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Bryan Pitts: Here it is.

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Bryan Pitts: and I want to welcome you to today's career panel to where students who are considering, applying for, or who currently have the foreign language area studies, fellowship can learn a little bit more about the ways they can use their fellowship, and they can use this fellowship and the language that they study in their future careers. Unlike a lot of other fellowships, the Flask fellowship is really closely associated with what your career goals are.

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Bryan Pitts: The entire reason that these fellowships exist that are funded by the Federal Government is that we can increase the supply of Americans and us permanent residents who speak, less commonly taught languages and who understand other cultures.

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Bryan Pitts: So today we have 3 Ucla alumni who had these fellowships while they were here at Ucla. Who are going to talk to us about how they're using the language they studied in their careers today, and the kind of careers they've gone into.

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Bryan Pitts: We tried to get panelists from a variety of fields, not just people who are working as tenure track professors, which is, of course, what a lot of graduate students intend on doing, but also people who work at universities in administrative capacities and who work as research fellows outside of a university as well.

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Bryan Pitts: I'm going to introduce our panelists today quickly, before we get into the questions that we have for them.

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Bryan Pitts: Our 1st panelist is Leon Garcia Garagarza, who is a research specialist at the Getty Research Institute. He's originally from Mexico City, and began his higher education at the National School of Anthropology and history, and earned his BA. In history and art history. Here at Ucla, also at Ucla, is where he did his Phd. In colonial, Latin, American history, and his research specializes in the history of religions in Mesoamerica and the Nahuat language.

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Bryan Pitts: Dr. Garcia Gara Garcia is the author of 2 essays on Religion and Society, and is at currently the Getty Research Institute.

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Bryan Pitts: Our second panelist is Derek Groom, who is the special projects manager at the Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia at the University of Michigan.

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Bryan Pitts: He can. He manages the Center's outreach efforts and administers several key programs and also developed the Center's communication strategy.

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Bryan Pitts: He previously served as academic program specialist for the University of Michigan Center for Emerging Democracies.

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Bryan Pitts: Before coming to to Michigan, Derek worked in Washington, DC. At the American Councils for International Education.

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Bryan Pitts: Where he administered the overseas flagship programs and flagship language initiatives in Eurasia and Africa.

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Bryan Pitts: In 2,013 he completed the Russian overseas Flagship program in St. Petersburg, Russia, as a Boren scholar, and he is also an alumnus of the Russian domestic flagship program here at Ucla, which is where he received his BA. In Russian language and literature.

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Bryan Pitts: And then our 3rd panelist is Stephanie Kim, who is associate professor of the practice and faculty director of Higher Education Administration at Georgetown University.

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Bryan Pitts: dr. Kim brings 15 years of experience as a scholar, educator, author, and practitioner in higher education.

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Bryan Pitts: She is also an affiliated fact. At Georgetown. She is

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Bryan Pitts: associate professor of the Practice and Faculty director of the Masters in Higher Education Administration in the school of continuing studies.

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Bryan Pitts: and she is also an affiliated faculty member with the Asian studies program in the school of Foreign service.

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Bryan Pitts: She writes about international she researches and writes about international students, higher education, reform and higher education policy in the United States and countries in Asia.

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Bryan Pitts: Quite interesting time for you, since we're probably at a time of transition, higher education policy. Here in the United States.

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Bryan Pitts: Her work appears in a number of journals, edited volumes, policy venues and media outlets, and has received extensive press coverage. Her 1st book, constructing Student Mobility, how Universities Recruit Students and shape Pathways between Berkeley and Seoul

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Bryan Pitts: was published mit Press in 2023.

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Bryan Pitts: She was also previously held in academic and administrative positions at Uc. Berkeley, and she received her Phd. In education from Ucla.

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Bryan Pitts: So with that welcome, and thank you all so much for taking time out of your week to join us today, I know that our students are going to really appreciate hearing from all of you. So we're going to start here at the beginning. Maybe you could tell us a little bit in no particular order. However, you guys want to go about this. Why did you originally select the language that you used the Floss Fellowship to study? What was it that interested you about about Korean, about Russian, and about now.

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León García Garagarza: Is the question addressed to me.

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Bryan Pitts: All of you. Whoever would like to answer it first.st

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León García Garagarza: Oh, okay.

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Bryan Pitts: I guess I should have picked one of you. But,

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Bryan Pitts: You want to go ahead and go, Leon.

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León García Garagarza: Sure. Well, it's for me. It's because it's a very intimate part of my bringing.

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León García Garagarza: I'm from Mexico City, and I grew up in an extended family.

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León García Garagarza: and with my father's side of the family is

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León García Garagarza: her mother from Veracruz, and one of my great grandmothers had now what lineage

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León García Garagarza: and and his her husband used to speak now at all, too, because he was a merchant dealing coffee at the end of the 19th century over there. So when I grew up with my grandmother.

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León García Garagarza: she would tell me, oh, my father, my father, your great grandfather! He spoke Mexicano with people.

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León García Garagarza: and I said, That's how they call now at the language Mexicano.

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León García Garagarza: They still do.

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León García Garagarza: And I would say, Why don't we speak Mexicano right?

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León García Garagarza: And so ever since. I was very young, you know, and I I started to learn and meet people

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León García Garagarza: in in the city of indigenous extraction. You know some of them worked in my grandmother's house.

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León García Garagarza: You see, people from Puel, and I learned a lot from them, and I always wanted to

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León García Garagarza: to learn Mexicano just like my great grandfather had. So eventually at university, I started learning.

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León García Garagarza: So that's in in a few words what happened.

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Bryan Pitts: Thank you. Stephanie. I thought you were unmuted a moment ago. Do you want to jump in next and tell us what it was that drew you to Korean.

