The University of Wisconsin will join 22 other universities this year in an initiative to strengthen the language training for Reserve Officers’ Training Corps students on campus.
According to Coordinator Laura Hammond, Project Global Officer funds ROTC students to take intensive language classes in Arabic, Hindi-Urdu, Turkish and Russian. Classes focus on helping students obtain an accomplished sense of these languages as well as the cultures in which they are spoken.
Project GO is administered and funded by the National Security Education Program and the Defense Language Office, she said.
“Project GO is hoping to get cadets early language training so that they can become more proficient in what we consider ‘critical languages,'” Hammond said.
UW currently hosts Army, Navy and Air Force ROTC students. According to the Officer Education Committee Report for the 2011-2012 academic year, 66 Navy midshipmen, 250 Army cadets and 85 Air Force cadets studied at the university.
Hammond said Project GO provided funding for 30 UW students to take classes this year. The initiative allows 10 students to participate in the classes during the academic year. It also permits 20 students to take the language classes during the summer semester.
The project also offers intensive summer schedules and study abroad opportunities, according to Hammond. She added the summer intensive classes create a rich classroom experience and provide in-depth language learning.
Classes meet five days a week for eight weeks during the intensive summer session and at least four hours a day. Hammond said because individual classrooms comprise smaller numbers of students, they allow for students participating to form very close bonds in class.
Hammond said she is her with the program and said despite how difficult each language is to learn, ROTC students are progressing quickly in a relatively short amount of time. She added she has high hopes for students to earn a different perspective.
“We want this initiative to broaden the horizons of ROTC students and hopefully get these students looking at global leadership in a different way,” Hammond said.
Hammond said funding provided by Project GO will permit the university to keep many language intensive classes students would not otherwise have access to, thus requiring ROTC members to study the languages and cultures themselves.
UW Air Force ROTC Major Barry Crook said Project GO benefits military students directly by making it easier for them to engage with foreign countries successfully.
“If you know the language of a country you are working with or dealing with, it makes everything go a lot smoother,” Crook said. “It’s especially helpful when working with the local people in a particular country.”
Crook said students who are a part of the Project GO initiative gain a global mindset and realize how important it is to know not only foreign languages but also foreign culture and added it can change the way students look at the world.
Those interested in learning more about the Project GO initiative can visit the website, www.rotcprojectgo.org.
