Bridgeport’s Holly McCleery is one of three West Virginia University students who have received the Department of State's esteemed Critical Language Scholarship. This summer, she will spend two months in China, immersed in its culture and perfecting the language.

 

“I go to DC on June 11 for a two-day departure orientation and on June 13, I fly out to Qingdao – just across the border from Hong Kong,” said the 2010 BHS graduate. “It’s a full ride. They pay everything and give you a meal stipend so it’s a very generous scholarship.”

 

Four days per week, she will be involved in a study program through the host school, Sun Yat-sen University, working with language partners and participating in mandatory cultural excursions.

 

McCleery is currently in her senior year at WVU, majoring in international studies and Chinese studies, a continuation of her language study at BHS. She chose the program the first year it was offered. The reason for her interest is that as a child, she lived three years in Beijing with her family. She was only 11 when they moved back to the states, but she has vivid memories – memories of riding a bicycle built for two, bartering for video games in the crowded marketplace and dressing in impressive cultural attire.

 

“We had cultural lessons in the city – like kite making and design – and Chinese opera workshops where we got our faces painted,” she said. “And I remember the fireworks for the Chinese New Year. They went on for two straight days.”

 

McCleery was born in Texas. She and her family - parents Lori and Scott and siblings Kaci and Tim - lived briefly in Oklahoma before moving to China. 

 

“My dad was in the oil and gas business, so he had the opportunity to move over there. It was one of the best decisions, I think. I consider those years some of the best of my childhood. It was so carefree and different; fun and enlightening,” she said. “It kind of influenced my whole life. I have this passion for travel now and learning other cultures and languages. It’s changed my whole direction.”

 

In Beijing, McCleery and her family resided in a gated community. The children attended an international school; their classmates from all over the world.

 

“It was prerequisite for school to be able speak English, so everyone there could. There weren’t many Chinese students because it was a private institution and most could not afford it,” she said.

 

Still, McCleery remembers spending plenty of time around her Chinese compatriots, leaving her with great intrigue about the country and its culture.

 

Following their residence in Beijing, the McCleery family spent a year in Venezuela before moving to Houston, Texas and then to Bridgeport in 2006. Holly was quite excited a couple years later when she found out BHS was offering Chinese.

 

“I had finished my Spanish credit in the ninth grade so I didn’t need a language, but after leaving China, I had regretted not learning the language,” she said.

 

Some of the class was a review of what she had learned while living in Beijing. She was a most consciousness student, said Debbie Nicholson, who at the time headed up the foreign language programs at BHS.

 

“We didn’t offer Chinese 3 because she was the only one, so in her third year, she took our two Chinese exchange students under her wing, working with them and taking them to the mall after school – different things to make them feel more comfortable,” Nicholson said. “Holly is a great student. She understands the language and is fluent.”

 

When facing graduation from BHS, McCleery said she considered studying law or education.

 

“But my passion was really international relations and international affairs, so I knew I should go to school to pursue that interest,” she said. “I picked WVU because Chinese was offered.”

 

She has had opportunity to return to China several times, including a semester of study last year.

 

“I had four months when I went there last time, and it was not enough time, so these two months will definitely be a great experience,” she said. “It will be a good program that will give me the intensive, immersive environment that I want; it’ll propel my language forward.”

 

McCleery offered an example of why that goal will be fueled through cultural immersion.

 

“When you’re writing characters, the character for ‘good’ is made up of the character for ‘woman’ and the character for ‘child,’ so the Chinese idea of ‘good’ is a woman with a child. It’s just really fascinating to get an insight into a culture that’s so incredibly different than ours,” she said.

 

Application for the Critical Language Scholarship included adaptive reading and listening tests, for which McCleery received advanced placement. When she returns, she will participate in a post-departure interview to determine level of improvement.

 

McCleery graduates in May with bachelor’s degrees in International studies and Chinese studies. She aspires to attend graduate school in China, receiving a master’s degree in business. From there, she may pursue a second master’s degree or opt to teach English in China, further advancing her fluency. Someday, she hopes to possibly work in the intelligence field.

 

"Holly rightly understands that fluency in Chinese is essential for her goal to attend graduate school in China and then one day work on Chinese issues in the intelligence community or with the Foreign Service,” said Cate Johnson, program coordinator for the ASPIRE Office at WVU. “There is no better way to obtain that fluency than immersion."

 

Her travel adventures have encompassed several other countries.

 

“While living in China, we had opportunity to go to New Zealand and Australia and in high school, I participated in 'People to People' and we went to England and France,” McCleery said. “In college, I spent a month in Taiwan and received a scholarship to go to the Hague in the Netherlands to participate in the model United Nations.”

 

Also receiving WVU’s Critical Language Scholarship are Nicholas Amos and Emily Morgan is in the  Chinese program, while Amos is studying Arabic. The three students were selected out of more than 5,500 applications from more than 650 colleges and universities in the U.S.