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Stephanie Kim: Sure. Yeah. So for me, it was pretty simple. So when I started my Phd. At Ucla, it was in the comparative and International education program in the school of education.

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Stephanie Kim: and there was a foreign language requirement as part of my degree.

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Stephanie Kim: and and coming into the program, I had a strong interest in Asia.

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Stephanie Kim: Prior to that I had studied Korean for one year, so while I am of Korean heritage, I actually hadn't formally studied it until a little bit later in my life. So I did study Korean for one year previously, when I was pursuing a Master's degree. So, coming into my Phd. Program at Ucla. It was just natural to start

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Stephanie Kim: learning Korean particularly, because I was in a comparative program that required this foreign language. So I studied it at Ucla I received the Flask fellowship. I had both the academic year and the summer Flask fellowships for multiple years in a row.

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Stephanie Kim: and really that was the 1st time that I was financially supported to learn a foreign language, which then opened up a lot more doors beyond that, with more fellowships, more opportunities, and so forth, which I can go over that later, when we get to the Q. And a.

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Derek Groom: No.

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Bryan Pitts: Derek, you wanna go ahead.

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Derek Groom: Thanks. Dr. Bitz. Yeah. So I didn't have any background in Russian and I started at Ucla as an English major. So and I had to fulfill my foreign language requirements. So at the end of my freshman year I took a Russian literature and translation class and I really loved it. I enjoyed reading the Russian literature more than kind of the standard like English literature I'd been reading. So I signed up for Russian

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Derek Groom: 1st year. Russian, my sophomore year and you know, partially. I just I liked the the challenge. You had to learn a new alphabet. You had to learn Cyrillic

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Derek Groom: And once I started I kind of hit the ground running. It was it was very interesting. I found myself like to be pretty pretty good at it from the start. And the level of instruction was fantastic and pretty quickly, I think, in that 1st quarter. the incredible Professor Olga Kagan, came to the class and was recruiting for the domestic flagship program which you mentioned in my bio Dr. Pitt. So it's a very

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Derek Groom: unique, intensive track of study that is offered at a select number of institutions in the country. That program is funded by department of defense, whereas Flas is funded by department of Ed. But they kind of go hand in hand. And so yeah, I took intensive Russian during

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Derek Groom: summer between Sophomore and junior year, and then 3rd year, Russian Junior year, I got a summer flask to go to Moscow this summer between junior and senior year, and then I was really fortunate to get an academic year flask my senior year at Ucla, and echoing what Dr. Kim said. That was the 1st time that I had gotten funding to really to really study anything. So it was great, like the the funding opportunities at Ucla.

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Derek Groom: We're very apparent and and extremely helpful. And then there's also a lot of career prospects after the fact to kind of being in that pipeline along with the that that specialized program.

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Bryan Pitts: Awesome. Thank you.

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Bryan Pitts: You know one of the things that's really important with these Floss fellowships like we said at the beginning.

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Bryan Pitts: you know, as opposed to like fellowships that are more research focused are that they're intended to develop. You know, the next generation of area specialists in the United States, who can then go into careers in areas of national which I say, basically everything right. But so you're basically asked when you put together this application to say, You know, this is how many use this in my career.

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Bryan Pitts: But of course, like when I know when I got a floss for summer Floss back in 2, you know, longer ago than I would care to admit in 2,005, like what I thought my career would be then, and what my career is. Now we're like, there's there's really no relation between that right or very little relation.

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Bryan Pitts: So I'm kind of wondering how is what you're doing now, different from what you thought you'd be doing when you applied for the fellowship.

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Bryan Pitts: And how did you get to that point?

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Bryan Pitts: What was the path by which

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Bryan Pitts: you came where you are now, Stephanie, do you want to start out answering that one.

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Stephanie Kim: Sure happy to

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Stephanie Kim: so in many ways. I currently anyway. I'm doing what I had hoped I would be doing when I 1st started my Phd program at Ucla, and also 1st started learning

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Stephanie Kim: and also was learning Korean under a flask fellowship. But having said that, I will say, the path to getting here was quite circuitous, and not necessarily a more traditional academic path. So so you know, currently, I am a faculty member at Georgetown University, but I wasn't always necessarily a faculty member. So you know, backtracking a bit.

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Stephanie Kim: Having finished my Phd, I actually 1st I moved to Uc. Berkeley 1st as a postdoc, and this was a postdoc funded by the Korea Foundation, which I credit Blas and other Korean language training for being able to secure. But while I was a postdoc I was actually not able to secure a more traditional academic

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Stephanie Kim: role, a professorship. What did end up happening was unexpectedly an administrative staff position opened up which was the program director of the Center for Korean Studies at Uc. Berkeley. I happened to be at the right place at the right time. I put forward my application materials. And next thing I know, I am the program director of an area studies center.

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Stephanie Kim: So you know. So you know, just thinking about how the flask helped me. I mean, I you know, obviously, Korean language skills were crucial to getting and also doing the job. You know I was there for 4 years, and while I was there I was also doing a research project about Uc. Berkeley and international students who come from South Korea to study there.

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Stephanie Kim: And so it was while I was there. It was very much, you know, doing a lot of administrative work, but also doing a research project at the same time. And and so that went on for a number of years, fast forward to

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Stephanie Kim: 2018 is when I moved to Georgetown University as a faculty member. You know the the role I have now. It's very much a hybrid role where I am the director of a master's program.

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Stephanie Kim: And I teach and administer the program as well, and I certainly would not have gotten this job without the previous administrative experience, and having had that exposure so in many ways, a lot of these things just over over the years.

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Stephanie Kim: you know, worked out in unexpected ways, and and I I guess I just credit it to being open to slightly different paths that I

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Stephanie Kim: you know, than originally. I had planned.

