Olivia Van Hoey of Arlington recently studied Mandarin Chinese Mandarin for seven weeks in Taiwan through a National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI‑Y) scholarship.
NSLI‑Y is a program of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs that promotes the study of Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), Hindi, Indonesian, Korean, Persian (Tajiki), Russian or Turkish – languages seen as vital to U.S. national-security interests.
Van Hoey competed with thousands of applicants from high schools across the U.S. to join approximately 400 students to win a scholarship for a NSLI‑Y summer overseas program. While in Taiwan, he was immersed in the local culture and communities, studied Chinese and interacted with local peers.
The program administered by American Councils for International Education.