Last Year's Award Winners

Mather Davidson is a Government and Middle East Studies major at Smith College. Her interests include international diplomacy, security policy, and conflict resolution. Additionally, she is a member of Smith's Varsity Soccer team and a volunteer English teacher for refugees.

Sinclair Bagwell is a Chinese and East Asian Studies major at Arizona State University. A Chinese Flagship student, she has studied in Taiwan and plans to return for for extended study as part of her Capstone Year. Clair’s career goal is to become a Foreign Service Officer, focusing on facilitating smoother transactions and providing cultural and linguistic support.

Administered by the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, the Title VIII program promotes regional expertise at the national level by funding graduate students to study the languages of Eastern Europe and the states of the former Soviet Union.

Azerbaijani 1 Lewis Poggie, Purdue University
Azerbaijani 1 Josiah Marineau, University of North Carolina
BCS 1 Emiliano Campos, University of Maryland
BCS 1 Olivia Ek, University of Houston
BCS 1 Garrett Lewis, Bowling Green State University
BCS 1 Joseph Recupero III, University of California Davis
Czech 1 Maximillian Linse, Vanderbildt University
Czech 1 Dragan Mikulin, University of Wisconsin
Estonian 1 Grayson Pettit, Indiana University
Hungarian 1 & Budapest Margaret Carpenter, Indiana University
Hungarian 1 & Budapest Gabrielle Okun, Columbia University
Hungarian 1 in Budapest Brandon Pahl, University of Wisconsin
Hungarian 1 Jack Rosswurm, Indiana University
Kyrgyz 1 Dylan Charter, Indiana University
Kyrgyz 1 Anna Givens, University of Buffalo
Latvian 1 Samantha Bodamer, University of Pittsburgh
Latvian 1 Christopher Leger, Ohio State University
Latvian 1 Jason Lindsey, St. Cloud State University
Latvian 1 Ausma Palmer, Wolters Kluwer
Lithuanian 1 Joslyn Felicijan, University of Bologna
Polish 1 Sven Joseph, University of Rochester
Russian 3 Marco Pressley, Indiana University
Russian 3 Ian Scott, University of Maryland
Russian 3 Elizabeth Tully, Columbia University
Russian 4 Brandon Szkutnik, Florida State University
Russian 5 Connor Alford, Florida State University
Russian 5 McKinsey Crozier, University of Chicago
Russian 5 Megan Finkel, New York University
Russian 5 Adam Johnson, Ohio State University
Ukrainian 1 Mary Elisabeth Elliott, University of California Davis
Ukrainian 1 Joanna Matuszak, University of Texas at Tyler

Project 'Global Officer' improves the language skills, regional expertise, and intercultural communication skills of future military officers by providing scholarships for summer language training to ROTC students. The 2024 Project GO scholars were:

Arabic Kennedy Munoz, Northern Arizona University
Arabic Jackie Pranada, University of Illinois Urbana Champagne
Chinese Joseph Freeman, Florida Southern College
Chinese Spencer Snarr, Brigham Young University
Chinese Ander Wehner, Ohio University-Main Campus
Chinese Kyler Murphy, University of Kansas
Russian Paolo Freese, University of Oregon
Russian Jake Taylor, University of North Texas
Russian Addee Wheatley, University of Idaho

Chinese in Taiwan

Chinese Abraham Condrell, University of Illinois at Chicago
Chinese Griffin Conti, Washington and Lee University
Chinese Lauren Cruz, Texas A&M University
Chinese Ian Cullen, University of Pennsylvania
Chinese Quentin Ding, Yale University
Chinese Makenna Fuller, Indiana University Bloomington
Chinese Gregory Holmes, University of Nevada - Las Vegas
Chinese Philip Huffman, University of Scranton
Chinese Erin Lee, University of Illinois at Chicago
Chinese Meghan Lehane, University of Notre Dame
Chinese Elizabeth Mills, American University
Chinese William Moran, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Chinese Sydney Preston, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Chinese Jerry Quan, Brown University
Chinese Roberts Miles, University of Notre Dame
Chinese Christie Rusli, Seton Hall University
Chinese Simon Saberon, Southern Methodist University
Chinese Dylan Sanders, Emory University
Chinese Savannah Scott, Washington University in St Louis
Chinese Lisa Raj Singh, University of Chicago
Chinese Andrew Smith, The University of Texas Austin
Chinese Mona Strodtman, Indiana University Bloomington
Chinese Christopher Wyrtzen, Duke University
Chinese Rich Xin, University of Maryland - College Park
Chinese Kaylee Zimmerman, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

Foreign Language and Area Studies Awards are funded by the United States Department of Education in support of students studying less commonly taught languages, in particular, those considered to be of critical interest to the United States. FLAS Awards promote the training of students who plan to make their careers in fields where knowledge of foreign languages and cultures is a prerequisite to success.

The 2024 Workshop's FLAS Awardees were (by their sponsoring programs):

Center for the Study of Global Change
Georgia Clarke Russian 2
Chiara Ruggieri Russian 4
Andrew Scheingold Russian 2
Nina Tarpley Russian 4

Center for the Study of the Middle East
Jefri Aalmuhammed Professional MSA
Natalie Carlson Arabic 2
Isaac Hodges Arabic 2
Vaibhav Iyengar Arabic 2
Nazla Steinberger Arabic 2

Inner Asian & Uralic National Resource Center
Kimberly Lifton Turkish 1
Emma Mares Turkish 1

Institute for European Studies
Melissa Lieffers BCS 1

Islamic Studies Program
Amantu Aerdabieke Arabic 1
Katherine Caver Russian 2
Gehong Li Arabic 1

Russian and East European Institute
Lei Lani Effort Russian 4
Leah English Russian 3
Maddie Hensley Russian 4
Cathlene Horwege Russian 2
Aleksei Rumiantsev Ukrainian 1
Dorotea Sotirovska Russian 1
Ellen Witwer Russian 3

"The Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies provides scholarships for students studying Estonian, Latvian, or Lithuanian in BALSSI, the Baltic Studies Summer Institute, which was part of the Language Workshop in 2024.