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Bryan Pitts: Thank you so much. What about you, Leon? Did you? Were you expecting to be a research specialist at the Getty when you originally started studying no one. Or is that something that developed was that sort of unexpected trajectory for you?

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León García Garagarza: It was somewhat unexpected, because, so far, after

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León García Garagarza: doing my grad studies at Ucla, I'm getting the flask which I got for 3 consecutive summers.

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León García Garagarza: Everything I did was for Academia

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León García Garagarza: I got. I got a couple of post docs, one in Smithsonian Institute, and then another one in the Newberry Library in Chicago

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León García Garagarza: And which allowed me to write some essays that were later on published and

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León García Garagarza: and then I I taught at Uc. So and then one day a colleague, Kim Richter, told me, there's this project. There's a Florentine codex, and we need someone who's conversant with both classical, navigal, and

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León García Garagarza: for instance, Spanish Castilian.

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León García Garagarza: Would you do it? And I said, Oh, sure, I would do it. She knows me very well, and she knows

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León García Garagarza: how much. Sagoon has been a very important part of my life since I was very young.

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León García Garagarza: so I I was lucky enough to be selected by the committee to get it

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León García Garagarza: to do that task which took me about 5 and a half, 6 years.

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León García Garagarza: A beautiful, beautiful task, but it took a it took a lot out of me. And so that was not a a strictly academic endeavor that I was that I did for all those 6 years.

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León García Garagarza: you know. And

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León García Garagarza: so the flash was instrumental for me to to make that shift. You see, I I know I had studied our history, you know, but I was more

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León García Garagarza: involved in into ethno history, you see, and and this was a wonderful opportunity to to have been able to, having been able to learn the Nahuatl and become proficient enough

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León García Garagarza: to do that task and create a glossary of thousands of words all across the the Codex, the Florentine Codex, which is a massive work.

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León García Garagarza: Right? So, yeah, that was unexpected. But somehow

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León García Garagarza: you know what happens when you know that things connect very well that kind of synchronic synchronicity way. You see how. So I wouldn't have appeared in different points in my life. And suddenly I am offered this opportunity. And

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León García Garagarza: so I'm very grateful for that.

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León García Garagarza: Okay.

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Bryan Pitts: For those who aren't familiar with the project. Leon was worked for on the Getty, on the Getty Institute's digitization of Florentine codex, which is a 16th century encyclopedia of indigenous Mexican culture, which was put together very shortly after the Spanish conquest.

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Bryan Pitts: and the effort was led by a span by a Franciscan friar named.

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Bryan Pitts: and it's in a Nahuat and Spanish parallel text, with hundreds and hundreds of color illustrations. It was put together by the sons of indigenous Nahuat nobles, who were trained by the Spanish friars in writing, and the Latin alphabet and the Getty digitized it, and has this annotated version which explains what the terms mean. It's a really fabulous project.

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León García Garagarza: Yes, and actually, it's something that we still have a last thing to do, and and that is to publish all the scholarly essays that we produce all the members of the team

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León García Garagarza: you see, for for the digital floating codecs, and that that hasn't yet been been done. And

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León García Garagarza: I'm I'm still in touch with the team at the Gary, and see what, if I

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León García Garagarza: may be able to do something with them again? We don't know yet.

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León García Garagarza: but I would love to do it. It's

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León García Garagarza: that manuscript became part of like my heart already.

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León García Garagarza: Yes.

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Bryan Pitts: I think one of the things that I've noticed from the answer so far, and something I certainly experienced myself after getting a floss fellowship is that a lot of times in school, especially graduates, especially those of us who got our Flos as part of our graduate degrees, right? We're thinking in terms of like, you know, I'm going to be a tenure track faculty member.

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Bryan Pitts: But then, along the way we picked up other skills, be they administrative, be they linguistic, which turned out to be. Perhaps I would argue in my own case, more valuable than my academic training, which kind of pushed us another direction. Derek, on the other hand, got his undergraduate degree here, which I think means probably his career. Goals might have been a little bit different when he was here, although he's picked up more administrative experience than perhaps any of us here.

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Bryan Pitts: Okay.

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Bryan Pitts: talk a little bit about like, what were your career goals when you got the fellowship, and how is what are you? How is what you're doing now, similar to, or different from, what you're expecting.

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Derek Groom: Yeah. So when I got the Flas fellowship, I was already pretty far along in my Russian studies, you know, building a very high proficiency in the language, and also the area studies knowledge

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Derek Groom: and so given that I was also in this the flagship pipeline funded by Department of defense. I was kind of expecting to go into government work, you know, for the Federal Government, either in the national security apparatus or the intelligence community, something like that. So, after coming back from St. Petersburg, I was there for the academic year. After graduating from from Ucla, I moved to DC. Because I was actively seeking out

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Derek Groom: Federal Government work, but nothing. Ultimately nothing materialized. But during that time, when I was seeking those jobs I was

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Derek Groom: interning 1st at a couple

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Derek Groom: nonprofits and think tanks before getting my 1st full time job at American councils for national education, and then eventually come to Michigan. But I think I've had a really wide variety of jobs and and positions and responsibilities in in those

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Derek Groom: organizations. That

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Derek Groom: I would say, has been a very unique and impactful career in international education. And I would say that I've used my Russian language skills, and area

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Derek Groom: area knowledge in in every single one of those positions. So like. Right. When I moved to DC. I was, I was interning at a nonprofit that also lobbied to Congress to

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Derek Groom: push for more Federal funding of these foreign language programs. So Flas included. So in my role, I was writing policy briefs. I was attending meetings with with Congress people and staffers on Capitol Hill.

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Derek Groom: So I thought that was a very important initiative, obviously, and I think we did some good work there and then I moved on to interning at a Think tank where I was a Russian studies intern. So I was working with a resident scholar there, so like on a daily basis, I was combing through Russian language news, and kind of creating like a digest for him to, so he'd keep up to date what's going on. And also I was contributing to what was called the Critical Threats Project.

