One of Hunter’s Macaulay Honors College student has won a coveted State Department scholarship to study Chinese, which the United States considers strategically important to national security and economic prosperity.
Prisha Rao ’27, a member of Hunter’s Chinese Flagship Program and an Eva Kastan Grove Fellow at our Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute, won the Critical Language Scholarship to study Mandarin in Taiwan this summer. Only some 500 students nationally earned scholarships from more than 5,000 applicants.
The Queens-bred Rao already has some proficiency with foreign languages: From a family of Indian immigrants, they learned the South Asian Tulu, Kannada, and Tamil languages in the community.
“As immigrants, my family often struggled to bridge cultural nuances despite sharing multiple languages,” Rao said. “I quickly realized that understanding requires more than shared words.”
Organizing initiatives such as community fridges to combat hunger reinforced for Rao that empathy transcends language.
“I want to speak Chinese not only to reach more people, but also to understand their stories and be a better organizer,” Rao said. “I don’t want anything to get lost in translation — especially connections.”
The award exemplifies Hunter’s commitment as an anchor institution to providing high-impact programs for young change-makers. Inspired by the varied life experiences students bring to the classroom, Hunter’s faculty and staff invest deeply in student success. For more than 150 years, Hunter has been one of the nation’s most diverse higher education institutions and one of its most effective engines of social mobility.
Rao, who hopes to work in immigration law and policy, became interested in Chinese literature and history during middle school. They entered the Chinese Flagship Program because it promised an immersion in language and culture that she could use in her career and beyond.
Now, Rao also is interested in urban politics and environmentalism. Their Grove cohort is researching how climate-related disasters in the Caribbean affect migration to New York and the city's response. Rao also interns at the nonprofit New American Leaders, which helps people of color who want to run for office.
Hunter’s Office of Prestigious Scholarships and Fellowships has a stellar record of preparing students for competitive scholarships and fellowships. In recent years, the college has produced two Rhodes, three Marshall, seven Schwarzman, five Luce, eight Goldwater, and 39 Fulbright Scholars among many other prestigious awardees.
About the Critical Language Scholarship Program
The Critical Language Scholarship Program provides fully funded, immersive summer programs for U.S. undergraduate and graduate students to learn languages The U.S. Department of State sponsors and oversees the program as part of a larger U.S. government effort to expand the number of Americans studying and mastering foreign languages that are critical to our national security, economic prosperity, and engagement with the world. The program provides opportunities to students from across the United States at every stage of language learning. American Councils for International Education administers the program.
