My name is Claire van Stolk and I am a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. I plan on majoring in Linguistics with a possible double major/minor in Physics with Astronomy or French. I come to this cohort with 10+ years of learning French and some very rudimentary Dutch.  I am avid reader who loves American history and knows plenty of strange U.S. President facts. I enjoy expressing myself through art and my writing. I have a passion for learning languages, and like my ideas and beliefs about the world to be challenged. 

My name is Abdel Diab. I was born and raised in Jordan and I moved to the United States when I was thirteen. My family currently lives in Dallas, Texas. My passion lies at the intersection of healthcare and business. I am currently a Sophomore majoring in either Business or Economics and on the pre-med track. My continuous pursuit of learning new languages is a product of my passion for learning about other cultures. Language is the best mode for accessing the deeper parts of culture that are not as accessible otherwise. Outside of school, my hobbies are weightlifting and soccer.  

My name is Courtney Callahan and I am a senior majoring in Biology and Spanish/Portuguese. I am from Orange, CA (near L.A.), but I was born in Canton, OH. I have a passion for medicine and foreign language; I hope to combine these passions by working as a physician abroad. I have a lot of familiarity with Spanish and Portuguese, but I can read a little French as well. In my free time, I love practicing more uncommon languages on Duolingo such as Hawaiian and Gaelic.I am obsessed with anything rose scented and I adore Cuban food! 

Hello, I’m Mary! I am a fourth-year student majoring in East Asian Studies with a Global Development minor. I plan on entering the field of global development with a focus on education and literacy for refugees, specifically focusing on women and children. I am currently studying Chinese, but I am also working on an honors thesis with heavily relies on Korean sources and interviews. Between working on my thesis, my classes, and a few part-time jobs, I also love volunteering as an ESL teacher to refugees in the metro-Atlanta area and watching artsy Chinese films.

Hello everyone! My name is Sydney Warner and I am a first-year here at Emory. I plan on majoring in Environmental Sciences and Spanish (pre-med). I love language and culture and hope to include more of it in my time at Emory. I have been studying Spanish for five years and plan to be fluent by the end of my college career. I also plan to learn Italian, Portuguese, French, ASL, and Arabic. Global competency is very important and it is something I feel everyone needs to be exposed to at some point in their lives. I look forward to seeing how this cohort approaches global themes and am glad to be a part of it!

I am a fourth year Emory undergraduate student double majoring in Linguistics and French. I hope to pursue graduate school in Second Language Acquisition next year, which demonstrates my passion for studying how people learn languages. I have studied French, Spanish, and Italian at Emory, and I have studied Latin and ASL outside of Emory. My French studies led me to Paris last fall, where I took classes at Université de Paris Diderot and lived with a host family. In addition to studying languages, I enjoy hiking and cooking in my free time.

My name is Sophie Juback. I am a sophomore who transferred to Emory this year and I am majoring in Environmental Science and Japanese. I was born in Michigan but have lived in Georgia for the majority of my life. I believe it is very important to understand and learn about cultures from all over the world. I am currently studying Japanese, which I love and am very passionate about, but have studied Latin and a little of Spanish in the past. My dream is to consult international businesses on how they can implement new methods into their practices to be more sustainable and reduce their environmental footprint. I am very excited to take part in the Global Languages and Cultures Cohort and participate this blog.

I’m Seaira, and I’m graduating this spring with a major in Spanish and Linguistics. Besides Spanish, I’ve studied French, Portuguese, and Latin, and I’m currently learning Japanese. Also, I’m writing an honors thesis on the grammar of a Mayan language spoken in Guatemala called Chuj (the language in the title; it means ‘how are you?’). Through my research, I’ve been able to form relationships with indigenous people of Guatemala that migrated to the US a few years ago, and because of this I’ve been able to get involved in Latin American immigrant communities and see the issues they face. Therefore, a topic that interests me is immigration and the way that the languages of immigrants in the US are devalued. I’m really passionate about foreign language education of Anglo-Americans in order to combat this issue, and I’ve been accepted to be a high school Spanish teacher with Teach For America after I graduate. Thanks for reading!

Studying for my Japanese midterm!

Hi everybody! My name is Lucy Yates and I’m a first year student at Emory. I’m from Atlanta, Georgia, but I’ve spent a lot of summers and a gap year travelling around the world. I am currently studying Spanish, and hope to continue studying German at Emory. As of now, I’m thinking of majoring in Linguistics and History.