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STARTALK grant awarded to Concordia Language Villages
for student and teacher scholarships
in Arabic & Chinese

Students and teachers of Arabic or Chinese can apply for scholarships to Concordia Language Villages this summer.  High school students participate in either a two-week or four-week session.  Teachers attend a four-credit graduate course on content-based instruction for Arabic and Chinese language classrooms.  Both programs take place in northern Minnesota in the Bemidji area during the summer of 2008.

These scholarships are made possible through a STARTALK grant awarded as part of the National Security Language Initiative (NSLI) with funds allocated by the President and supported by the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

This initiative is designed to increase the number of Americans learning critical languages and to increase America’s competence and proficiency in cultural information and understanding.   Similar funding was awarded to Concordia Language Villages in 2007.  The National Security Language Initiative decided to again provide scholarship money to Concordia Language Villages participants in STARTALK’s second year. The Language Villages is one of only 58 institutions selected in a national competition for these funds.

To apply for the scholarships, high school students (rising freshman through rising seniors) who wish to study either Arabic or Chinese need to fill out a Global Citizen scholarship form (PDF). No previous experience is necessary to attend either a residential experience or a high school credit session.

Scholarships are also available for teachers who are teaching or who plan to teach these languages. This year’s teacher seminar is entitled “Connecting Language with Content”; participants earn four graduate credits from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn.  This course on Arabic and Chinese content-based instruction can be counted toward our Master of Education in World Language Instruction.

Both programs take place in northern Minnesota in the Bemidji area during summer of 2008. 

Scholarship application for teachers (PDF).
Scholarship application for students (PDF).