Luther College senior Keeley awarded Critical Language Scholarship

Luther College senior Joseph Keeley has been awarded a U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarship to study Korean for eight weeks this summer at Pusan National University, one of 10 national universities in Korea.

Keeley, the son of Sheryl and Daniel Keeley of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, is a history and political science double major at Luther. He is currently studying in Prague with the International Studies Abroad program “History, Politics and Culture in the Czech Republic.”

The CLS program was launched in 2006 to increase opportunities for American students to study critical-need languages overseas. It is part of a wider U.S. government effort to dramatically expand the number of Americans studying and mastering critical-need languages. Participants in the CLS program are expected to continue their language study beyond the scholarship period and apply their critical language skills in their future professional careers.

Keeley’s career plans include becoming a diplomat and working as a Foreign Service Officer with the State Department. As a French minor, Keeley is already conversant in that language; learning Korean will broaden his career options even further. For Keeley though, learning languages is about more than his career, “I’ve always been interested in promoting diplomacy and communication, and learning a language is one of the best ways to foster this.”

The CLS program offers intensive summer language and culture institutes overseas in 15 languages and receives an average of 5,500 applications each year for approximately 550 available scholarships. For more information regarding the CLS program, visit https://clscholarship.org/.

A national liberal arts college with an enrollment of 2,005, Luther offers an academic curriculum that leads to the Bachelor of Arts degree in more than 60 majors and pre-professional programs. For more information about Luther visit the college’s website: http://www.luther.edu.