NHS Student Earns Critical Language Scholarship

Silpa Thaivalappil (NHS’10), an international health and pre-med major at NHS, was recently awarded a Critical Language Scholarship from the U.S. Department of State and the Council of American Overseas Research Centers.

During summer 2008, Thaivalappil will study beginning Hindi at the American Institute of Indian Studies in Jaipur, India.

“Improving the health of children is crucial to global development, and it was this belief that led me to become an international health major at Georgetown,” Thaivalappil said.

“According to UNICEF, 21 percent of the world’s under-five mortality is attributed to India, where these staggering rates are mainly found in the poorest regions of northern India,” she said.

The program is part of the National Security Language Initiative, a U.S. government inter-agency effort to expand dramatically the number of Americans studying and mastering critical need foreign languages.

In the summer 2007 cycle, more than 6,000 applicants applied for the 367 scholarships available.

Students are given personal tutorials in their target language where they focus on their particular area of interest, and recipients are expected to continue their language study beyond the scholarship period and later apply their critical language skills in their professional careers.

“Having a working knowledge of Hindi alongside a full-immersion experience, as a result of this scholarship program, will greatly enhance any future work I do in this region as a public health professional,” Thaivalappil said.