Emory students and alumni continue to be competitive for international Critical Language Scholarship

By April Hunt Oct. 21, 2025

The U.S. State Department, which selected four Emory University students for overseas study last summer, is again accepting applications for its Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) program.

Dozens of Emory students have been selected previously for the program, which helps Americans master foreign languages and develop cultural skills that contribute to U.S. competitiveness and national security. The application deadline for the 2026 program is Tuesday, Nov. 18.

Four 2025 finalists — junior Hannah Lo and 2025 graduates Marc Goedemans, Lydia King and Lucas San Miguel — joined 47 previous Emory students and alumni selected for the CLS intensive summer program, which offers the equivalent of a full year of language study in just a few months.

No prior study is required for many of the languages, though popular choices such as Chinese and Arabic call for at least one year of study — something all Emory undergraduate students can access.

Students also can review an informational session from the National Scholarships & Fellowships Program (NSFP) in Emory College’s Pathways Center. Those already registered with the NSFP can access the recording via Canvas, while others must register to access it and other award resources.

“Emory students from all disciplines are exceptional candidates for this scholarship, not just because of our language offerings but because of student interest in applying multi-lingual skills to their professional trajectory,” says NSFP director Megan Friddle.

Emory College of Arts and Sciences offers 19 curricular languages, from Hebrew and Hindi to Persian and Portuguese. The Structured Independent Language Study program offers additional free courses, such as American Sign Language and the Cantonese dialect of Chinese.

Meet the Eagles who completed the 2025 Critical Language Scholarship program

Lo, a history major with a minor in quantitative sciences, was a Chinese language finalist to study at Dalian University of Technology in China. When the Chinese language program was eliminated for the year, Lo pivoted to serve as an immigration intern with Asian Americans Advancing Justice and conducted research with Emory history professors Yami Rodriguez and Chris Suh. She plans to reapply to the program for next summer.

Three young women standing in front of a waterfall

Lydia King (right) studied Swahili in Tanzania through the Critical Language Scholars program.

Goedemans, who served as a research fellow with Emory’s Center for Law and Social Science and an election monitor with The Carter Center, studied Russian at Daugavpils University in Latvia. He graduated with honors in May with a degree in international studies and comparative literature and is now pursuing policy work.

A Dean’s Scholar and Oxford College graduate, King learned both English and Kinyarwanda growing up in Rwanda. She studied Swahili (Kiswahili) at MSTCDC in Tanzania, quickly moving from a beginner to an advanced speaker by using only that language both on campus and at her host family’s house. King, who graduated with degrees in linguistics as well as anthropology and human biology, is now pursuing a master’s of research in social anthropology at Scotland’s University of St Andrews as a Robert T. Jones Scholar.

A Robert W. Woodruff Scholar, San Miguel had studied Chinese through a similar State Department program for high school students and as a CLS finalist for advanced language study after his first year at Emory. In 2025, after his experiences studying basic and advanced Chinese, San Miguel studied advanced Portuguese at Pontifical Catholic University in Brazil. He graduated with degrees in economics and Chinese studies, and is now pursuing a master’s in global sustainable development at the University of St Andrews as a Robert T. Jones Scholar.

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Meet the Eagles who completed the 2025 Critical Language Scholarship program

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