Three College of Arts & Letters students are spending their summer studying a foreign language at an intensive study abroad institute as recipients of Critical Language Scholarships, a national scholarship program funded by the U.S. Department of State that received more than 5,000 applicants this year.

Of the more than 5,000 applicants, more than 500 students from across the country were chosen for the 2024 Critical Language Scholarship Program including College of Arts & Letters students Eleanor Pugh, Heli Sheth, and Dominick Stoops.

The Critical Language Scholarship Program provides immersive summer opportunities for American college and university students to study languages and cultures in regions that are critical to U.S. national security and economic prosperity. Students spend eight to 10 weeks learning one of 13 languages, including Arabic, Azerbaijani, Chinese, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Swahili, Turkish, and Urdu. The program promotes rapid language gains and essential intercultural fluency.

Eleanor Pugh

Pugh is majoring in Russian in the College of Arts & Letters, International Relations in James Madison College, and Anthropology in the College of Social Science. An Honors College member and University Distinguished Scholar, Pugh is studying Azerbaijani in Azerbaijan this summer.

Heli Sheth

Sheth is majoring in Nutritional Sciences in Lyman Briggs College with a minor in Korean in the College of Arts & Letters. She also is a member of MSU’s Osteopathic Medical Scholars program. Sheth is studying Korean in South Korea this summer.

Dominick Stoops

Stoops is majoring in Environmental Science and Management in Lyman Briggs College with a minor in Portuguese in the College of Arts & Letters. He is studying Portuguese in Brazil this summer.