When arriving here at C of C, freshmen are presented with many unique academic opportunities they most likey have not previously encountered. Between choosing internships, majors, classes and extra curricular activities, students are bound to discover what passions they possess while becoming inspired for their futures. One opportunity often overlooked here at the college is the language requirement. Students commonly choose to complete this general education requirement by continuing their high school Spanish or French studies, but a handful of ambitious freshmen opt to try out one of the college’s unique language programs, such as Arabic, Hindi, Russian, Chinese, and Japanese.
Madeline Edwards, College of Charleston Class of 2016, decided on the latter option to complete her general language requirement, and hasn’t looked back since her first Arabic class last fall. Just recently, she was accepted into the Critical Language Scholarship Program for this upcoming summer. CLS awards dedicated students of critical languages such as Arabic with a fully-funded trip to native-speaking areas, along with 8 weeks of intensive language instruction. A language is deemed critical by the government when the amount of bilingual speakers is few, and the demand for the understanding of a language is very high for economic, educational and security reasons, according to the Language Flagship Program. The Critical Language Scholarship Program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, and open to critical language scholars of all levels, from undergraduate beginners to PhD candidates.
Those who study any language know how important cultural immersion is to becoming a fluent speaker, and Madeline could not agree more. For her CLS program, she will be spending 2 full months in Amman, Jordan this summer, living with a host family and soaking up as much Arabic language and culture as possible. This budding linguist already had some experience learning Latin and German in high school, but Madeline claims her fascination with the Arab uprisings of 2011 coupled with her love of Egyptian author Naguib Mahfouz paved the way for her Arabic studies. “It’s an amazing and fascinating part of the world” states Madeline. “Arabic is a beautiful language. Islam and Middle Eastern cultures in general are so misunderstood, which is tragic because both of the above are beautiful.” Her fascination with the Middle East does not end with Arabic; in fact Madeline would love to go a step further with her studies and take on even more critical languages! She wishes C of C offered Farsi or Persian, and hopes to someday be exposed to these foreign dialects as well.
Not only is this Honors College freshman a dedicated student of Arabic; she also recently had a hand in restoring C of C’s chapter of Amnesty International. Her involvement with the global activism group dovetails with her two majors, Political Science and International Relations. Madeline hopes to continue promoting international human rights in the future, while using her Arabic skills to possibly work for groups such as Human Rights Watch or Amnesty. Madeline explains that she would like to one day “Help expose the issues facing marginalized groups in the Middle East.” But for now, it’s off to Jordan for this ambitious Arabic student, who spoke with us about her Arabic studies, upcoming trip, and love of Middle Eastern culture. Congratulations, Madeline!