U.of Pennsylvania Startalk Hindi & Urdu Summer Programs for High School Students

[sgambhir at SAS.UPENN.EDU]

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University of Pennsylvania offers STARTALK
Hindi and Urdu Summer Language Programs 2009
for High School Students

The University of Pennsylvania will host during July 2009 federally funded
STARTALK language programs in Hindi and in Urdu for students entering grades
nine through twelfth. The two language programs will be run separately but both
will start on July 6th and run for three weeks till July 24th. Prior knowledge
or exposure to these languages is not a pre-requisite for eligibility to these
programs. The University of Pennsylvania will also run a third program for
Hindi and Urdu teacher-training.  Existing or prospective teachers in weekend
schools organized by community organizations, public schools, private schools
or colleges and those interested in Hindi or Urdu language instruction can
apply.

STARTALK is a federally funded program under the National Security Language
Initiative and is designed to strengthen foreign language education in U.S.
schools. It’s a multi-agency effort to expand learning of seven less commonly
taught languages of national importance, among which are Hindi and Urdu. The
national plan is to make these languages available to students of all ages from
kindergarten through university, just the way other European languages such as
Spanish, French, German have been available to students so far. The STARTALK
programs at the University of Pennsylvania provide generous incentives to
participants and offer the participants the opportunity to partake of Penn’s
quality programs.

Interested participants to all the three programs will find further information
and an application form at

http://www.southasiacenter.upenn.edu/documents/Events08-09/STARTALK/STARTALK.html.

The deadline for applications is May 30, 2009. However, the program will stop
accepting applications as soon as qualified applicants have been recruited.