FCS Student to Study in South Korea This Summer

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Congratulations to ninth grader Ava Duane, who won a merit scholarship through the prestigious National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y) program. Ava will be living in Seoul, South Korea, with a host family and studying Korean for six weeks this summer. She was one of only a handful of students across the country to win an NSLI-Y scholarship.

Launched in 2006 to promote critical language learning among American youth and sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, NSLI-Y “immerses participants in the cultural life of the host country, giving them formal and informal language practice and sparking a lifetime interest in foreign languages and cultures.”

“I’ve always really liked languages,” explained Ava, who thoroughly enjoys studying Spanish at FCS and has been learning Korean independently. Last summer, she took part in Concordia College’s month-long “Korean Language Village” immersion program in Minnesota, where she learned about the NSLI-Y program. For over a year, she has been attending Korean language classes every Saturday, from 9:30 am to 2 pm, at the Dasom Korean Academy in Philadelphia. After language classes, in the afternoon, Ava also participates in a Korean dance performance program at the Academy.

Ava became interested in Korean culture through the internet, where she discovered Korean pop music, known as “K-pop.” She explained, “K-pop is a very important part of Korean culture. South Korea has focused on using its pop culture to place itself as a country of growing importance. It became the primary entertainment producer for Asia, and, more and more, Korean popular culture has seen growing popularity in Europe, Australia, and the Americas. The two main entertainment exports of Korea are TV shows and music. These are watched all over the world.”

Ava is a member of the K-pop dance group at the Dasom Korean Academy. All K-pop songs come with a highly choreographed dance, she explained. “What my dance group does is we go around to Korean culture festivals and high school events to perform K-pop dances to get people interested in the greater Korean culture.”

“Ava inspires teachers and students in many ways,” said Ryan Namkoong, Director of the Dasom Korean Academy. “She awakens other students with her passion for Korean language and culture.”

In late June, Ava will travel to Detroit to meet up with other NSLI-Y students heading to Seoul. They will take part in a one-day pre-departure immersion program, before traveling to South Korea as a group.

When asked what she’s most looking forward to about this summer’s experience, Ava said, “I’m pretty confident that I’ll learn a lot and that I’m going to really enjoy my family, but I’m most excited to be truly immersed in the culture and the language.”

Based with her host family for the six-week period, Ava will attend daily classes where Korean will be the primary language of instruction, and she will be expected to speak only Korean in class and during program-related language events.

“Ava has a genuine appreciation for her role in our global community,” said FCS Middle School teacher Jacob Fogel, who was happy to provide a recommendation for her NSLI-Y application. “It’s always impressive to me when a high school student can treat another culture with the same respect as her own, and I am excited to see how much she learns from this outstanding opportunity.”

Ava is the second Friends’ Central student in two years to win an NSLI-Y scholarship. Last summer, Emma Verges ’17 went to China to study Mandarin Chinese through the same program. Ava was inspired in part by talking to Emma about her experience. “It seemed like a really good program. I thought it would be the best step in my language journey,” said Ava, who promises to take plenty of pictures and to report back on her six weeks in Seoul!