Park Junior High School Awards Foreign Language Camp Scholarships

Olivia Grefenstette and Ann Hepp, seventh grade students at Park Junior High School in La Grange Park, were recently awarded Emily Asli Kandemir scholarships. The scholarships are for a two-week immersion foreign language camp at Concordia Language Villages in Minnesota this summer. Since 2004, students at Park Junior High are offered the opportunity to participate in the Kandemir scholarship contest to attend the two-week immersion camp. The scholarship is named after 13-year-old Emily Asli Kandemir, a Park student and La Grange resident, who was tragically killed in a traffic accident in July 2004. As a way to honor her life, passion for language and enthusiasm to learn about other cultures, Kandemir’s family organized this scholarship opportunity for Park Junior High students.

Students were invited to apply for the scholarships in their French or Spanish classes. This year, 26 seventh and eighth graders applied for the two scholarships and submitted a hand-written essay for consideration. Completed applications are then submitted to a scholarship committee at Concordia Language Villages. The scholarship committee selects two students to receive full tuition to the two-week language immersion camp of their choice.

“I believe Emily would be proud to know that she has been a part in changing many lives and creating many lovers of language,” said Christine Boyde, French teacher and chair of the scholarship process. “The Park Junior High community is fortunate that her family continues to support and recognize our students in this way.”

Additionally, a third Park student, eighth grader Ema Bothwell, was awarded a scholarship from the Omron Foundation based in Hoffman Estates. Omron Foundation has supported scholarships for interested students to attend two-week visits to the "Mori no Ike" Japanese language village during it's summer program.

Scholarship recipients can select to immerse themselves in one of the following languages at the camp: Arabic, Chinese, Danish, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Russian, Spanish or Swedish. Each language is taught in an architecturally authentic village. Students not only speak the language of the village, but they participate in activities and nosh on cuisine that is common in that region. Villagers participate in language learning groups that focus on communication in the Village setting, from morning to evening. Concordia Language Villages is a program of Concordia College, located in Moorhead, Minnesota.

Photo Caption: Park Junior High School students (left to right) Olivia Greffenstette, Ann Hepp and Ema Bothwell, recipients of the Emily Asli Kandemir and Omron Foundation scholarships.