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Derek Groom: And so they that was when the initial Russian incursion into Ukraine occurred in 2014,

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Derek Groom: so we were tracking both Russian language and English language, open source material about incidents that were going on, either civil unrest or violence in Crimea, in in Donbas, and those

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Derek Groom: kind of daily summaries or policy briefs were also forwarded on to us government officials. So it was really nice to see, kind of my work

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Derek Groom: being valued in that way, and and potentially making a difference. And then, once I got to American councils. I was administering the overseas flagship program. So when I was a student on. And so I kind of.

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Derek Groom: I really enjoyed that role, being a kind of mentor and advisor to the students who were in that pipeline and being able to administer the program from the eyes of a recent alum. And so I developed a lot of helpful skills in that program. And as I said, I was using my Russian

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Derek Groom: every day, I would say a 3rd of that office of the DC. Office, at least, were Russian speakers, either native Russian speakers or people that were in my position, who had done exchange programs studied in college and then building relationships with our partners overseas.

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Derek Groom: And so I was able to use my Russian language and also kind of cultural knowledge, not just of Russia, but of the of that whole region. Because we actually the program actually got moved to Amati Kazakhstan for political and security reasons.

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Derek Groom: and yeah. So even after I came to Michigan. I don't use my Russian language every day per se, but I certainly could. I have colleagues here that speak Russian. We have guest speakers. We're housed in the International Institute, so similar to to where you are at Ucla

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Derek Groom: And still, as you can see this, the sign behind me. One of our key projects we're doing is called the Reckoning Project at Wce. And so we've partnered with this Ngo. It's called the Reckoning project, and they've documented war crimes that have occurred in Ukraine since the full scale Russian invasion. And so our big deliverable that we have now is we've created teaching materials for mainly for high school teachers,

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Derek Groom: to teach about the conflict and teach about associate areas. So still, kind of down the line of like enriching students experience. And yeah, I've been able to use my my expertise in the region for for many different

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Derek Groom: objectives.

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Bryan Pitts: Thanks. So actually. But both you and Leon both kind of got in your answers just now. What next question was which I'll now go ahead and pose specifically to Stephanie.

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Bryan Pitts: how do you use Korean today? Sort of like in your average workday or your average work week.

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Bryan Pitts: When and how does Korean come up.

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Stephanie Kim: Yeah. So that's a funny question to answer, because officially, on paper, it doesn't look like I use Korean very much, and maybe in some ways I don't. So I direct a master's program in higher education administration. It's a very us focused program.

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Stephanie Kim: And so the day-to-day requirements of my current job. You know, I'm no longer in an area studies center. So my in my current job, you know, it doesn't necessarily require a foreign language.

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Stephanie Kim: Having said that though I still use Korean in ways that affect my research, so certainly I've kept up my scholarship, my comparative scholarship, looking at higher education issues in South Korea as well as the United States.

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Stephanie Kim: It's certainly been beneficial in expanding my professional networks and opportunities in the broader DC. Area. So in the policy realm. Specifically, Derek, you mentioned a number of different policy words. The alphabet soup of all those acronyms is very familiar to me. But but you know, I've gotten involved in a number of different

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Stephanie Kim: think tanks here, you know the the East West Center Csis, just to name a couple doing. Korea related work. You know, I've been invited to give talks at, you know, places like the Korea Economic Institute or join the advisory boards of various Korea related organizations. So so it's certainly been

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Stephanie Kim: something that you know unofficially, I use in a variety of different and dynamic ways, and it does directly translate into 10 real benefits. So, for example, all these

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Stephanie Kim: various professional opportunities that pop up, I I have definitely used to boost. You know, various things that might come across within my official job capacity. So going up for promotion and so forth, these are all activities that I I can put on my Cv to actually have tangible benefits. So so I you know that being, said I, even

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Stephanie Kim: if it looks like on paper, you know the the job itself doesn't require Korean. There are these huge benefits that come with using Korean in my professional life.

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Bryan Pitts: Thanks. You know. Actually, I have a little bit of experience with this, too, I think about from my own experience, right? When I had a summer floss when I was doing my master's at Vanderbilt, back in 2,005,

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Bryan Pitts: and for me it was an opportunity like I use. Sure I use Portuguese today in my job, right? When we organize an event with a Brazilian Guest Speaker and send emails back and forth. You know, probably in Portuguese, you know, when we have our collaboration with the Brazilian Consulate to organize events that's probably in Portuguese, but also, I think, about how, especially the summer Floss, when I went to go, when I got to go to Brazil for 2 months over the summer.

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Bryan Pitts: and be immersed in Brazilian culture, and make Brazilian friends right? And today, when I use Portuguese, some of it's at work. But a lot of it's just talking on Whatsapp with my Brazilian friends all day. You know a lot of my use of Portuguese when I'm dreaming at night, because I dream in Portuguese now, right? And it's like I had the Brazilian flag on my wall. I have part of the Brazilian National Anthem tattooed on my arm. Right? And it's like.

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Bryan Pitts: I think, for me it was that like I didn't just gain a professional skill. I gained an interest and a passion that has shaped my entire life right. And I think that's something we don't even think about the Floss a lot of times. Right? We're not just getting a professional skill. This can actually transform who you are and the things that matter to you like

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Bryan Pitts: the fact that Brazil has completely taken over my life is like a thing that I talk about nonstop to where all my friends like, Oh, yeah, it's the Brazil thing again. Right? That's all. Classes fault right? That's where it came from.

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Bryan Pitts: So Derek and Leon, I see Leon, nodding. Here. I wonder if there's anything you want to add to that, and talk about the ways that Nawat and Russian have shaped. Not just your career, but your lives.

