Heather Ganfield ’24 Selected for the U.S. Department of State’s Critical Language Scholarship

Through a competitive application process, the Critical Language Scholarship offers several different avenues for U.S. students to study language and culture in a native-speaker location. In 2023, Heather Ganfield ’24 was accepted to the CLS Spark initiative, through which she received beginner-level training in Arabic remotely. Following this training, she applied and was accepted to the fully funded CLS study abroad program for the summer of 2024, studying at the Arab American Language Institute in Morocco, located in Meknes, Morocco.

During her eight weeks in Morocco, Ganfield was part of a cohort that attended language classes and one-on-one tutoring sessions, also meeting with university-aged language partners for conversation practice. The cohort had opportunities to visit other Moroccan cities on weekends and participated in cultural activities like music, cooking, calligraphy, and pottery-making. Ganfield cited these community-building experiences as a highlight, along with witnessing the country’s beauty in different forms.

“They have really cool, colorful mosaics and architecture, some of which include phrases like ‘God is the greatest’ in Arabic,” Ganfield said.

Her experience was not without its challenges, however. Ganfield and the members of her cohort signed a language pledge, agreeing to only speak Arabic for the entire duration of the program. This was more challenging due to the fact that Ganfield primarily learned Modern Standard Arabic the previous summer through CLS Spark. However, Darija Arabic, which differs more from MSA than other dialects, is spoken in Morocco. Despite the difficulties and mental exhaustion she faced, she affirms that the program was worth the effort and hopes more Wheaton students will apply to CLS in the future. 

Ganfield’s fascination with languages and her desire to experience cultural immersion were key draws to the CLS program. An internship she completed with World Relief in the fall of 2022 played a significant role in her decision to apply, as well.

“I was working on their case management team with refugees,” she said. “I was using a lot of interpretation because most of the clients didn’t speak English. It was difficult because I couldn’t speak directly to them. I had to speak through someone else.”

The barrier Ganfield felt between herself and the refugees motivated her to consider studying Arabic or Swahili, two of the languages she encountered that CLS also offered programming for. 

“I wanted to choose a language that would be applicable to refugees and migrant communities in the U.S.,” she said.

Once accepted into CLS, she chose Arabic due to its linguistic characteristics, history, and religious influences.

“I have been particularly interested in migration policy and refugee policy and thought of doing immigration law,” she said. “Regardless of what my career is, it’s very important to me to be involved in migrant communities and to volunteer at refugee resettlement agencies.” 

Ganfield is already taking a step in this direction by getting involved with a refugee organization in her hometown in Minnesota, equipped with the skills and knowledge she gained during her CLS experience. She is also continuing her studies in Arabic this fall thanks to funded tutoring from the CLS Refresh program, which is for CLS alumni and runs during the school year.

—Juliana Bacote