the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Reponses to Terrorism. Niceforo earned a citation from the living-learning program CIVICUS.

Isabella Pacho (award to study Arabic in Morocco)
Pacho is a sophomore in the A. James Clark School of Engineering majoring in Civil Engineering. She is a participant in FLEXUS: The Dr. Marilyn Berman Pollans Women in Engineering Living and Learning Community. She is also a member of the Honors College.

Claire Weber (award to study Urdu in India)
Weber is a junior in the College of Computer, Mathematics, and Natural Sciences majoring in Geographical Sciences and Ecology. She is also minoring in Global Terrorism. Weber studied Urdu for two semesters with the FOLA program. Currently she is interning with the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism. She is also a member of the Gemstone Program in the Honors College.