Idahopress.com
By Marie Galyean for the Idaho Press-Tribune
Chloe Glass will live with family in Morocco this summer, while studying language and the culture of the country.
Lots of fun and festivals coming up in Treasure Valley and thereabouts. … Put the God and Country Festival on your calendars for next week, June 26. Although I sometimes feel nostalgic for a time when the event was held in Lakeview Park, with lavish picnic baskets and shady trees, the Ford Idaho Center is a great spot for the sensational fireworks. This year will feature the music of “Unspoken,” and Maddie Zahm, plus speaker Nick Vujicic. All for free!
KUNA GRAD TO STUDY ARABIC IN MOROCCO
Chloe Kathleen Glass, a recent Kuna High School graduate, was selected out of more than 3,300 applications from around the United States, to be awarded a National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y) scholarship for 2018-19, by the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
This means Chloe will be studying Arabic in Morocco for this summer. Chloe said her mother fostered her interest in journalism and intercultural learning.
“From the time I was in elementary school, I was looking over my mom’s shoulder as she read the newspaper,” and watching the evening news, Chloe said. “By the end of 9th grade, I was the photo editor of my school’s yearbook staff and an intern at GirlSense and NonSense (where I’m now a managing editor).” In the 11th grade she had been offered a full scholarship from World Learning, for a program called Experiment Leadership Institute, to study public health and community development in India during the summer.
When she returns home this summer she plans to focus on global studies and political science in college. According to Rebecca Berman from the American Councils for International Education, Chloe is one of approximately 670 students who will study Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Persian, Indonesian or Russian overseas. While in Morocco, Chloe will receive formal language instruction, live with a host family and experience the local culture as part of an “immersion” environment.”
The NSLI-Y program is part of a multi-agency government initiative launched in 2006 to improve Americans’ ability to communicate in select critical languages to advance international dialogue and increase American economic global competitiveness. It is administered by American Councils for International Education in cooperation with AFS-USA, American Cultural Exchange Service, and other organizations such as the Russian American Foundation, Stony Brook University and the University of Wisconsin.
Applications for 2019-20 NSLI-Y programs are expected to be available at www.nsliforyouth.org in the late summer. For information about all U.S. Dept. of State exchange programs for American high school students, visit https://exchanges.state.gov/highschool.
IDAHO STUDENTS COMPETE AT NATIONAL CONTEST
Students from across Idaho traveled to Washington, D.C. last week to compete at the National History Day Contest at the University of Maryland. More than 450 students and teachers from around Idaho competed at the College of Idaho in April and the top 54 earned a spot at the national competition.
These students have been working for months and many have spent more than 80 hours researching a historical topic, creating a website, a documentary, exhibit, paper or performance to showcase their research. Topics are as diverse as the “Partition of Palestine,” “Cecil D. Andrus’s Fight for Idaho’s Environment” and the “Women Airforce Pilots of World War II.”
Tim Hebdon, a 7th grader from South Middle School in Nampa, was selected to display his exhibit about the Bear River Massacre of 1863 at the Smithsonian U.S. History Museum in Washington. He and his teacher, Daniel Neef, will share this piece of Idaho history with the thousands of tourists who visit the museum in the summer.
Tori Simon, a 9th grader from Renaissance High in Meridian, created a documentary about the 54th Massachusetts Regiment that was nominated to be shown at the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Because of generous grants from the Nagel Foundation, Wells Fargo, the Juetten Family and other donors, the Idaho State Historical Society was able to provide $500 scholarships to 24 of the students to help pay for their trip, according to Ryan Gerulf, development director for the Historical Society.
Marie Galyean writes the Front Porch column for the Idaho Press. Email your local news, club activities, honors and other “tidbits” to community@idahopress.com.
