Hawaii Preparatory Academy junior Alice Patig and senior Noor Sarwar have been awarded National Security Language Initiative for Youth scholarships for 2014-15.
Hawaii Preparatory Academy junior Alice Patig and senior Noor Sarwar have been awarded National Security Language Initiative for Youth scholarships for 2014-15.
Patig is studying Chinese in China through Aug. 23 and Sarwar is studying Arabic in Morocco through Aug. 6. Both girls are staying with host families in their respective countries.
The NSLI-Y program is funded by the U.S. Department of State and provides merit-based scholarship for eligible high school students to learn less commonly-taught languages in summer and academic-year overseas immersion programs.
The State Department offers about 625 students per year the chance to study Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Persian, Russian or Turkish overseas through NSLI-Y.
Launched in 2006, NSLI-Y seeks to increase the number of Americans who can engage with native speakers of critical languages by providing formal instruction and information language practice in an immersion environment.
The goals of the NSLI-Y program include sparking a lifelong interest in foreign languages and cultures and developing a corps of young Americans with the skills necessary to advance international dialogue and cross-cultural opportunities in the private, academic and government sectors.