Intermediate-High/ World Learning Center in Muscat, Oman/ 2011

I am currently a Junior at the University of Colorado Boulder studying International Affairs with an emphasis on the Middle East.

The CLS Program was recommended to me through a friend who had previously participated in the Arabic program.

Through my adult life I have watched my nation’s relationship with the Muslim and Arab-speaking world become arguably the most important dynamic of U.S. foreign policy today. My personal interest in the Arab and Muslim world was sparked by a summer spent in Pakistan in 2005. Upon returning home, I devoured books on Islam and its history to gain a better understanding of the culture. Studying Islamic history expanded my interests to include the Arab world, its relationship to Western civilization, and its position in current global affairs.
The relationships I formed while traveling in Pakistan and other developing countries have had lasting impact on me, putting human faces to the headlines I read everyday. Relinquishing this anonymity and replacing it with the knowledge that behind those headlines lay individuals every bit as valuable as myself, instills in me a greater sense of global responsibility. There is a correlation between poverty and the growing patterns of violence within developing regions of the Arab speaking world. A career geared towards better understanding that correlation and striving to provide the youth in these areas with the necessary tools to combat poverty simultaneously satisfies my humanitarian desires and my vested interest in our nation's security. In an era when cross-cultural communication is immensely important, desire to learn Arabic is a key component of my overall strategy.

My professional ambitions continue to evolve, however, their core remains unchanged. Whether through existing U.S. Governmental programs, NGO’s, or local programs, I hope to work overseas with local communities and religious leaders to establish effective youth-based programs in impoverished areas. Built on the idea that the youth are the solution to tomorrow’s problems, these programs should help to provide viable avenues for this next generation to become global citizens and successful leaders. Fluency in Arabic, combined with in depth understanding of the Islamic faith, is requisite for effective dialogue with local leaders that sustainable programs like these would depend on.

I am currently studying Arabic as a Junior at CU Boulder. I am preparing to spend Spring 2012 studying Arabic in Amman, Jordan and I look forward to being culturally and linguistically submerged once again.

I plan to study Arabic avidly throughout the remainder of my education. Upon entering graduate school I hope to have reached a level of proficiency that would allow me to conduct overseas research in the Arabic language while focusing on learning a specific dialect. Ultimately I want to live and work in an Arab speaking country.

I would say that participation in the CLS Program reinforced my commitment to my goals rather than changing them. My time spent in Oman bolstered my connection to the Arab world and strengthened my dedication to the language.

The amazing Omani people and what could only be described as their “aggressive hospitality.”

Omani wedding parties are segregated by gender with separate parties for men and women and the bride and groom never actually see each other during the ceremonies.

A fellow student and I were invited by one of our professors to attend a wedding (it may actually be impossible to visit Oman without being invited to a wedding). In the week prior to the ceremony we repeatedly asked our teacher whether it would be more appropriate for us to wear American style suits or dishdashas (the standard Omani attire) to the event. He not only assured us that suits would be “Munasib”, or appropriate, he insisted that we wear them. Predictably, we arrived at the outdoor ceremony greeted by a crowd of roughly one thousand men dressed identically in their sparkling white dishdashas. We could not possibly have been more conspicuous, much to the entertainment of our mischievous professor who seemed overly satisfied with the wardrobe advice he had given us. “Do you think people can tell we are not Omani?” became the running joke throughout was undoubtedly one of the most memorable nights of my life. In a culture that emphasizes showering guests with hospitality, sometimes sticking out isn’t such a bad thing.

“How are your goats and camels?” This local greeting has turned out to be a fantastic ice-breaker. When accompanied by other traditional greeting when meeting someone for the first time it never fails to put a smile on the recipients face.

At age twenty-nine I decided to enter the academic world. My path leading to this decision was rather unconventional. No one in my family attended college and little thought was given to academics beyond high school. At nineteen, I pulled my Kansas roots to go “on the road” and pursue a passion for rock climbing. The next decade was spent in perpetual motion, living the vagabond life in Yosemite National Park, the Utah Desert, and British Columbia.
Through seasonal work as a climbing guide, commercial fisherman, and with modest help from climbing sponsorships, I was able to fund numerous expeditions overseas. Though climbing ambition gave the original shape to these expeditions, my love for foreign cultures became the true draw. Since settling down to college in Fall 2009 I have been a full time student while continuing to train and climb as a sponsored climber for The North Face.