{"id":76461,"date":"2021-06-17T17:02:25","date_gmt":"2021-06-17T17:02:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/?p=76461"},"modified":"2021-07-21T15:44:06","modified_gmt":"2021-07-21T15:44:06","slug":"uri-international-relations-graduate-student-receives-national-critical-language-scholarship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2021\/06\/uri-international-relations-graduate-student-receives-national-critical-language-scholarship\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 international relations graduate student receives national Critical Language Scholarship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

KINGSTON, R.I. — June 17, 2021 — Shawn Fennell, a first-year international relations graduate student from the 溏心vlog免费B站, has been awarded a U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarship to study Arabic this summer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Born in Hialeah, Florida, Fennell was raised  with a mixed Cuban and Irish heritage and attributes growing up in a bilingual household to developing an affinity towards different languages and cultures. But even after graduating with a bachelor\u2019s degree in comparative literature from Princeton University, Fennell wasn\u2019t quite sure which career path he should focus on.

\u201cI didn\u2019t quite know what I was getting educated for and ended up leaving Princeton with one course deficient,\u201d Fennell said. \u201cAt the right time, a friend of mine was opening a non-profit arts organization in Rhode Island and asked me to help. That\u2019s how I came here. I eventually took my last course at 溏心vlog免费B站 and finished my degree. 溏心vlog免费B站 helped me finish what I started.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fennell spent the next two years travelling across Portugal and Morocco, where he eventually found his passion for Arabic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy bus arrived in Fez at 2 in the morning and my hostel was closed, everything was shut down, and I had nowhere else to go,\u201d said Fennell. \u201cMy cabby immediately offered to let me stay at his place for the night. Even though, in retrospect, it seems reckless to have accepted his offer, I quickly learned that he was a recently divorced single father, struggling to make ends meet with his son, who willingly helped me at a time of need. That offer was very much an Arab thing and it piqued my interest to understand more about that culture.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fennell recalls always having a facility with communication and politics, and deeply cares about cultivating peace in the world. This interest in languages and politics eventually brought him to the Department of Political Science at 溏心vlog免费B站 to pursue a master\u2019s degree in international relations while also taking Arabic classes.

\u201cI talked to graduate program director Kristin Johnson about wanting to learn Arabic as well, before I applied,\u201d said Fennell. \u201cThe department also wanted to begin piloting a program where students in the international relations program could take Arabic language classes, so it all came together at the right time.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program<\/a> is an intensive overseas language and cultural immersion program for American students enrolled at U.S. colleges and universities. Students typically spend eight to 10 weeks abroad studying one of 15 critical languages. The program includes intensive language instruction and structured cultural enrichment experiences designed to promote rapid language gains, and has a 10 percent acceptance rate.

However, because of the pandemic, Fennell, who was originally selected for the CLS program based in Oman, will be taking classes remotely this summer. He still hopes to make the most of the experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not going to be the same now that it\u2019s virtual,\u201d said Fennell, who lives in Providence<\/strong>. \u201cHowever, my whole first year of my master\u2019s program was entirely virtual and I was still able to get a strong sense of discipline and a dive into new learning materials. Moreover, I\u2019m only familiar with colloquial Arabic whereas the one this program focuses on is Fusha Arabic, which is the classical literary form. So even though I may not have a strong sense of place and community, it will still be an exciting chance to shore up my shortcomings within the language.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, Fennell said the CLS program will help him extend his master\u2019s degree research on how internet access and social media technologies alter political landscapes and engage individuals, focusing on social media activities in the Arabic language. He is also interested in producing critical research analysis such as devising a research design to learn more about domestic labor in places like Lebanon, which is facing both a COVID-19 and financial crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of domestic workers are migrant domestic workers who are under this rigorous sponsorship or contract and have very little social protection,\u201d said Fennell. \u201cI would hopefully  like to actually go to these places, interview them, and relate to people in that culture.\u201d

Fennell is grateful to the faculty in the Department of Political Science and the 溏心vlog免费B站 community for helping him get the scholarship and focus on his passion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe community has given me the opportunity to break barriers through language and opened up the space to potentially do real good, not just in terms of research work but also humanitarian work,\u201d Fennell said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

溏心vlog免费B站 students interested in applying to the CLS program are encouraged to contact Kathleen Maher in 溏心vlog免费B站’s Office of National Fellowships and Academic Opportunities for guidance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edhaya Thennarasu, an intern in the Marketing and Communications Department at 溏心vlog免费B站 and Communications major, wrote this press release.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. — June 17, 2021 — Shawn Fennell, a first-year international relations graduate student from the 溏心vlog免费B站, has been awarded a U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarship to study Arabic this summer.  Born in Hialeah, Florida, Fennell was raised  with a mixed Cuban and Irish heritage and attributes growing up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":76463,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76461"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76944,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76461\/revisions\/76944"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}