May 4, 2011

UCSB Graduate Student Receives U.S. State Department Language Scholarship

Rohit Singh, a doctoral student in religious studies at UC Santa Barbara, has been selected to receive a U.S. Department of State 2011 Critical Language Scholarship. He is among 575 graduate and undergraduate students who were selected from a pool of 5,200 applicants.

Singh will spend the summer in India, where he will study Urdu, the national language of Pakistan.

The State Department's Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) program was launched in 2006 to increase opportunities for American students to study critical-need languages overseas, as part of a wider effort by the U.S. government to expand the number of Americans studying and mastering these languages. The program is administered by the Council of American Overseas Research Centers and the American Councils for International Education.

Students in the CLS program are among the more than 40,000 academic and professional exchange program participants supported annually by the State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The bureau serves to promote mutual understanding and respect between the people of the United States and those of other countries.

More information about the program is available at www.clscholarship.org.

About UC Santa Barbara

The University of California, Santa Barbara is a leading research institution that also provides a comprehensive liberal arts learning experience. Our academic community of faculty, students, and staff is characterized by a culture of interdisciplinary collaboration that is responsive to the needs of our multicultural and global society. All of this takes place within a living and learning environment like no other, as we draw inspiration from the beauty and resources of our extraordinary location at the edge of the Pacific Ocean.