Charting New Territories

Neena Whitlow

Neena Whitlow has moved around for most of her life. She was born in Baltimore, Maryland, but spent most of her childhood in Indiana and Wisconsin. Now, she will embark on a study abroad program in Thailand. 

After studying Thai at UW-Madison, Whitlow wanted to intertwine her interest in national and global security with the Thai language.  

“I’m just really interested in working with other people in other communities and also making sure that their needs and values are respected,” said Whitlow. “Especially because we have a more Western society here that sometimes can be a little focused on certain cultural groups over others. So, I just want to make sure that everyone’s heard, and I hope I can do that in my career.” 

Whitlow is traveling abroad through the Boren scholarship. She began her journey in Madison by studying intensive Thai in Madison at the Southeast Asian Summer Institute program for eight weeks. Then, Whitlow will be traveling with several of her peers through the Southeast Asian Flagship Language Initiative to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand for more intensive language study. Finally, she will be studying international relations at Mahidol University in Bangkok.  

“I’m super interested mostly because of the language experience,” said Whitlow. “I do have family in Bangkok, but most of them don’t speak English. So, I’m hoping to just connect with them on top of advancing my studies.” 

Whitlow has previously visited Thailand before to visit her mom’s side of the family. While she is still learning the language, her family ties to Thailand have helped her develop a strong cultural connection. She hopes that learning Thai will help her gain more cultural experience and better connect with her Thai family.  

“I was hoping to learn it for the sake of being able to talk with my grandma,” said Whitlow. “But she recently developed Alzheimer’s so she can’t really speak anymore. But, I’m hoping that while she’s still around, I can spend some time with her there too.” 

For Whitlow, she believes that her study abroad experience in Thailand will not only make her more accustomed to the language and culture, but it will also help guide her post-graduate studies around Southeast Asia as it relates to national security.  

“I think it’s [studying abroad] going to hopefully be a really big game changer for my language proficiency there. They have such a great Southeast Asian program at UW,” said Whitlow. I’ve met with a lot of professors in the program and they’re just so supportive and sweet, but also really knowledgeable so I’m hoping that the experience will kind of guide me into maybe more of what I want to do research wise academically with my career.”