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León García Garagarza: Oh, definitely, it's like the I. I consider especially the 1st time that I went to to the program

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León García Garagarza: in 2,006 summer

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León García Garagarza: that was transformative for me because it it really allowed me to fulfill a long dream that I had since childhood. And I've always been interested in cultural history and specifically religious anthropology and history. And

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León García Garagarza: and I, I know that my country, Mexico, is still chock full of religious manifestations that are quite distinct from the European and even

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León García Garagarza: metropolitan Mexican ones. So

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León García Garagarza: the 1st class, you know, part of the program was to go to study intensively the language, both the contemporary variant of Eastern Mexico, this Chican, Tepec.

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León García Garagarza: and the classical. Now, what that's in the books in the manuscripts from the 16th century on and

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León García Garagarza: and then the second part of the of the program was to go to the region of Chicon Tepec and get immersion, you see, for a couple of weeks, and

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León García Garagarza: 1st time, and and the second time that I went there too. Sorry about the cat.

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León García Garagarza: we. We were able to participate in a very important religious ceremony for the the people there, you know, and it's it's

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León García Garagarza: related to the worship of mountains and the bringing of the rains

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León García Garagarza: and of the life of the community itself and of the world, and that was actually transformative for me. And I've been lucky to go a couple of more times to the same ceremony once again, thanks to the flask the next year, you see, and it totally directed my.

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León García Garagarza: the thrust of of my thesis and my all my written work about the history of Mexico and and of

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León García Garagarza: but now, what's from ancient times to to today? So that

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León García Garagarza: being able to start speaking slowly with the people there and then the next year getting better, and then another one.

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León García Garagarza: and and then participate in that life was really important for me, and you see.

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León García Garagarza: this is the Tepa ticket. He was the the shaman, the Mexican healer who who made the 1st

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León García Garagarza: ceremony. I think that he's

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León García Garagarza: he's there already, but he's sending the cat to to to put me in my place.

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León García Garagarza: It was really beautiful. I'm really grateful to the flask, and I'm still using it. I'm still writing, and I'm about to publish a couple more essays to on this subject, specifically, animals and the history of animals in ritual and in the culture of my country.

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León García Garagarza: So that's it.

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Bryan Pitts: What about you, Derek? How does Russian shape use the person.

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Derek Groom: Yeah, I mean, Rush studying. Russian is you know, changed my life on so many different levels. I really don't remember

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Derek Groom: who I was before I started studying Russian. I mean, that was over 10 years ago. But yeah, I mean on a personal level. I met my now wife on the the overseas program in St. Petersburg, you know. She went to Gw. For undergrad. She was studying Russian. We met there. We stayed together ever since and even with friendships, you know lifelong friendships made

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Derek Groom: with

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Derek Groom: with people I was studying Russian with at Ucla, and who I met, and the summer program when I was when I had the summer flask. And for the longer program in St. Petersburg.

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Derek Groom: Yeah, I mean, I would say that just overall studying, studying a less commonly taught language. Really.

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Derek Groom: it makes you well, when I went I went to Russia for the 1st time for that summer to Moscow. That was the 1st time I had ever been abroad, which is kind of funny, because I grew up in San Diego, and I had never even been to Mexico. But the yeah. So that experience was very eye opening, and it made me more independent, made me more courageous.

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Derek Groom: it's yeah. It was life changing? And I would say that.

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Derek Groom: yeah, I I really just. I can't imagine life now without having studied.

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Derek Groom: studied Russian, gone into this internationally focused career path. Having studied Russian, you know, open doors for me. So when I was at American Councils working on that program, I got to make some site visits to to Kazakhstan when the program got moved there. I've been to Baku Azerbaijan because our Turkish language program got moved there for security reasons for my current job. I get to travel to Poland and Slovakia

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Derek Groom: twice a year. My wife is actually Polish American. So I've been to Poland multiple times. And I can. My Russian actually helps with the the Polish proficiency, because there's a lot of borrowed words. And it's it's you know, it's helped me build proficiency in in polish. So

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Derek Groom: yeah, just on many different levels. It's been transformative. As as Leon said.

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Bryan Pitts: Thank you. I'm going to ask one more question of all of you, and then I think we can open it up, for perhaps my colleagues in the other area studies centers which are sponsoring this event, which are the center for European and Russian studies. The center for Southeast Asian studies the Center for Near Eastern Studies and the Asia Pacific Center. If any of them want to jump into questions. But I also want to open it up. After this last question to questions from our audience which you can submit using the Q&A function?

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Bryan Pitts: So last question I have is

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Bryan Pitts: very open, ended one, and you could

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Bryan Pitts: y'all can answer this in whatever order you like. What advice do you have for current and prospective, plus fellows.

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Derek Groom: I would just say, apply, apply, apply as much as you can. I mean, I believe

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Derek Groom: the my 3 colleagues here on the panel said. They've got they got it multiple times in in graduate school. If I'm not wrong. And I can say you know where I am here at University of Michigan. I. I also work for the Center for Russian East European Asian studies

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Derek Groom: and give out flask, for I believe, 12 languages. It's offered it now. So especially if you're studying some of the more less commonly taught languages. The the pool of other applicants is probably not the biggest. So I'd say your chance of getting funding is pretty high, so don't don't limit yourself and definitely, just go and apply for that funding when it's available.

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Derek Groom: Especially now I'm sure we'll get to this later in the conversation. But with maybe the priorities of the incoming administration. For.

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Derek Groom: you know, foreign language study. There's a lot of uncertainty unfortunately, about that. So when it is available, definitely apply.

