A Program of the U.S. Department of State
Alumni Development Fund
The CLS Alumni Development Fund (ADF) periodically offers small grants to alumni
of the CLS Program through a competitive application process. The ADF has provided opportunities for alumni to continue their language
learning, pursue career development goals, and participate in community
outreach related to CLS languages and their corresponding world
regions. Particular emphasis is placed on projects with an impact beyond
the individual applicant, reaching students, CLS alumni, or others in
their community.
The ADF is not currently open for applications.
Examples of previous Alumni Development Fund projects can be found below.
Ben Yarbrough (Chinese 2011) & Lin Yuan (Chinese 2011), 2017 ADF receipients, organized a project to provide education and outreach services for the caregivers and family members of those diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in the Chinese-speaking community in New York. The event aimed to support the linguistic and professional development of the two CLS alumni involved and promote CaringKind’s goal of in…
Ben Yarbrough
Chinese 2011
Chinese 2011
Lin Yuan
Chinese 2011
Chinese 2011
Miranda Beggin (Arabic 2017), Tallie Hausser (Arabic 2016)and Costanza Maio (Arabic 2014, 2015), 2017 ADF recipients, collaborated to provide technology that can help promote virtual language exchange program called Banaat Connect. It is an online language exchange program between Palestinian women and girls in the Jerash Refugee Camp learning English and female Arabic students from the U.S. and …
Miranda Beggin
Arabic 2017
Arabic 2017
Kiana Chan (Chinese 2015) collaborated with the Asian Pacific Health Corps at UCLA, which plans and hosts free health fairs for disadvantaged Asian Pacific Islander (API) communities. Her aim was to make health information more accessible to patients in order to empower them to maintain healthy lifestyles. With ADF funds, Kiana created 380 bilingual Mandarin/English health brochures, which were d…
Kiana Chan
Chinese 2015
Chinese 2015
Melissa Brzycki (Chinese 2013) and Stephanie Montgomery (Chinese 2013), 2016 ADF recipients, produced and recorded a podcast (“East Asia for All”) with their grant. So far they have three completed episodes available on iTunes with plans to record more on a monthly basis. They hoped to create nuanced, in-depth discussions about East Asian popular culture and media that are both entertaining and i…
Melissa Brzycki
Chinese 2013
Chinese 2013
Leona Amosah (Russian 2016), a 2016 ADF recipient, hosted an event to increase interest in the Russian department at UNC – Chapel Hill and in Russian studies generally. Leona and a fellow Russian student prepared food for the event and gave presentations on their personal experiences studying and traveling in Russia and invited other students to speak about their motivations to study Russian. Leo…
Leona Amosah
Russian 2016
Russian 2016
Niki Murphy (Korean 2015), a 2016 ADF recipient, collaborated with the Maryland Institute College of Art to organize a Korean film screening as part of Discovering Cultural Diversity in Film, a two-day film festival showcasing full-length and short films from Korea, Turkey, France, and others. With the support of ADF, Niki was able to invite filmmakers Jennifer Cho Suhr and Shirley Kim-ryu to pre…
Niki Murphy
Korean 2015
Korean 2015
Benjamin Ditter (Chinese 2016), a 2016 ADF recipient, used his award to support a series of academic colloquia at the University of Washington – Seattle that covered various topics in the humanities, all related to China and conducted in Mandarin. These events provided a platform for Mandarin-speaking graduate students to present their work and receive feedback, as well as providing practice for …
Benjamin Ditter
Chinese 2016
Chinese 2016
Calynn Dowler (Bangla 2016), Sarah Dodamead (Bangla 2016), Paige Giarmona (Bangla 2016), Deya Maldas (Bangla 2013, 2016), Marshall McCollum (Bangla 2014), and Ian Reed (Bangla 2014), 2016 ADF recipients, collaborated to create a project focused on youth education, environmental conservation, and the promotion of the Bengali language. The group’s India-based team (Dowler, McCollum, and Reed) took …
Calynn Dowler
Bangla 2016
Bangla 2016
Sarah Dodamead
Bangla 2016
Bangla 2016
Paige Giarmona
Bangla 2016
Bangla 2016
Deya Maldas
Bangla 2013
Bangla 2016
Bangla 2013
Bangla 2016
Marshall McCollum
Bangla 2014
Bangla 2014
Ian Reed
Bangla 2014
Bangla 2014
Sarah Calderone (Russian 2012), a 2016 ADF recipient, used funds allocated to her through ADF to participate in a research presentation at a roundtable at an academic conference and a student panel at her university. She presented her research at a roundtable titled “New Research and Approaches to the Study of Migration in Russia” at the annual convention of the Association for Slavic, East Europ…
Sarah Calderone
Russian 2012
Russian 2012
Katia Chaterji (Indonesian 2016), a 2016 ADF recipient, invited esteemed Javanese musician Ki Midiyanto to the University of Washington’s Seattle Campus to tune and repair their gamelan instruments and shadow puppets. The project also supported several events, including several lectures, performances, and dinners through which the campus and greater Seattle community had the opportunity to meet M…
Katia Chaterji
Indonesian 2016
Indonesian 2016