 | | | Chiara Marley Photo provided | | | | | | Chiara Marley, a rising senior at Miramonte High School in Orinda, has been awarded a National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y) scholarship for 2015-16. Marley will study Chinese in Suzhou, China, for the summer.
Marley is one of only 620 competitively selected students from across the United States who will receive a scholarship to study Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Persian, Russian, or Turkish overseas this year. While in China, Marley will receive formal instruction and informal language practice in an immersion environment.
Marley has studied three years of Mandarin at Miramonte High School and credits her love for languages and culture to her parents, who enjoy family trips abroad and together speak seven languages in all. She is excited to live with a host family in Suzhou, as well as attend a Chinese high school there. Marley looks forward to eating new foods, becoming a more proficient speaker and engaging with other students who share her passion for Chinese language.
The NSLI-Y program seeks to increase the number of Americans who can engage with native speakers of critical languages. NSLI-Y is administered by American Councils for International Education in cooperation with AFS-USA, American Cultural Exchange Service, AMIDEAST, Chinese Language and Culture Center of Maine, iEarn- USA, Legacy International, and Russian American Foundation. Applications for 2016-17 NSLI-Y programs are expected to be available at www.nsliforyouth.org in the early fall. For information about U.S. Department of State sponsored exchange programs visit http://exchanges.state.gov.
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA