Six University of Pennsylvania affiliates – five undergraduates and one graduate student – have each received a 2025 Critical Language Scholarship. The Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program provides immersive summer programs for U.S. undergraduate and graduate students to learn languages of strategic importance to the United States’ national security, economic prosperity, and engagement with the world. Since its inception in 2006, the CLS Program has supported nearly 10,000 participants to gain critical language skills and intercultural competence, which are in demand in a globalized workforce and increase a student’s competitiveness across career fields.
Penn’s 2025 Critical Language Scholarship recipients are Alexander Basile, Abigail Borland, Mackenzie Hill, Phoebe Martin, Sophie Neely, and Sophia Tian.
CLS Scholars enrolled at colleges and universities across the United States spend approximately eight weeks studying one of a dozen languages either overseas or virtually.Participants gain the equivalent of one year of language study, as the CLS Program maximizes language and cultural instruction in an intensive environment.
Alexander Basile (C’27), from Troy, Michigan, is majoring in Economics and East Asian Languages and Civilizations, with a concentration in Chinese and a minor in International Relations. Growing up partially in a Chinese immigrant household outside of Detroit, Alex developed a deep appreciation for cultural exchange and language education. This passion led him to found CLEAR, a tutoring organization that expands access to language learning for underprivileged communities across Detroit. He has been awarded the YES Scholarship and the Zhi-Xing China Fellowship, allowing him to conduct academic and business research across several provinces in China. At Penn, Alex blends social impact with finance. He works with the Hispanic Finance Association in partnership with Toro Capital, helping to raise over $10,000 for a student-run investment portfolio and creating financial literacy programming for the broader Hispanic community. He is also a Wharton Management Teaching Assistant and a Turner ESG Fellow, where he supports research on sustainable investing and corporate responsibility.
Abigail Borland (NUR’25) grew up in East Asia and is graduating with a major in nursing and a minor in English. At Penn, she has been a member of Student Nurses at Penn and the Student Wellness Advisory Group, and she also serves on the leadership team of DOXA, the collegiate ministry of Redemption City Church. She was an “Up-Close” column reporter for the National Student Nurses’ Association and on the legislative committee for the Student Nurses’ Association of Pennsylvania. This past summer, she completed a nursing externship in the Pennsylvania Hospital Emergency Department and continues working there as a patient care tech. Last summer, she also spent a month in Samos, Greece, volunteering with a community development organization that serves refugees from Africa, Central Asia, and the Middle East. This summer she will spend nine weeks studying Persian in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. After graduating in May, she plans to work as a Registered Nurse for a few years before pursuing a graduate degree to become a Certified Nurse-Midwife.
Mackenzie Hill (C’27), from Hazel Green, Alabama, is majoring in International Relations with a concentration in Latin American Studies. At Penn, she was elected Vice President of External Affairs for the Class of 2027, and as an Undergraduate Assembly CAS Representative, she advocates on behalf of over 10,000 students. Hill is a member of the Civic Scholars program and serves as the Service Chair for the Civic Scholars' Advisory Board, working to increase engagement with the West Philadelphia community. On campus, she is also UMOJA's Constituent Engagement Chair, a Tour Guide with the Kite and Key Society, a Robeson Cooper Scholar, and an Admissions Dean's Advisory Board member. As a Making a Difference Fellow with the Crime and Justice Policy Lab working alongside the island of Grenada's Ministry of Education, a Fulbright-Hays recipient examining environmental justice in South Africa, and as a participant in Penn's global course offerings to Brazil and Indonesia, Hill has conducted research on a myriad of topics spanning from housing injustices to the death penalty. Hill was named a Girls Who Code 20 Under 20 awardee for her work on disinformation and technology policy and selected as a Generation Google Scholarship recipient. She plans to pursue human rights law, focusing on communities impacted by conflict and the carceral system.
Phoebe Martin (C’28), from Leawood, Kansas, is a first-year majoring in International Relations and Russian and Eastern European Studies. She is interested in understanding the current geopolitical landscape and implementing foreign policy that protects national security. Martin’s interest in Russian stems from her two years as a research intern for the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement, during which she completed demographic research of emerging refugee populations for the Uniting for Ukraine Program. She then began learning Russian under the State Department’s National Security Language Initiative. This summer, she will experience language immersion as a Russian scholar for the State Department’s Critical Language Scholars Program in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Martin is an associate editor of Sigma Iota Rho, the Academic Journal for the National Honor Society for International Relations. She is also a violist for the Penn Symphony Orchestra and a member of the Alexander Hamilton Society.
Sophie Neely (GSE’25), from Newport Beach, California, will earn her Master of Science in Education through the Graduate School of Education's Independent School Teaching Residency program. An alumna of the National Security Language Initiative for Youth, the Yale University-New Asia College Undergraduate Exchange, and the Richard U. Light fellowship, she studied Mandarin Chinese, French, and Brazilian Portuguese as an Ethnicity, Race, & Migration major at Yale College. As a Penn Fellow at a New York City independent school, Sophie teaches social studies to seventh through twelfth graders and serves as an academic advisor to middle school Asian American Affinity and Model Government. She also co-leads the Day School Teaching Residency's BIPOC affinity group and works as an independent consultant in curriculum design. Last summer, Sophie received full funding to attend a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute hosted by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History at Occidental College, using her training to propose, design, and teach an elective course on Asian American and Pacific Islander histories at her school. Through the Critical Language Scholarship, Sophie will study Swahili in Arusha, Tanzania, this summer. Upon her return, she hopes to integrate a wider variety of cross-cultural practices into her teaching and promote a more nuanced understanding of East Africa in the history classroom.
Sophia Tian (C’28), from Saratoga, California, is majoring in cognitive science and mathematics. Her main areas of interest include cognitive development, national security, and education. At Penn, Sophia is a member of the Community School Student Partnerships (CSSP) program at the Netter Center, the Sigma Iota Rho international relations journal, and the Penn Aerial Robotics team. Sophia plans to pursue a graduate degree in cognitive science and work on education initiatives in Philadelphia.
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