Year: 2017

Pre-Departure

PERSONAL BIOGRAPHY

My name is Chaya Cassell. I am a rising sophomore from Indianapolis, Indiana and I live in McGlinn hall here on campus. Currently, I am majoring in Chinese and Political Science here at the university, but my studies in both these areas began long before even high school. My parents home-schooled me all the through middle school and I spent many of these years learning Chinese off and on from a variety of teachers, including my mother. In high school, I developed a deeper interest in studying Chinese and decided to make it my focus in college. Outside of my studies, I enjoy spending time reading, swimming, and having great conversations with friends. As this is my first visit to mainland China, I am very much looking forward to this experience and am extremely grateful for the opportunity.

WHY THE SLA GRANT IS IMPORTANT TO ME

I began taking Chinese learning more seriously once I realized that a complete grasp of the Chinese language and culture was necessary for full engagement with China. China’s global influence is growing and I would like to be in a position to build on my understanding of China. The SLA grant is important to me because it provides a wonderful opportunity to accelerate my Chinese studies through the full-immersion experience. This summer session will bring me closer to fluency more quickly. Additionally, as a political science major, it will be helpful to get an inside perspective on its current society, history, and government for the purposes of analysis and further studies of East Asia.

HOPES AND DREAMS

My primary hope is to achieve a greater level of ease with speaking and reading Chinese. I am sure that the rigorous curriculum will help me get there. My secondary aim is to observe and learn about the culture and environment of Beijing through our cultural excursions and visits to Chinese companies. Through these experiences, I hope to come to a better understanding of the local Chinese perspectives on work, civil society, and global events. This may be ambitious for a first year student, but my hope is to at least begin exploring the traditional and modern Chinese attitudes, as well as their influence on the systems in place.

Finally, I hope to form and establish connections in China in the further hope that I can revisit these in the near future. I am considering devoting a greater portion of my undergraduate (and perhaps graduate) studies to China, and having connections there will allow for more rich and efficient dialogue.

MY LEARNING GOALS

1. At the end of the summer, I will have acquired greater Chinese speaking proficiency by fully engaging in conversations in the language curriculum and outside of it in all daily activities.

2. At the end of the summer, I will have familiarized myself with Chinese culture and society (at least within the Beijing region) through careful observation and questions.

3. At the end of the summer, I will be able to read and write more extensively in Chinese by reaching at least the second-year level.

Pre-Departure

I am a fourth-year student in the School of Architecture double-majoring in Italian. Born in Tema, Ghana, I moved with my family to the U.S. shortly before my fourth birthday. As an architecture student, I spent a year abroad studying and falling in love not only with Italian architecture, but also with Italian language and culture. However, as the program was not meant to be immersive, I sought to have a more comprehensive and deliberate Italian education.

The Summer Language Abroad is important to me because it will be another opportunity to learn more about the Italian way of life and to integrate myself into their society. It will be another important way to prepare myself for moving there following graduation.

I hope this opportunity will allow me to improve my reading and grammatical language skills. I also hope it can help me to open myself up to being more outgoing in a setting where I may not know anyone. I hope it will give me the confidence in my abilities so that I feel able to strike up conversation with strangers.

My specific learning goals for language and intercultural learning this summer are to deepen my advanced reading comprehension, broaden my vocabulary, increase my spoken fluency, strengthen my grammatical skills, and have an overall greater sense of cultural awareness. My Italian fluency depends largely on my exposure to the language, and an immersive experience will greatly increase my fluency. In addition to on-campus courses, I want to utilize summer months through the SLA Grant to continue exposing myself to Italian both formally and informally.

My plan for maximizing my international language learning experience is to fully engage in the coursework that ItaliaIdea has to offer as well as extracurricular opportunities. Additionally, I’d like to make some friend who only speak Italian, that way I am forced to speak it with them!