CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign students and recent graduates Mary Kate Buchheit, Audrey Dombro, Buyandelger Tsetsengarid, Hannah Wernecke and Priyanka Zylstra were awarded U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarships to study foreign languages this summer. A sixth student, Kaya Van Dyke, was offered a Boren Scholarship to further her studies of French.
Mary Kate Buchheit
Buchheit, of Homer Glen, Illinois, and a graduate of Lockport Township High School, was offered a Critical Language Scholarship to study Hindi. Buchheit graduated as a James Scholar honors student in May with a bachelor’s degree in speech and hearing science. She previously was awarded a Critical Language Scholarship for summer 2020 and participated in the virtual program. At Illinois, she has been involved in research on children’s language development. This fall, Buchheit will enroll in a master’s program in speech-language pathology at Vanderbilt University. Buchheit said her goals are to work with children at a public school as a speech-language pathologist.
Audrey Dombro
Dombro, of St. Paul, Minnesota, and a graduate of Highland Park Senior High School, will use her scholarship to further her studies of Urdu. Dombro received her bachelor’s degree from Illinois in agricultural and consumer economics in August, concentrating in policy, international trade and development. She was previously awarded a Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship to study Arabic in Jordan and is now proficient in the language. Dombro is currently working as a housing counselor with a nonprofit in Detroit. She said knowledge of the Urdu language will assist in her work to understand welfare systems around the world in order to better inform social policy.
Hannah Wernecke
Wernecke, of Naperville, Illinois, and a graduate of Naperville North High School, will use the award to study Turkish. Wernecke graduated as a James Scholar honors student in May with a bachelor’s degree in political science. Wernecke previously studied abroad in London during the 2020 spring semester, interning with a member of Parliament. She has been studying Turkish since fall 2019 and wrote her senior thesis on the relationship between Turkey and the European Union. Wernecke said she aspires to a career in the foreign service.
Priyanka Zylstra
Zylstra, of Chicago, received a B.A. in international and area studies at Washington University in St. Louis in 2018. At Illinois, Zylstra is pursuing a Ph.D. in South Asian history with a research focus on marital culture in diasporic Indian communities in 20th-century East Africa. She is fluent in Hindi and is studying Bangla to broaden her work. Zylstra said she plans to pursue an academic career researching and teaching about South Asian history.
The fifth recipient, Tsetsengarid, who received an undergraduate degree in global studies in May 2020, will use the award to study Russian.
The Critical Language Scholarship program is part of a U.S. government initiative to expand the number of Americans studying and mastering critical foreign language and cultural skills to enable them to contribute to U.S. economic competitiveness and national security. The program provides full scholarships to U.S. undergraduate and graduate students to spend eight to 10 weeks abroad (or online, depending on COVID-19 conditions) studying one of 15 critical languages. The program includes intensive language instruction and structured cultural enrichment experiences designed to promote rapid language gains. Scholars are expected to continue their language study beyond the scholarship and apply their critical language skills in their future careers. Approximately 550 students at U.S. colleges and universities received a Critical Language Scholarship in 2021.
Kaya Van Dyke
Van Dyke, of Ashland, Oregon, and a graduate of Ashland High School, will use a Boren Scholarship to study French as part of the Boren African Flagship Language Initiative. Through the initiative, she will undergo intensive language study through the combination of a summer domestic and academic year overseas program at the West African Research Center in Senegal. Van Dyke is a James Scholar honors student who recently completed her junior year as a global studies major. Van Dyke spent her junior year of high school as a Rotary Youth Exchange Ambassador in Belgium and after graduation was a Global Citizen Year Fellow in Brazil. She also has served as a legislative intern in Washington, D.C. Van Dyke said her long-term career interests are as a foreign service officer with the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The David L. Boren Scholarships are sponsored by the National Security Education Program, a component of the Defense Language and National Security Education Office, which is designed to build a broader and more qualified pool of U.S. citizens with foreign language and international skills. Boren Scholarships provide U.S. undergraduate with resources to acquire language skills and experience in countries critical to the future security and stability of the United States. In exchange for funding, Boren recipients agree to work in the federal government for a period of at least one year. This year, 188 students at U.S. colleges and universities received a Boren Scholarship.
“It is telling that University of Illinois recipients of these language scholarships hail from three different colleges on campus, a real testament to the international opportunities available to students from myriad disciplines. It is great to have such fine individuals representing the university in these programs,” said David Schug, the director of the National and International Scholarships Program, which offers support to University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign undergraduates and recent graduates in applying for nationally competitive scholarships.
Editor’s note: For more information, contact David Schug, National and International Scholarships Program director, 217-333-4710; topscholars@illinois.edu.
