Baruch Students Win U.S. Department of State Scholarships to Study Abroad

Baruch Students Win U.S. Department of State Scholarships to Study Abroad

May 15, 2025

Two Baruch College students, Cherry Leung ('26) and Adnaan Elahi ('25), have been selected as recipients of the highly competitive Critical Language Scholarship (CLS), awarded by the U.S. Department of State. The scholarship, granted to only 600 students from a pool of 5,500 applicants nationwide, funds immersive language and cultural studies abroad.

This summer, Leung and Elahi will spend their summer abroad studying Japanese and Arabic, respectively, through the CLS Program, which lasts eight to 10 weeks. The program provides full funding and aims to develop language skills and intercultural competence-abilities that are increasingly valuable in today's global workforce.

Meet the CLS Awardees:

Cherry Leung: Combining Japanese Language Skills with Cultural Psychology

Cherry Leung, a Macaulay Honors College student majoring in psychology and English at Baruch's Weissman School of Arts and Sciences, was thrilled to win the CLS given the intense competition of the Japanese program.

"I'm deeply immersed in Japanese music and storytelling," says Leung, who began studying the language in high school.

"What made it easier for me, too, was having a background in Cantonese, and being somewhat familiar with Kanji through bilingualism. That connection of East Asian linguistics and cultural parallels made me realize I had something special, and I needed to keep going with such a skill!"

After completing the CLS, Leung plans to pursue research in Japan through the Fulbright or MEXT scholarships.

"I wish to orient my studies towards the Asian experience and artistic world, and I plan to investigate how we can make culturally informed therapy more of the norm," she explains. "There's still great need for human connection and breaking down financial and stigmatizing barriers, and language opens up an infinite amount of pathways to do this."

Adnaan Elahi: Exploring Legal Traditions from the Islamic Golden Age

Graduating with a BA in Economics and Political Science, Adnaan Elahi grew up speaking Urdu, which is heavily derived from Arabic.

Before college, he studied Turkish in Turkey through the NSLI-Y program, which is the U.S. State Department's high school counterpart to the CLS.

His interest deepened after meeting CLS Turkish participants during a joint visit to the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, saying he is "excited for this year's Arabic program in Amman, Jordan."

As a pre-law student, Elahi says learning Arabic would help him "track the development of legal, economic, and political connections between the Arab world and South Asia."

He adds, "Most legal scholarship in the United States is very Eurocentric, often ignoring perspectives from the global East. By learning Arabic, I seek to explore progressive legal systems from the Islamic Golden Age, which is a period when the Middle East thrived intellectually while much of the world remained in the Dark Ages. I hope that this will guide my research of comparative legal frameworks, as well as expand my understanding of the intersections of law, philosophy, and society."

A Resume-Building Program

The CLS Program lasts eight to 10 weeks and provides fully funded immersive summer opportunities for students to learn a foreign language and culture essential to America's engagement with the world. According to the Department of State, participants gain "critical language skills and intercultural competence, which are in demand in today's workforce and increase a student's competitiveness across career fields."

Scholarship Support for Students

Baruch College's Office of National & Prestigious Fellowships Advising helps guide students through the steps of applying for any scholarship and award that supports their academic studies.

The dedicated staff assists students in discovering and exploring numerous opportunities including Fulbright awards, Gilman International Scholarships, Jeannette K. Watson Fellowship, Freeman-ASIA scholarship, Schwarzman Scholarships, and many more.

# # #