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Stephanie Kim: Yeah, I'm going to second that. And also just add, you know, learning a foreign language is hard. It's hard. It's time consuming. It's grueling, and you know I can also see why many people may not necessarily want to take the time to pursue it, because it really is an investment of time.

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Stephanie Kim: but it's so worth it. It is something that some of my classmates, when I was going to grad school, they didn't necessarily spend as much time developing their foreign language skills. Their careers look very different. Their personal lives look very different. But you know for me personally, you know, in addition to professionally. It has been one of the most rewarding things, and I'm glad I really did

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Stephanie Kim: take those extra, you know, years or so to to build in the foreign language component into my graduate studies, and not necessarily just rush through.

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León García Garagarza: I agree with all that you say and I would add that

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León García Garagarza: language is one of the most wonderful creations of human, specious.

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León García Garagarza: and we have hundreds or thousands of them.

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León García Garagarza: And being allowed to study a language is really a portal into a wonderful, wondrous new universe.

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León García Garagarza: and the opportunity to make connections with people that

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León García Garagarza: that will definitely change your life.

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León García Garagarza: So apply because you love to learn the language, because no matter how hard it is.

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León García Garagarza: It's

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León García Garagarza: The effort is worthwhile. And and it's full of delight and love. Really.

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León García Garagarza: So

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León García Garagarza: to learn a language is a level of love, and if you get a scholarship that gives you money to do that, you're a very lucky person. Go and enjoy it and study very hard, because it will definitely be worth it.

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Bryan Pitts: Thank you, and I'll I'd add, too, I think that, and

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Bryan Pitts: building on what I said a moment ago, Brazil taking over

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Bryan Pitts: like I know. I know. I know people have done like a summer class like

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Bryan Pitts: did a summer in Imata, and have not really used it since then. Right?

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Bryan Pitts: But there are also people, you know.

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Bryan Pitts: like several of us, right, who like it, sort of created this lifelong trajectory like. When I went to Rio for 2 months in 2,005.

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Bryan Pitts: I didn't expect that Brazil was going to become like what I

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Bryan Pitts: dream about. I'd spend like the next 20 years trying to plot a way to move, to move down there and live there right? It's like that wasn't what I was expecting, and so I guess my advice to to people who are

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Bryan Pitts: considering applying is be ready for anything to happen like you have no idea that this language that right now might just crossed your mind like. Oh, this might be interesting to learn like it could totally take over your life. So be prepared for that possibility, too.

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Bryan Pitts: Another 2, and maybe this is something we can also have from during our discussion as well. Derek gestured at this. But

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Bryan Pitts: you know, keep in mind, too, that

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Bryan Pitts: plus fellowships are. They are

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Bryan Pitts: they're based on Federal law, right? The Higher Education Act of 1967

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Bryan Pitts: however, they are contingent upon continued Congressional reauthorization of the funding which has to happen every year.

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Bryan Pitts: We apply for the funds every 4 years, but the funds have to be reauthorized every year.

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Bryan Pitts: And depending on, you know, the priorities of whichever administration happens to be in power in Washington, which in a few months is going to be one party in the Senate, the House and the Presidency.

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Bryan Pitts: the funds. They've always been reauthorized in the past, but sometimes they've been drastically cut, and with the current administration, talking about eliminating the Department of Education. Like we have no idea which philosophy moved. The Defense Department Department of State when it cease to exist.

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Bryan Pitts: There have been efforts in Congress before to eliminate funding for Floss altogether. Those have usually been defeated because

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Bryan Pitts: There's usually a coalition of politicians in both parties. Right? That understand that it's important to learn foreign languages and to learn about other cultures. And so.

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Bryan Pitts: even with one party being in power, which is, you know, sometimes been a little bit less receptive to some of these. To some of these programs.

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Bryan Pitts: And we're hopeful that Floss will continue, but we don't know. You know, this

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Bryan Pitts: this coming year could be the last year, for all we know.

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Bryan Pitts: let's hope not, though. So with that, let's go ahead and open it up to questions both from my colleagues in the other area study centers. So that would be

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Bryan Pitts: Liana, Badama, Erin and Nuit and Jeannie and also from the audience as well, who would like to submit any questions using the Q. And a function

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Bryan Pitts: everybody all at once

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Bryan Pitts: so.

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Nguyet Tong: I have a simple question. I wanted to ask what skill sets you've gained in learning, language and area studies that are applicable to your day-to-day work and research today. So

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Nguyet Tong: we've mentioned before about language use. I want to learn. I want to hear about skills like.

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Nguyet Tong: you know, learning language is everyday

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Nguyet Tong: task. Right? You do your homework. You have to practice. So what are certain things that you've picked up over the years in learning language and the area

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Nguyet Tong: you can use now in your professional careers.

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Nguyet Tong: So it could be some like critical analysis or research, archival research stuff like that.

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Stephanie Kim: You know, I I think for me personally is

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Stephanie Kim: you know it's made it so. Learning one language to up to a certain proficiency level has made it

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Stephanie Kim: a lot more

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Stephanie Kim: manageable for learning other languages, because I know how to learn the language. I think the 1st time doing it. It's really hard, and and there's a high learning curve and

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Stephanie Kim: and so forth. But having done that once, you sort of understand how your brain absorbs languages, and then you see the connections across languages, not to say it's easy, but it's easier to pick up additional language on top of that, and especially if they're in the same language family. So I think that's just one way that it's it's really helped me.

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Stephanie Kim: And you know, I you know, as I mentioned. I I've been doing a lot of research on

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Stephanie Kim: on higher education issues in South Korea. But more recently I've been expanding into you know, higher education issues in China. And so I started learning mandarin. It's going slowly. But you know, I know how this goes. It's a slow process. And so it's just been, you know, it's really opened up the doors to even more languages than just the one that I had started with.

