Gabe Roth, White Salmon local and recent graduate of Western Washington University, received the Department of State Critical Language Scholarship to study abroad in Turkey for seven to eight weeks this summer.
Gabe Roth, White Salmon local and recent graduate of Western Washington University, received the Department of State Critical Language Scholarship to study abroad in Turkey for seven to eight weeks this summer.
WHITE SALMON — This summer, White Salmon local Gabriel Roth is spending seven to eight weeks immersing himself in Turkish language and culture in Ankara, Turkey, as part of the U.S. Department of State (DOS) Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program.
According to a press release, Roth, a graduate of Columbia High School (CHS), was one of approximately 500 American students selected from more than 5,000 applicants to study one of more than a dozen critical languages, overseas or virtually, for the summer of 2024.
The program is part of a U.S. government effort to increase the number of Americans studying critical languages across the globe, allowing its scholars to gain language and cultural skills enabling them to “contribute to U.S. economic competitiveness and national security,” said the press release.
Roth is a recent graduate of Western Washington University (WWU), earning a bachelor’s degree in history and French. While an exciting opportunity, Roth is no stranger to traveling, with this trip to Turkey being his second. According to Roth’s father, Dave, Roth traveled to Izmir, Turkey, in 2019 as a high school student thanks to the local White Salmon Rotary club. Roth also spent a year abroad in Lyon, France, while attending WWU.
In an email to Columbia Gorge News, Roth shared that he learned about the CLS program while working at the WWU Education Abroad Office, where he was encouraged to apply.
According to his travel blog, GabesLifeAbroad (gabeslifeabroad.wordpress.com), Roth is hard at work in his classes at Ankara University studying the Turkish language, feeling he is picking it up at a much more rapid pace than he had during his first visit when he was 17 (noting he recently met a personal goal of learning “if” prepositions). He is also taking the opportunity to spend time with friends and meeting new people — including members of his host family and his Turkish language partner Talha — visiting various landmarks and museums, attending a concert and even traveling to the U.S. Embassy and meeting U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, Jeff Flake.
“I was happy to find this beautiful country much the same as I had left it, with the only major changes being that I am in Ankara right now instead of Izmir and that I’m studying intensively at the university level rather than goofing off at the high school one,” Roth wrote in his blog. “My half-forgotten Turkish has been coming back to me at a whirlwind pace, and I’m advancing far faster than my 17-year-old self could ever have hoped for. For that, as for much else, I am very grateful.”
According to the press release, the 2024 CLS recipients came from all 50 U.S. states — as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico — from more than 200 institutions of higher education. For more information on the CLS program, go to clscholarship.org.
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