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Dateline: 5/27/2009

GONZAGA UNIVERSITY NEWS RELEASE
Dale Goodwin, Director
Peter Tormey, Associate Director

Chinese Language Instruction for High Schoolers
Up to 20 Inland Northwest high school students entering their junior or senior years are able to take Chinese language classes at Gonzaga University this summer at a special reduced rate thanks to a $48,140 grant Gonzaga’s modern languages department has received from Startalk.

The funding allows Gonzaga to offer the program at a total cost to students of $370, which covers books, lab fee, lunches and tuition for the six-week program. 

Ben Semple, chair and associate professor of modern languages, says the high school students must hurry because the application deadline – June 17 – is approaching rapidly.

Chinese is rarely offered at the secondary level in Spokane. Gonzaga’s Startalk Program will provide one of only a few opportunities for high school students in this area to study Chinese. Startalk is a federally sponsored program intended to foster the study of less commonly taught languages, such as Arabic, Chinese, Persian and Urdu. To be eligible, students must be entering their junior or senior year of high school with a minimum grade-point average of 3.5. Application procedures are available online.

Semple and Bin Cheng, Chinese instructor, wrote the grant proposal in February and received confirmation of the award last month. Bin Cheng will be the coordinator and lead instructor for the program; Semple is the administrative director.

Startalk is a component program of the National Strategic Language Initiative (NSLI). The U.S. secretaries of State, Education, and Defense, and the director of national intelligence, collaborate in this effort designed “to dramatically increase the number of Americans learning critical need languages.”

Instruction in critical-need languages is vital to ensure U.S. security interests, maintain economic competitiveness, and foster intercultural understanding.
For further information, contact Semple at (509) 313-6721 or via e-mail.