J unior nursing major Ama Kpoyizoun and sophomore management major Matthew Malena were two students of 500 from across the country to land a spot in the U.S. Department of States’s Critical Language Scholarship.

Chosen from a pool of 5,000 students nationwide, Kpoyizoun and Malena are now part of a government initiative to “expand the number of Americans studying and mastering foreign languages,” according to the Department of State.

“It was unbelievable that I got accepted, but I was also grateful for it,” Kpoyizoun said. “So now that I’m in, I’m trying to take advantage of every resource at hand.”

In tandem with their summer studies at Georgia College & State University, both students participated in the CLS Spark program for learning Mandarin Chinese from an institution based in Beijing, China. 

The program, online this summer, covered all expenses for language instruction, textbooks, learning materials and more.

Kpoyizoun, from Lithonia, Georgia, is fascinated by language. Born in Togo of West Africa, she already speaks three languages: her tribal language, Ewe, English and French.

“I hope to marry my fascination with languages to nursing,” she said. “When I was first applying for colleges, I was having difficulty choosing between language, mathematics or nursing—but I chose nursing because it would be the most difficult to learn on my own.”

She credits her mentor, Assistant Director of the Honors College Anna Whiteside, with her success in attaining access to this prestigious program.

“You couldn’t do this program without this scholarship, and Anna Whiteside was so helpful,” Kpoyizoun said. “I have to reapply and show them my growth to take the study abroad program, and I definitely plan on asking Anna for help from the first day of classes.”

Now, she’ll continue her studies within the nursing cohort. And while she can’t say she’s fluent yet, Kpoyizoun is well on her way to mastering a fourth language.
 
“It felt awesome to experience my growth because I recognized it in myself,” she said. “It wasn’t just a teacher telling me ‘You’re such a good student,’ and it felt immensely good.”

 

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