“I was really happy. I felt really lucky and excited to have this experience,” University of Delaware alumna Elana Metz said of the moment she learned she had received an esteemed Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) to Jordan last summer.

The award took Metz to Madaba, Jordan, an ancient city in the center of the Levantine country, for two months of intensive Arabic language learning and cultural immersion.

Metz, a 2015 graduate of the College of Arts and Sciences’ international relations program with a minor in Islamic studies, had always dreamed of taking part in a language immersion program.

After spending a year abroad in Tunisia, Metz had a realization. “When I came back from studying abroad in Tunisia, I felt that I’d had an amazing experience and learned so much, but I hadn’t really had the Arabic instruction I needed,” she said. “So, I applied again to the CLS program, specifically to really focus on improving my language skills.”

By day, Metz was placed in a cohort of other Critical Language Scholars for classes on Modern Standard Arabic, Media Arabic, and ’Amia, a study of the local dialect.

“Everything was useful,” said Metz. “I learned a lot of important words for understanding the news or for reading articles. Modern Standard Arabic helped me improve my grammar and ’Amia was especially helpful for communicating with our host families.”

As a part of the program, Metz and her peers were also paired with a local speaking partner. “They were young people who were part of the host family network,” she said. “Madaba is a small town focused in the Christian community. So, we were pretty well-connected.”

After hours, Metz would spend most of her time exploring the city or getting to know her host family. “We were there during Ramadan. We would break fast with our family and, after, we would go visit with relatives or sometimes the relatives would come to us,” she said. “There would always be a lot of food, a lot of tea and a lot of sweets.”

Metz’ stay with her host family gave her a window into daily life in Jordan, allowing her to understand both the beauty of the culture and the challenges that their community faced.

“I’ve learned that people are just people. Everyone has their own funny personalities and weird family members. It is good to have insight into others’ family dynamics,” Metz said, adding that “it was really nice to be in a Muslim country, where there are really strong family ties, and to experience that, especially while people are celebrating.”

The relationships Metz formed during the program also dispelled stereotypes and generalizations associated with Arabic culture and encouraged her to become a diplomat in representing the United States.

“In Jordan, there are many refugees from different countries. Even people’s gender, age, or the color of their skin cause them to have different experiences. That is the one thing that is so great about going to a country,” she said. “You get to see the vast array of diversity in the kinds of people that live there and the experiences they’ve had, instead of painting everyone with a broad brush.”

For every question that Metz had about the local culture, her new neighbors had another. “Just as you might want to discuss what’s going on in their country, they want to discuss what is happening in yours. There were tons of opportunities for all kinds of exchanges,” she said.

Now that Metz has returned home, she works as a national organizer for Open Hillel, an organization that promotes pluralism and open-discourse on Israel-Palestine in Jewish spaces. And while she has turned her attention from the Arabic language for the moment, CLS has provided Metz with a community of peers to which she will always be connected.

“I really enjoyed the people on my program, their diverse interests and backgrounds. They are all motivated, really interesting people and I learned a lot from them. That is also a draw of this program,” she said, advising future UD participants to take advantage of the network they will inevitably build. “There are not too many people in the field. So, the people you are meeting might be your colleagues in the future. You might connect later or find that you have a shared interest. You just don’t know.”

About the Critical Language Scholarship Program

The Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program is a fully-funded language and cultural immersion program for American undergraduate and graduate students. With the goal of broadening the base of Americans studying and mastering critical languages and building relationships between the people of the United States and other countries, CLS provides opportunities to a diverse range of students from across the United States at every level of language learning.

The application for next summer’s Critical Language Scholarship Program will close on Wednesday, Nov. 16. UD Undergraduate or graduate students in any discipline are invited to apply to study one of fourteen critical languages in various locations around the globe.

To learn more about the program, visit the official website and attend a UD Critical Language Scholarship and Boren Award information session on Tuesday, Oct. 4, at 3:30 p.m., in Room 208 Gore Hall.

Those with questions are welcome to contact Lisa Chieffo, associate director for study abroad.