A Program of the 
Rawan Mandwee (Arabic 2018) received a CLS Alumni Development Fund award to host the first annual Chai & Chobi: Iraqi Culture night with the Iraqi Student Association at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor in early March. The aim of the event was to provide a space for students with Iraqi backgrounds to celebrate their cultural heritage and allow those unfamiliar with it to learn about Iraqi cul…
Rawan Mandwee
Arabic 2018
Arabic 2018
With a 2020 CLS Alumni Development Fund grant, Clara Haizlett (Arabic 2017) continued the work she began on Sandstone, a podcast project that explores the relationship between the Arab World and Appalachia, which was originally supported by a 2019 ADF grant. When the pandemic changed Clara’s original plans for her project, she was able to produce several extra episodes of the podcast and create a…
Clara Haizlett
Arabic 2017
Arabic 2017
Andrew Brown (Arabic 2016) took Arabic courses to bolster his language learning specific to his journalism work covering Syria. Through this language study, Andrew was able to focus on vocabulary specific to his work, which enabled him to better communicate with colleagues, design projects, and organize trainings. He was also able to participate in the graphic design of an audio-visual series on …
Andrew Brown
Arabic 2016
Arabic 2016
Miriam Tinberg (Arabic 2012), Ashley Rivenbark (Chinese 2014), and Sana Vang (Chinese 2014), 2018 ADF recipients, used their Alumni Development Fund grant to produce a podcast on behalf of the CLS Alumni Society. The podcast is a series of interviews of CLS alumni wherein they have conversations that explore the unique stories of each alumni.
The goal of the podcast, which is an ongoing project,…
Miriam Tinberg
Arabic 2012
Arabic 2012
Ashley Rivenbark
Chinese 2014
Chinese 2014
Sana Vang
Chinese 2014
Chinese 2014
Anika Kabani (Arabic 2016), a 2018 ADF
recipient, worked with a local language cooperative to host Arabic
classes at Sanctuary for Families, the non-profit organization where she
works in New York City, NY. The Arabic classes took place weekly on
Thursdays from January 31, 2019 to March 14, 2019 for a total of seven
two-hour sessions. The sessions were offered to colleagues at her
org…
Anika Kabani
Arabic 2016
Arabic 2016
Clara Haizlett (Arabic 2017), a 2018 ADF recipient,
utilized her Alumni Development Fund grant to begin a podcasting project to
challenge common stereotypes of the Arab world. The Sandstone Podcast was
geared toward an audience in her home state of West Virginia and aimed to
provide an accessible educational source of information about the Middle East
for her fellow West Virginians and explo…
Clara Haizlett
Arabic 2017
Arabic 2017
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
Eric Young (Arabic 2015), Joshua Von Trapp (Arabic 2016), Henry Thompson (Arabic 2017) and Aaron Davis (Arabic 2015), 2017 ADF recipients, launched a series of 20 lectures delivered by thirteen different speakers in Arabic at Brigham Young University. Each lecture was preceded by a consultation with the speaker that served to help the speaker select a culturally interesting topic and tailor their…
Eric Young
Arabic 2015
Arabic 2015
Joshua Von Trapp
Arabic 2016
Arabic 2016
Henry Thompson
Arabic 2017
Arabic 2017
Aaron Davis
Arabic 2015
Arabic 2015
Elizabeth Buckner (Arabic 2008), a 2016 ADF recipient, coordinated and hosted a public event that highlighted student and faculty research that is related to refugee education, focused on the Middle East and North Africa, and, more specifically, on responses to the Syrian refugee crisis. Six speakers addressed various aspects of these issues and shared their academic works with the audience (appr…
Elizabeth Buckner
Arabic 2008
Arabic 2008
Patrick Bohnenkamp (Arabic 2015), a 2016 ADF recipient, used his funding to hold two community forums titled “Arabic: A Language of Beauty and History” at the Fort Madison Public Library in Fort Madison, Iowa. He wanted to provide an environment in which he could share his experiences with learning Arabic with his community as well as encourage dialogue. He provided Arab snacks and sweets along w…
Patrick Bohnenkamp
Arabic 2015
Arabic 2015