CCNY’s Libby Ho [left] and Atsuko Sakurai will spend the summer in China and Jordan, respectively, as Critical Language Scholars.
Amman, Jordan, and Changchun, China, are the summer destinations for City College of New York’s Critical Language Scholarship recipients Atsuko Sakurai and Libby Ho.
The competitive national award will take Sakurai, a sophomore majoring in computer engineering, to the Jordan Language Academy in the Jordanian capital. She’ll spend eight weeks there studying Arabic, her minor.
A Japanese immigrant who’s served in the U.S. Coast Guard, Sakurai said her pursuit of Arabic suits her career goal perfectly.
“I want to do something that combines international diplomacy and computer science,” said the Manhattan resident.
Ho, from the Macaulay Honors College at CCNY, travels to Changchun in northeast China to study Mandarin, one of two widely spoken variants of the Chinese language. She’ll also be away for two months.
Born and raised in New York of Chinese immigrant parents, Ho grew up speaking Cantonese, the other form of Chinese. “Mandarin is a completely different language,” observed the CUNY/BA human physiology major.
The Brooklyn resident is a Colin Powell Fellow and plans a medical career in underserved communities, hence her mission to learn Mandarin, in addition to the Spanish she’s learning at CCNY.
“I hope to study medicine in the future and serve immigrant populations that can’t speak English. Communication is very important and that’s why I’m learning these other languages,” she added.
About The Critical Language Scholarship Program
The CLS Program is an intensive overseas language and cultural immersion program for American students enrolled at U.S. colleges and universities. The program includes intensive language instruction and structured cultural enrichment experiences designed to promote rapid language gains.
CLS is part of a wider government initiative to expand the number of Americans studying and mastering foreign languages that are critical to national security and economic prosperity. CLS plays an important role in preparing students for the 21st century's globalized workforce and increasing national competitiveness.
CSL is a program of the United States Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. It is supported in its implementation by American Councils for International Education.
About The City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided a high quality and affordable education to generations of New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. Today The Chronicle of Higher Education ranks CCNY #2 among public colleges with the greatest success in ensuring the social mobility of our student body; at the same time the Center for world University Rankings places it in the top 1.2% of universities worldwide in terms of academic excellence. More than 16,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in eight professional schools and divisions, driven by significant funded research, creativity and scholarship. CCNY is as diverse, dynamic and visionary as New York City itself. View CCNY Media Kit.