[459] MTSU Senior Selected By U.S. State Department To Study Overseas This Summer

May 5, 2010
Contact: Tom Tozer, 615-898-2919

MTSU SENIOR SELECTED BY U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT TO STUDY OVERSEAS THIS SUMMER

Adrian Mackey, a Middle Tennessee State University senior from Nashville majoring in international relations and anthropology, has been selected for a U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarship for the summer of 2010. Mackey’s scholarship will take him to Amman, Jordan, where he will continue studying the Arabic language.
“I’ll be leaving June 13 and coming back August 13 and will be studying about 20 hours a week,” Mackey said. “Last spring I studied in the United Arab Emirates and took Arabic there. The Middle East is prominent in many issues today, and it’s also got a lot of diversity and ethnic groups. It’s an area that doesn’t get a lot of positive attention.”
While Mackey admits that the Middle East does have its negative aspects and perceptions, the area offers a wealth of job opportunities, particularly for individuals who have background in the languages spoken there.
“I wouldn’t mind working over there,” Mackey says, “but I’m sticking around for one more year of school. I’ll graduate in the spring of 2011, and I want to keep my options open. Maybe I’ll teach English in the Middle East.”
Mackey is one of 575 undergraduate and graduate students selected by the U.S. State Department for the scholarship. The program received more than 5,300 applications. Students around the nation will spend seven to 10 weeks in intensive language institutes in 15 countries where various languages are spoken, including Arabic, Chinese, Persian, Punjabi, Urdu and Turkic. The summer program will comprise Mackey’s fourth year of the Arabic language.
The program was begun in 2006 to increase opportunities for American students to study critical-need languages overseas and is part of a wider U.S. government effort to expand the number of Americans studying and mastering critical-need languages.
“Arabic is hard,” Mackey said, emphasizing the point with a nod. “The grammar is difficult, but in many ways it’s easier than learning English. We have a large Arabic population in Tennessee.”
Mackey lives in Madison with his grandparents, Harold and Aline Smith. He graduated from Maplewood Comprehensive High School in 2006 and was valedictorian of his class.

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