When they arrived on West Virginia University’s campus a few years ago, they knew they were going to leave with a degree. But they didn’t know that they’d be also chasing global careers.

Quinn Hartleroad, of Parkersburg, was going the science route.

Lavina Wilson, from Jamaica by way of Martinsburg, thought she would study Japanese.

But they changed career directions after a trip and a class. Now they are the latest WVU recipients of the Critical Language Scholarship, offered by the U.S. State Department to cover intensive training in languages critical to the nation’s interests.

Both Hartleroad and Wilson were helped in pursuing the scholarship by WVU’s ASPIRE office, which assists students in seeking nationally competitive scholarships

More people to talk to
Hartleroad first became interested in Arabic because her boyfriend speaks it, but she didn’t intensively study it. Then she went on a WVU study abroad trip to Bahrain where she toured the U.S. embassy and heard Foreign Service officers talk about their jobs.

Before that she’d never considered an international career, but now the Foreign Service is all she wants to pursue.

After a year of Arabic classes, the junior will be studying the language this summer in Jordan as part of the scholarship.

“I’ll be living with a host family, which I’m really excited about because I don’t know if they’re going to speak any English,” Hartleroad said. “I know that there’s no way that I’m not going to learn a lot.”

As she’s talked about her summer plans, people question her, asking things like: Will she be safe? And why would she want to go to the Middle East?

“There are so many misconceptions in American media, and it’s just very sad to me what people really think,” Hartleroad said.

She believes she’ll be as safe in Jordan as she would be in an American city, where you should always take precautions to ensure your safety but can still have an enjoyable time.

Jordan is only one stop on her itinerary this year. After her summer trip, she’ll be studying abroad for the fall semester in the United Arab Emirates.

The international studies major, who is minoring in German and physics, has always loved languages and culture studies, taking Spanish in high school and three years of German at WVU.

She finds learning about other cultures and languages very appealing.

“It’s really hard for me not to take all of the language courses,” she said. “I want to learn everything so I kind of have to sometimes tell myself ‘you need to slow down and just focus on the ones you’re learning now. Get those really solid before moving on to learning another one.’”

For Hartleroad, a student in the Honors College, language is an enabler to get to know other people. And it’s also a sign of respect that someone took time to learn another’s language and culture.

“I’m a very social person, and so for me it’s the idea that the more languages that I learn the fewer people there are in this world that I can’t talk to,” she said.

A fifth of the world
Wilson thought her college major was going to be Japanese. Then she took a Chinese culture class in her freshman year to meet general education requirements. She fell in love.

Four years of studying Chinese later, she’s navigated Beijing’s buses and shops on her own as part of a study abroad trip with the Chinese program. She chose to double major in international studies, with a focus on East Asia, and Chinese studies with a minor in political science.

After one of her first Chinese classes at WVU, Wilson was able to give a five-minute speech in Chinese about her experience with the language. It’s that kind of achievement that kept her going back for more from the Chinese program, which she says offers a breadth of experiences while still focusing on the individual students.

“The Chinese program here at WVU is quite excellent,” Wilson said. “What kept me interested is the progress that I saw at the end of each semester.”

This summer after she graduates, the Critical Language Scholarship will take her to an immersion program in Suzhou, where she’ll continue to learn more Chinese language skills and cultural awareness.

She ultimately hopes to work in international development, particularly in rural China where she wants to focus on women’s rights and gender equality.

She believes learning Chinese is essential since Chinese speakers make up about 20 percent of the world’s population and China’s economy is growing, particularly with the expansion of the middle class.

Wilson thinks it’s vitally important for people to immerse themselves in a second language. The Department of State clearly agrees. The Critical Language Scholarship program supports students at varying expertise levels in these languages: Azerbaijani, Bangla/Bengali, Hindi, Indonesian, Korean, Punjabi, Turkish, Urdu, Arabic, Persian, Chinese, Japanese and Russian.

“I think it’s really important to learn a second language because it gives you an alternate point of view,” Wilson said. “Studying another language opens your horizons to a different way of thinking. It’s like you find yourself thinking outside of the norms of whatever culture that you’re in.”

By Diana Mazzella
University Relations/News

-WVU-

dm/05/05/15

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