Upper St. Clair Senior Soon Off To Taiwan

UPPER ST. CLAIR, PA - When it comes to his post-high school education, Tyler Besselman isn’t staying local. The soon-to-graduate Upper St. Clair High School senior is going halfway around the world.

Besselman recently was awarded a National Security Language Initiative for Youth Scholarship for 2017. He leaves in August for Wenzao University of Languages in Kaohslung, Taiwan, where he’ll study until next June.

Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, the scholarship program provides merit-based scholarships for high school students and recent high school graduates to learn less commonly taught languages in summer and academic year overseas immersion programs.

According to its website, the program’s goals include fostering a lifelong interest in foreign languages and cultures, and developing a corps of young Americans with the linguistic skills and cultural knowledge to promote international dialogue and support American engagement abroad.

Scholarships are available annually to those interested in intensively studying Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Persian or Russian overseas. Besselman will stay with a Taiwanese host family while receiving 14 hours of Mandarin Chinese per week. He’ll also receive four hours of elective university courses, one-on-one Chinese tutoring and will experience monthly cultural activities and trips.

Photo via Upper St. Clair School District.