Wrapping up the first week of this year’s Wisconsin Intensive Summer Language Institutes (WISLI), a series of five “Global Professionals” panel sessions on June 19 showed current students how their language pursuits could turn into globally connected careers.
Leaders from fields in public service, research, and international development shared honest stories about how language skills shaped their paths, giving students an exciting look at what’s possible as they begin building proficiency in one of WISLI’s 30 language options. One highlight of the panel sessions was seeing how many of those paths started right here at UW–Madison, as six WISLI alumni returned to share how their time on campus paid off in the real world.
The Southeast Asia Summer Studies Institute (SEASSI) panel featured five professionals including WISLI alumni Beiyin Deng and Macey Mayes. Deng, now an assistant professor of religion at the University of Missouri, said her Burmese language background helps her complete fieldwork as an anthropologist tracking Buddhist material culture and diaspora communities between Myanmar, China, and the U.S.
Mayes joined SEASSI as a Boren Scholar in the summer of 2018 and then moved to Indonesia to live with a host family through the Regional Flagship Language Initiatives (RFLI) Indonesian program. In Indonesia, she applied to the Fulbright program and then moved to Malaysia to use her skills in Bahasa Indonesia for Bahasa Malayu. Now, Mayes is a Washington, D.C.-based international program specialist for the U.S. Department of Commerce, building a career in diplomacy and trade that has taken her across five continents.
“When I was accepted into the Boren program, my first thought was ‘oh my gosh, now I need to learn a language,’” Mayes shared. “But it ended up being the best, most life-changing thing I could have possibly done. It’s the thread that tied the rest of my life together. The reason that I’m here today stemmed from taking that first step and learning Bahasa Indonesia, and it all started at SEASSI.”
The Central Eurasian Studies Summer Institute (CESSI) panel featured alumni Marika Olijar and Dennis Keen. Olijar, a PhD candidate at UW–Madison, spoke about going from a total beginner to an advanced speaker of Kazakh through CESSI and the Kazakh program. That language fluency was crucial for her recent fieldwork in Kazakhstan researching politics and identity. Keen, the creator of Walking Almaty, showed how mastering Kazakh and Russian allowed him to build a unique career in Kazakhstan as a tour provider, researcher, and translator.
Over at the South Asia Summer Language Institute (SASLI) panel, speakers focused on how to navigate high-level public service and research. Alum Cody Arigo tracked his path from studying Urdu at SASLI and in India as a Boren Fellow to working as a correspondence analyst for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Vijay Limaye, another SASLI alum on the panel, discussed how his Hindi language skills helped him land his role as a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council and allowed him to leverage his fluency while working in India. Limaye also currently serves as a UW adjunct assistant professor and researcher in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies.
“Seeing others who started with limited language skills and now use them professionally has shown me that this path is achievable,” said one WISLI student following the panel. “I look forward to applying language learning purposefully in my career.”
To learn more about the summer language programs, student fellowship opportunities, and upcoming events, visit the WISLI website or follow WISLI on Instagram.
Story by Kayla Daum