Chris, a confidential assistant to the Director of the Peace Corps, studied Arabic in Egypt and Yemen
Chris, a confidential assistant to the Director of the Peace Corps, studied Arabic in Egypt and Yemen
"I
started studying Arabic in the fall of 2003 at Middlebury College,
which is widely regarded as one of the top undergraduate institutions
in America to study a foreign language. I was affected by the 9/11
attacks, and I thought that by knowing Arabic I would be able to serve
my country in a beneficial way," Chris explains to Inside the Beltway.
"After the 2003-2004 academic year, I studied Arabic at a very intense level at the Middlebury College Summer Language Schools. Middlebury's Arabic summer school is regarded as the best place in the world, including the Middle East, to study the language. I then spent the entire 2004-2005 academic year studying at the American University in Cairo.
"During my entire first semester in Cairo, I only took Arabic language courses 5 Arabic courses. Upon returning to Middlebury College for my senior year, there were no Arabic courses for my level. So instead I did a one-on-one independent study with an Arabic professor, which included writing a 15-page paper in Arabic on Koranic support for a representative form of government."
In January 2006, Chris traveled to Cairo on a fellowship. There he interviewed in Arabic leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood and Hizb al-Wasat for his honors thesis, which examined the two parties' calls for an Islamic democracy in Egypt. His paper subsequently was awarded Middlebury's best thesis focusing on an international issue and was nominated for a national award.
Chris is highly proficient in Arabic reading, writing, listening,
speaking and extremely knowledgeable of the Middle East, its culture
and its religions. In spring 2006, before graduating from Middlebury,
he applied for positions at the National Security Agency, FBI, Defense
Intelligence Agency and Pentagon, and forwarded several resumes to the
CIA. "I never heard back from any of the agencies. None. Not one," he
tells this column. "And after I returned back from Yemen, the State
Department, which paid for my fellowship, never contacted me or anybody
else that was in my group, all of whom achieved advanced levels of
Arabic proficiency.
"Fortunately for me, I interned in the [Bush] White House in the summer of 2005, so when I graduated from Middlebury I was able to receive a schedule-C appointment focusing on international affairs. But for all those other American Arabic speakers out there including the ones that received fellowships from the State Department they are waiting to serve their country if given the chance."
In the meantime, the Peace Corps says it is delighted to have Chris on board. One official there told us yesterday that one reason Chris was hired was "because of his Arabic skills and knowledge of the Middle East and Islam." Among many regions of the world, the Peace Corps serves in several Arabic-speaking countries and 15 predominantly Muslim countries.
How many times have you seen it reported that the U.S. is in dire need
of Americans with Arabic language skills, particularly as the war on
terrorism escalates? The FBI currently has a backlog of untranslated
audio counterterrorism materials, which nearly doubled from 2004 to
2005. Still, one has to question how anxious the federal government
really is to fill its homeland security gaps with men and women who are
knowledgeable about the Islamic world and speak the language. Read more.
