{"id":12827,"date":"2022-08-25T12:47:04","date_gmt":"2022-08-25T16:47:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/?p=12827"},"modified":"2022-08-26T10:00:56","modified_gmt":"2022-08-26T14:00:56","slug":"elizabethtown-college-student-laura-cardona-named-critical-language-studies-scholar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/2022\/08\/25\/elizabethtown-college-student-laura-cardona-named-critical-language-studies-scholar\/","title":{"rendered":"Elizabethtown College Student Laura Cardona Named Critical Language Studies Scholar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elizabethtown College International Business and Political Science major Laura Cardona \u201923 has been granted a Critical Language Scholarship (CLS)<\/a> to study Mandarin through the U. S. Department of State\u2019s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, CLS Program.<\/p>\n

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While working at BlackRock, Cardona had the opportunity to go to the New York Stock Exchange to watch the closing bell.<\/p><\/div>\n

This highly competitive, prestigious scholarship is a U.S. government initiative for expanding the number of Americans studying and mastering critical foreign languages. Each summer, CLS provides rigorous academic instruction in fifteen languages that are crucial to America’s national security and economic prosperity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am honored to receive the Critical Language Scholarship through the U.S. Department of State to study Mandarin,\u201d Cardona, who is fluent in English, Spanish, and proficient in French said. \u201cI have always enjoyed learning new languages and finding the connections between language and culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cardona\u2019s studies will take place through a pilot virtual initiative called CLS Spark, a program supported by the American Councils for International Education<\/a>. Designed during the pandemic to leverage best practices in online language learning, CLS Spark allows American students to study critical languages virtually when they may not have access to language learning on their campuses or the ability to travel overseas.<\/p>\n

Through immersing themselves in the language and gaining cultural experiences alongside international communities, Cardona and the fellow members of her CLS cohort will improve their mastery of all four modalities in these languages (listening, speaking, reading, and writing).<\/p>\n

Cardona\u2019s interest in the CLS program was developed through both her studies at Etown, as well as her interdisciplinary approach toward gaining experience outside of the classroom by completing five internships, each in different sectors. These opportunities have included serving as an ETF & Index Investing Summer Analyst at the financial institution, BlackRock in New York City, as well as interning in Congress through the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) Internship program where Cardona engaged with diplomats and policy experts in D.C.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was through my experience in the CHCI program that I saw firsthand the importance of building understanding between the U.S. and China,\u201d Cardona said. \u201cLearning Mandarin through the CLS program will prepare me to contribute to citizen diplomacy and facilitate understanding in my future vocation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The strong student-mentor bonds found on Etown\u2019s campus have encouraged Cardona to pursue selective opportunities such as CLS and her various internships.<\/p>\n

\u201cI chose to come to Etown and major in both International Business and Political Science because I am fascinated by the intersections between business and policy,” said Cardona, who is also a Stamps Scholar<\/a> and member of the Etown Momentum<\/a> and Honors<\/a> programs. “At Etown, I have been fortunate to be mentored by several professors \u2013 within both of my degree programs.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cProfessors at Etown genuinely care about their students,\u201d she said. \u201cI have found that when I have a goal, no matter how far-reaching it may seem, I can rely on my professors for advice and support throughout the process.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Cardona\u2019s selection marks the second time that an Etown student has been named a CLS Scholar, the first being Tyler Butkus \u201917 in 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elizabethtown College International Business and Political Science major Laura Cardona \u201923 has been granted a Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) to study Mandarin through the U. S. Department of State\u2019s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, CLS Program. This highly competitive, prestigious scholarship is a U.S. government initiative for expanding the number of Americans studying and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":150,"featured_media":12829,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[178],"tags":[1574,197,138,96,293],"class_list":["post-12827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-achievements","tag-critical-language-scholarship","tag-elizabethtown-college","tag-international-business","tag-internships","tag-political-science","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/150"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12827"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12839,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12827\/revisions\/12839"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}