My greatest challenge has been remaining consistently self-motivated. During my language learning experiences, I have not found many peers equally as passionate in the same language I am learning, thus I have needed much more self-discipline and drive than expected. This is why Howie’s mission excites me; languages were constructed to foster conversation between humans, so why must people learn languages alone? I would love to create a community for language learners to progress in conversational fluency together, with a supportive culture and a comfortable environment to make mistakes along the way. Everything is better with friends!

I have been intensively learning Korean for the past year, which has led me to rediscover my passion for language acquisition. I was nationally selected as a Critical Language Scholarship recipient for Korean by the Department of State, meaning I will be spending this summer in South Korea studying the language in an immersive environment. Additionally, I spent three years in high school learning Spanish, and I intend on resuming my progress once I am comfortable with my Korean language skills. I am conversationally fluent in Korean and Spanish and natively fluent in English.

In USC’s Foreign Service Society, we host “Language Tables” in the organization, in which members interested in the target language meet and go on an experience, such as attending a cultural event or restaurant. Members are challenged to only speak using the target language, thus an immense amount of vocabulary and conversational tips are exchanged. I would love to host “language table” events for the larger campus community, allowing participants from beginning to fluent levels to gather and practice conversationally speaking the language.