A Southeastern Oklahoma State University Honors Program student is the recipient of a Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) from the U.S. Department of State.
Chelsea Maxwell, a freshman from Broken Bow, will travel to Rio de Janeiro for eight weeks this summer to study Portuguese. Maxwell is a computer information systems major, with a minor in computer science.
Maxwell’s mother and two brothers are Southeastern graduates.
“I’ve always wanted to travel abroad and see the world, but didn’t know if I would ever have the opportunity,’’ said Maxwell, who is Choctaw. “This scholarship will afford me that opportunity. I was interested in going to Rio de Janeiro and Brazil because of the history of the colonization there and the similarity to the colonization of Native Americans here in the United States.’’
The CLS program is exceptionally competitive, with a 10% acceptance rate out of 5,000 applications from all 50 states plus U.S. Territories. The scholarship supports Americans learning languages deemed to be of critical importance to national economic, diplomatic, and defense interests.