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Derek Groom: I would add that, yeah, I mean, it certainly has increased my

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Derek Groom: critical thinking and problem solving skills. I would say it's made me a much more patient

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Derek Groom: person while trying to get through those problems or tackling some aspect of the language. It also has helped having studied Russian and really building a high proficiency in both

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Derek Groom: spoken and written Russian. I feel like it's made me a better writer in in English even. I'm like kind of thinking about the structures. More.

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Derek Groom: yeah, maybe. I mean. Still, with the the patience aspect, like, it's kind of increased my

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Derek Groom: ability or capacity to like be uncomfortable in situations. Especially when you immerse yourself in a new environment like both times when I was in Russia, lived with a host family. So just having those daily conversations just makes you a stronger. You know, individual just getting through those challenges.

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Derek Groom: Also analyzing media for for Russian especially that was really important to analyzing, like mass media and kind of identifying like propaganda from those, especially those like state Russian media sources. So it's been also helpful with just the world we live in now with disinformation and just kind of building those skills generally to to analyze it.

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León García Garagarza: No.

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León García Garagarza: As for me well.

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León García Garagarza: the the language serves in in both capacities. One is in the in the way that now I perceive the world from a different

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León García Garagarza: level, semantic level, and it is, I think it affects my perception of time and space even

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León García Garagarza: and and second, for all my

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León García Garagarza: academic trajectory and my writing, it's fundamental. Or

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León García Garagarza: as a historian, I don't think I could even have a smattering of a tiny understanding of many phenomena that I'm studying without the knowledge of the language.

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León García Garagarza: See? But that's a very how you say constrained environment. That's just the academic environment

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León García Garagarza: I can see in, in the sense of Russian and Polish, and even Korean being such important geopolitical languages today that it allows you to to branch out in many, many other areas within our language, the politics of it. It's still more national, but it belongs to a widespread of almost

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León García Garagarza: and global movement, of revitalization of colonized peoples and and the recovery of the language, and even the transformation of many languages into a monoliterary language.

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León García Garagarza: So that's taking place in Mexico. I'm very happy to say all my teachers, that contemporary teachers are very much involved in that, and I'm happy to collaborate with them every time I can when I go to Mexico, and especially to the State of Veracruz.

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León García Garagarza: to to just lend a hand and be completely supportive of those efforts that the indigenous languages get the respect they deserve, the media they deserve, the the

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León García Garagarza: I say, the teaching that they deserve, because they've been shamefully

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León García Garagarza: neglected and even banished from the classroom for many, many decades. So it's a more national thing in that sense, you see now, at least, not a commercial language in the sense of modern global capitalism. But it's still resilient. And there are far more than a million people between one and 2 million people that are still speaking it daily

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León García Garagarza: in in different variants, but all of them mutually intelligible. So yeah, you can do that type of work, you know, of localization, of language, both in Academia and in in the public sphere.

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León García Garagarza: and of course, for as as a historian of Mexico, to really remove.

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León García Garagarza: get a glimpse of what these people were thinking when they created those beautiful civilizations, and how they're still thinking today when they practice their own way of life.

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León García Garagarza: We just had treasure.

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Stephanie Kim: You know I Leon, when, as you were talking, I you know, it occurred to me that I hadn't actually mentioned much about my teaching. You know you you were talking about teachers and

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Stephanie Kim: you know, having learned now another language. I also think it's just made me a much more empathetic teacher. I mean, I know in some ways what it's like to for a non-native speaker of English to be to be, you know, learning the language as they're learning the material. I mean, I experienced that from a from a different language perspective.

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Stephanie Kim: So you know, I think it's also just made me a better teacher in that sense, I mean my my students come from

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Stephanie Kim: very diverse backgrounds, not just non-native speakers of English, but they could be 1st Gen. Students, etc. And and all of this, you know, just being in a higher education. Space is kind of like learning a language, the language of academia, and I think it just helps to to have that perspective as well.

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Bryan Pitts: It looks like. We also have a question from the audience.

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Bryan Pitts: Raghu Komalapati asks, with the rise of AI and language translation technology. Can you all speak on the advantages of having language speaking skills in person versus utilizing technology.

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León García Garagarza: I I would just say a couple of things about it.

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León García Garagarza: Fortunately for me, the specialization of classical language is still not being tackled

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León García Garagarza: by AI extensively. But I know that many other languages that are

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León García Garagarza: more metropolitan are, and in that sense like they say, well.

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León García Garagarza: AI can write poetry, and AI can make the spreadsheet. And AI can make everything that I can do.

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León García Garagarza: But that doesn't mean that I should stop doing it.

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León García Garagarza: because I think that we we can. We will always bring in a deeper

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León García Garagarza: human level of understanding to the human productions with a with a human brain, and we can use AI as an aid. All right.

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León García Garagarza: you know I'm worried about it, but I don't think that we should neglect the study of of language in this case, because that's actually neglecting a very important and almost

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León García Garagarza: exponentially large part of our humanity and our ability to communicate. So

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León García Garagarza: it would be like being invited to a feast, and and not partaking.

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Derek Groom: I would just add that yeah, relationships are just so important building relationships, both professionally and and personally.

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Derek Groom: So the ability to to form those connections.

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Derek Groom: you know, in in person, or, you know, through your own voice, is just

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Derek Groom: yeah. It's just critical.

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Derek Groom: And when you, you know. Put yourself out there and try to communicate

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Derek Groom: in someone else's language even. I'll I'll use my polish, for example. So if I'm communicating with my wife's like extended relatives when I visit in Poland, just knowing, like a few words, makes a huge difference in communicating, just because it shows you making the effort. So if you have the opportunity to really study a language intensively and reach a high proficiency through a flask, just think of like

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Derek Groom: how much of a bigger difference that will make, and being able to express yourself, you know.

