Chappaqua's Claire Nam Earns U.S. Department of State Scholarship

CHAPPAQUA, NY — As a local student traveled across the globe to broaden her own understanding, she was also making her hometown proud while she helps to shape a future where we all understand each other a little bit better.

This summer, Claire Nam of Horace Greeley High School returned to New York after studying Arabic in Marrakech, Morocco for seven weeks on a National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y) Scholarship. Nam was one of just 18 students nationally awarded this full, merit state department scholarship.

NSLI‑Y is a program of the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), promoting the study of Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), Hindi, Indonesian, Korean, Persian (Tajiki), Russian, and Turkish.

The stated goals of the program include sparking a life-long interest in foreign languages and cultures, and developing a corps of young Americans with the skills to advance international dialogue in the private, academic or government sectors.

"I work at an international youth literary magazine where many of our submitters’ first language is Arabic," Nam explained. "Reading their translated stories, I learned new perspectives about the Arab experience that juxtaposed the warped narratives I read in Western media. With the recent influx of Arab refugees in New York, I’ve also witnessed an increased animosity between these two communities. I learned Arabic to understand my submitters' stories in their raw, untranslated form, and to foster productive dialogue between my domestic communities and the Arab world."

While in Morocco, Nam lived with a host family and immersed herself in the local community by engaging in geopolitical seminars with Moroccan youth, and through community service initiatives.

"I will never forget my experience in Morocco," Nam said. "The hospitality and camaraderie of the local neighborhood I lived in was unmatched, and the people there taught me the value and work it takes to foster a tight-knit community. I will cherish the relationships I’ve made there forever, and hope to bring the communal values I learned back to the United States."

Nam said she has always had a fascination for learning languages. During the program, in addition to Colloquial Arabic, she took classes in Darija and Amazigh, local languages of the North African region. At school, she studies French and at home, she speaks Korean.

She said that she aspires to someday pursue a career that involves her love for linguistics. If Nam's recent achievements are any indication, that is good news for the world in which we all live.