Federal Way resident Kelsey Hallahan, who attends the University of Washington, was selected for the U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarship Program to study Azerbaijani in Azerbaijan during the summer of 2014.

Hallahan is among the approximately 550 U.S. undergraduate and graduate students selected for the program in 2014 to study Arabic, Azerbaijani, Bangla, Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Indonesian, Japanese, Persian, Punjabi, Russian, Turkish, or Urdu languages.

U.S. students will spend seven to 10 weeks in intensive language institutes this summer in 13 countries where these languages are spoken. The program provides fully-funded, group-based intensive language instruction and structured cultural enrichment experiences designed to increase language fluency and cultural competency. Participants are expected to continue their language study beyond the scholarship and apply their critical language skills in their future professional careers.

The program is part of a U.S. government effort to expand dramatically the number of Americans studying and mastering critical foreign languages. Selected finalists for the 2014 program hail from all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia and represent more than 200 institutions of higher education from across the United States.

During outreach activities, particular attention is paid to states/regions of the United States that have been historically under-represented in the program applicant pool and to students from diverse backgrounds and academic majors.

For more information about the program, visit www.clscholarship.org and exchanges.state.gov.