The U.S. Department of State has announced the 2025 finalists for its Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program, and three University of Tulsa students have been named recipients. Lilah Jacobs (Chinese (Mandarin) Intermediate), Brianna Marshall (Japanese Beginning), and JT Wong (Korean Beginning) will receive support to study their selected languages.
“Earning a position as a CLS finalist is an incredible opportunity for me,” said Marshall, a psychology and computer science junior. “I’m so excited to improve my language skills while learning more about a culture that fascinates me, and I truly appreciate all of the support that has helped me to get to where I am!”
The CLS Program is sponsored and overseen by the State Department and provides opportunities to a wide range of students from across the country at every level of language learning. CLS Program institutes cover approximately one academic year of university-level language coursework during an eight- to 10-week period. The program combines classroom instruction and extracurricular activities to maximize language learning opportunities.
“I’m super excited to do this program because I’ve been wanting to learn Korean since I was in high school, but I couldn’t really find a good place to learn it,” said Wong, a computer simulation and gaming senior who hopes to speak at least four languages fluently. “The CLS Program seems like the perfect place to build a strong foundation of Korean that I can use to develop my understanding even further in the future.”
A political science, economics, and Spanish senior, this will be Jacobs’ second year participating in the CLS Program, and she will travel abroad as part of her experience. “I am very thankful for the support of professors and university staff for supporting students in their endeavors to pursue nationally competitive programs and scholarships,” she said.
Besides the three finalists, three UTulsa students were named alternates, with promotion taking place on a rolling basis, usually by June 1. They are first-year computer science student Adam Asad (Arabic Beginning), political science junior Sophia Rehman (Arabic Beginning), and computer science and French sophomore Connor Sherrow (Korean Beginning).