Toner achieves Chinese capstone
Special to The Pass Post
Sophia Toner
Sophia Toner of Pass Christian is headed abroad to hone her language skills after being accepted for the Chinese capstone year program. Toner earned a Bachelor of Arts in international studies and Chinese from the University of Mississippi (UM) in May and is in the UM Chinese Language Flagship Program.
As Chinese capstone participants, four students will spend their final year directly enrolled at a university in Taiwan and complete an internship in a field of their choice while abroad.
Four UM Chinese Language Flagship students who applied to the program were accepted this year, said Donald Dyer, associate dean for faculty and academic affairs and Distinguished Professor of Modern Languages.
“The ratio of how many students apply and how many of those students are accepted has become, in large part, the measure of a Language Flagship program’s success, and we have been very successful in this regard,” he said.
Launched in 2002, the National Security Education Program’s Language Flagship supports intensive programs in languages deemed critical for American government, business and military interests. They include Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Persian, Portuguese and Russian.
Only fourteen U.S. colleges and universities host Flagship programs. In 2003, Ole Miss became one of the first institutions to be awarded a Flagship program in Chinese. The university’s Arabic Flagship program launched in 2018, making UM one of only four institutions with multiple Flagship programs.
Zhini Zeng, associate professor of Chinese and co-director of the university’s Chinese Language Flagship Program, said she was excited to learn that four of her students were accepted into the program.
“This group of students not only possesses outstanding Chinese proficiency but, more importantly, demonstrates strong domain expertise – and can articulate it effectively in Chinese,” Zeng said.
“One of the most rewarding aspects of the capstone experience is the internship component, and all four students have been selected to begin their internships in the first term. This is considered a special honor, as most participants typically begin their internships in the second term. Their early placement reflects both their advanced language skills and substantial professional experience.”
Daniel O’Sullivan, chair of the department of modern languages and professor of French, believes the university has created something special when it comes to language learning.
“Learning languages like Chinese and Arabic comes with particular challenges to English natives, but the faculty inspires the students to embrace the learning process,” he said. “Our record-breaking numbers come down to the hard work of our students and faculty.”
