Two MISD Students Receive National
Security Language Scholarship
Legacy High School senior Phillip Ipock and Lake Ridge High
School junior Ashleigh Pham were selected for the National Secu-
rity Language Initiative-Youth Scholarship.
NSLI-Y is a U.S. Department of State program that provides
merit-based scholarships for eligible high school students and re-
cent graduates to learn less commonly taught languages in sum-
mer and academic-year overseas immersion programs, according
to its website.
“This is an excellent scholarship,” said Lei-Jane Chou, the Chi-
nese teacher at Ben Barber Innovation Academy. “They only offer
25 scholarships for the six-week summer program to Shanghai.”
The program began in 2006 with study abroad options in only
two languages. It now offers summer and academic year pro-
grams to learn Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Indonesian, Korean, Persian
(Tajiki), Russian and Turkish. NSLI-Y has helped over 6,000 individu-
als study abroad.
Ipock completed Chinese IV last year and will spend the sum-
mer in Shanghai. Pham, who is in Chinese III, will study in Xiamen,
China.
“I know this validates their hard work,” said Chou. “Their knowl-
edge of China has been limited to the media. They are now pre-
paring to meet the Chinese and experience their culture.”
26 | Mansfield TODAY
Phillip Ipock and Ashleigh Pham take Chinese at Ben Barber
Innovation Academy.