From the Office of the Dean...

June 11, 2009

Arts and Sciences students win Critical Language Scholarships

Two Arts and Sciences undergraduates have been awarded Critical Language Scholarships for intensive language study this summer.

Patrick Ehrling Holstad and Tammy Chen Hsu will study in programs abroad sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and administered by the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC). They bring to six the total number of Carolina students who have received this award since it was established in 2006.

Critical Language Scholarships for Intensive Summer Institutes are part of a U.S. government interagency effort to expand dramatically the number of Americans studying and mastering critical-need foreign languages. Scholarship recipients receive funding to participate in beginning, intermediate and advanced programs at American Overseas Research Centers and affiliated partners.

Holstad, majoring in international studies, will study Russian at Astrakhan State University in Astrakhan, Russia. He is an intern at the S.C. Department of Transportation and a member of Army ROTC. He will be commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army after graduation in 2010. Holstad plans to pursue a career in Eastern European affairs and Slavic linguistics.

Hsu, an economics major who will graduate in 2010 from South Carolina Honors College, will study Arabic in Cairo, Egypt, at the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE). She is a Palmetto Fellow and recently received the Rising Senior Award in Economics. This spring, she was inducted into Omicron Delta Epsilon, the international economics honor society, and was chosen to participate in the Non-Profit Protégé Program at Habitat for Humanity of Central South Carolina. She has received a South Carolina Honors College Explorations Grant and a Magellan Scholar for undergraduate research. Her extracurricular activities include serving as vice president of Gamecocks STAND Together and establishing Reaching Out in Sudan, a non-profit organization based in Columbia. After graduation, she plans to attend law school.