The AABS Scholarship for was awarded to Ekaterina Kokovikhina, University of Pennsylvania.

John Valente, University of Pécs Estonian 1

The HLS Scholarships are funded in part by alumni and supporters of the Workshop. Meet this year's HLS Scholarship recipients.

Japanese 2 Lanya Feng, University of Toronto
Chinese 2 Margaret Lawler, Indiana University
Chinese 2 Cohen Schulz, Indiana University
Chinese 4 India Green, Florida State University
Kyrgyz 1 Kristie Moore, University of California Berkeley
Japanese 3 Gillian Sawyer, University of Hawaii
Hungarian 1 in Budapest Lee Andrews, Indiana University
Japanese 2 Marcos Acevedo Arus, University of Texas

The CIBER Scholarship supports undergraduate business majors studying in the Language Workshop.

Kelsey Clouse Indiana University Chinese 2
James Podell Indiana University Japanese 3

The Qatar Foundation International Scholarship supports high-school juniors and seniors studying Arabic in the Language Workshop.

Fardos Osman R. Nelson Snider High School Arabic 1
Charles Monroe R. Nelson Snider High School Arabic 1

Congratulations to the winners of the 2024 student awards for Outstanding Academic Achievement. (Multiple winners in a language reflect multiple levels and multiple sections in that language.)

• Academic MSA
  • Jefri Aalmuhammed

• Arabic
  • Gia-Uyen Tran (Arabic 1)
  • Mather Davidson (Arabic 2)
  • Bossan Abdyyeva (Arabic 3)

• Azerbaijani
  • Jordan Brown

• Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian
  • Garrett Lewis

• Chinese
  • Mia McClellan (Chinese 1)
  • Noel Tumbasz (Chinese 2)
  • Campbell Lahman (Chinese 2)
  • Autumn Peper (Chinese 3)
  • Genevieve Welsh (Chinese 4) 

• Czech
  • Dragan Mikulin
    
    
•  Dutch
  • Andrew Thompson
    
    
• Estonian
  • Grayson Pettit

• Hungarian
  • Andrea Hall

• Japanese
  • Chatura Rajavelu (Japanese 1)
  • Xinrui Xie (Japanese 1)
  • Ellena Walker (Japanese 2)
  • Gillian Sawyer (Japanese 3)

• Korean
  • Ludan Yang (Korean 1)
  • Aidan Seipke (Korean 2)
  • Christopher Toar (Korean 3)
    
    
• Kurdish
  • Guosheng Qu
    
    
• Kyrgyz
  • Anna Givens

• Latvian
  • Jessica Johns

• Lithuanian
  • Joslyn Felicijan

• Mongolian
  • Lydia Orfila
    
    
• Norwegian 
  • Maria Rom

• Pashto
  • Kevin McCarthy

• Persian
  • Derick Reid (Persian 1)
  • Alicen Roberts (Persian 2)

• Polish
  • Marcel Derosier

• Russian
  • Dorotea Sotirovska (Russian 1)
  • Catherine Peterson (Russian 2)
  • Cathlene Horwege (Russian 2)
  • Elizabeth Tully (Russian 3)
  • Chiara Ruggieri (Russian 4)
  • Paolo Freese (Russian 5)

• Swahili
  • Grace Enz

• Turkish
  • Emma Mares (Turkish 1)
  • Seyedeh Bahar Saadat (Turkish 2) 

• Ukrainian
  • Aleksei Rumiantsev

• Vietnamese
  • Jasmine An

Congratulations to the winners of the 2024 student awards for Greatest Improvement in Language Proficiency. (Multiple winners in a language reflect multiple levels and multiple sections in that language.)

• Arabic
  • Jaclene Pranada (Arabic 1)
  • Natalie Carlson (Arabic 2)

• Azerbaijani
  • Lewis Poggie

• Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian
  • Elena Burger
    
    
•  Chinese
  • Rachael Brennan (Chinese 1)
  • Joseph Freeman (Chinese 2)
  • Cohen Schulz (Chinese 2)
  • Louis Mehelic (Chinese 3)
    
    
• Estonian
  • Ashley Morford

• Hungarian
  • Margaret Carpenter

• Japanese
  • Jon McBroom (Japanese 1)
  • Audrey Hanks (Japanese 1)
  • Heidi Parker (Japanese 2)
  • Weichao Xia (Japanese 3)

• Korean
  • Xinjie Wang (Korean 1)
  • Kaia O'Reilly (Korean 2)
    
    
• Latvian 
  • Samantha Bodamer

• Lithuanian
  • Jonathan Whitmore

• Mongolian
  • William Bleecker
    
    
• Norwegian
  • Jolene McNamara

• Pashto
  • Shazia Javed

• Persian
  • Ivan Shuran (Persian 1)
  • Allen Villaluz (Persian 2)
    
    
• Polish
  • Sven Joseph

• Russian
  • Elyse Eldred (Russian 1)
  • Rosemary Vannoy (Russian 2)
  • Kai Andersson (Russian 2)
  • Tuesday Shaw (Russian 3)
  • Maddie Hensley (Russian 4)
  • Adam Johnson (Russian 5) 

• Swahili
  • Giovanni Figari

• Turkish
  • Maria Zabaneh (Turkish 1)

• Ukrainian
  • Andrew Lovelass

• Vietnamese
  
  • Sean Witter