Courtesy of Cassandra Long. Burnett Honors College student Cassandra Long will study Mandarin Chinese next year in Beijing.
UCF Junior to Study in China With National Security Program Scholarship
by Chad Binette (cbinette@mail.ucf.edu)
ORLANDO, June 22, 2005 -- Through a federal program aimed at improving national security, University of Central Florida junior Cassandra Long has received a $20,000 scholarship to study Mandarin Chinese next year at the Beijing Foreign Studies University in China.
Recipients of the National Security Education Program's David L. Boren Undergraduate Scholarship study languages and cultures that are critical to U.S. national security but are rarely pursued in study-abroad programs. The scholarships are given to about 150 students nationwide each year.
After recipients graduate, they are required to work for one year at the U.S. Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security or Department of State, or in another federal intelligence-related job.
Long, a student at UCF's Burnett Honors College, will leave for Beijing in August and will spend a year in China. She will study Mandarin and research the effects of the Chinese culture on Singapore's economy. About three-fourths of Singapore residents are Chinese. Long then will return to UCF for her senior year and write an honors thesis about her research.
Long's family lives in Singapore, and she interned at the U.S. embassy there last summer. Long grew up in Stuart and moved to Taipei, Taiwan, shortly after her freshman year of high school.
Long has studied Mandarin for one year at UCF. One reason she wants to learn to speak Mandarin fluently is so that she can communicate in the native language of two baby sisters recently adopted by her parents. She also eventually wants to work as a U.S. Foreign Service officer in Asia.
"I want to make sure that we're able to communicate well with China," she said. "China should not be seen as a threat; it should be seen as an economic partner, a friend."
For more information on the David L. Boren Undergraduate Scholarships, go to www.iie.org/programs/nsep/nsephome.htm.
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