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Derek Groom: professionally and talk about more advanced topics is also very rewarding, just like go beyond just the the base level kind of like conversational stuff, and with with AI I mean, as Leon said, like, if AI is able to create poetry, then, I guess, like it would be able to pick up like context of certain situations. But I would say, that's probably

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Derek Groom: the biggest advantage of, you know, an actual human reading something or or producing it, because in any language there's the cultural context to to all kinds of communication. So

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Derek Groom: I think, given that it's just like the that in person element is still essential.

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Bryan Pitts: I mean, I do a lot of

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Bryan Pitts: professional translations from Portuguese to English, like translating Brazilian colleagues, academic articles into English and I worked with someone recently to translate his book and

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Bryan Pitts: the way he was able to use AI, he used depot translation, translation program

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Bryan Pitts: to do sort of an initial translation of what he'd written in Portuguese into English. And it was okay, right? But then he would go through it, and he had to make additional edits to it in order to get it, you know, more passable, and then have me as a native English speaker, who also speaks fluent Portuguese, go through it to make sure everything was right right. And what we came up with in the end was, you know, there were places where, like an entire sentence that AI gave us was fine.

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Bryan Pitts: and there were places where it got it completely wrong, right? And perhaps this will change as the technology continues to develop.

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Bryan Pitts: But I think for now

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Bryan Pitts: I see AI with language language translation as being it can help.

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Bryan Pitts: But I wouldn't count on it to do the entire project right now.

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Bryan Pitts: Stephanie, do you have anything you wanted to add to that.

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Stephanie Kim: Yeah, I mean something. Similarly, along what you said, I don't necessarily see I as AI as an either, or I think that it's a really helpful tool in addition to learning the language, and I mean I I mean just I use AI in my day to day. I might use it to help me.

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Stephanie Kim: get the tone right in a sensitive email. I want to send, you know, things like that, and I think that it can be tremendously helpful in foreign language, learning as well.

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Stephanie Kim: And also, you know, as others have mentioned, you do need still the proficiency to be able to use AI in a useful and meaningful way. I mean, it's, you know, just looking at it from the other end. When, for example, one of my students turns in a paper using AI and Chat Gpt, and they did none of the readings, I can tell, you know, and I think on the other end, if you don't have any foreign language skills and you use AI to write something

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Stephanie Kim: completely. I, the recipients can probably tell. So I the 2 go hand in hand, but it's a really useful tool. That that enhances, but still needs to be accompanied by the the proficiency.

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Bryan Pitts: I don't see any additional questions in the Q. And a.

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Bryan Pitts: Do any of my counterparts in the other centers have any final question they would like to ask.

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Bryan Pitts: or have we reached the end of our well? We had an hour allotted somewhere 5 min short of that, so we may have reached the end.

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Nguyet Tong: Maybe we can have our panelists say some closing words about. You know how great Ucla is, how great our centers are. Just so we can end the night on a great note.

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Bryan Pitts: All right, let's get. Let's get closing comments. Then.

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Bryan Pitts: Oh, I was also, I was gonna suggest to, like each panelist, recite a poem in the language they studied, but I didn't want to put anybody on the spot right who may not have used the language recently. And so if you, if you don't want to do that.

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Bryan Pitts: but or if you've gotten a tattoo in in the language you studied, you could also show that off.

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León García Garagarza: You have memorize.

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Bryan Pitts: That'd be great.

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León García Garagarza: I've memorized the point.

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Bryan Pitts: Let's hear it.

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León García Garagarza: Okay, this is called Sanatica Jedican.

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León García Garagarza: Only a little while here.

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León García Garagarza: and a cheaper pack.

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León García Garagarza: No, son, Ketali, but planning.

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León García Garagarza: Oh, I'm sorry I I mixed the I mixed the the verse.

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León García Garagarza: I got very nervous, but that's embarrassing.

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León García Garagarza: and it it it says I'm I'm speaking as I only a little while here

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León García Garagarza: only a little while on earth.

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León García Garagarza: even if it is made of jade.

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León García Garagarza: So I'm not chatting with you, not Lamani Notrapani.

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León García Garagarza: If it's made of jade it will break if it's made of gold.

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León García Garagarza: So no, the quit latter was taking. It will break.

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León García Garagarza: and even if it's made of feather, San no Quetzal.

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León García Garagarza: but then it will break it would it would be shred.

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León García Garagarza: And that's important.

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León García Garagarza: Only a little while here.

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León García Garagarza: Yes, yes.

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Bryan Pitts: You haven't.

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León García Garagarza: I got very nervous.

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Bryan Pitts: Thank you so much that that was wonderful. I didn't think anybody was actually gonna take me up on that.

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Bryan Pitts: Yeah. Closing comments from Stephanie and and Derek.

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Stephanie Kim: Sure. Well, you know, I I guess I just wanted to give a really sincere thank you to the to the Ucla Asia Institute, I mean I it was really

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Stephanie Kim: tremendously pivotal in my professional and personal trajectory.

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Stephanie Kim: In developing as a researcher, as a scholar, as just a human being. So? Yeah, I mean, I received a lot of support as a doctoral student, Aaron Miller, who I see on the webinar. Now, I'm sure, is taking up the helm and is doing a fantastic job. So yeah, it was, I

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Stephanie Kim: know. So another piece of advice for students who are watching definitely get involved and and go to the events, and, you know, stay engaged with the Asia Institute and some of the other Asian and the other Asian area studies, centers.

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Aaron Miller: Thank you, Stephanie. We're lucky to have you as as an alum.

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Aaron Miller: and really tremendously encouraged to know that our early support for your flask study has helped in your later career development.

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Bryan Pitts: Derek, close us out.

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Derek Groom: Yeah, so I'll close it. I'll say, even with the the block, M above my head, Ucla is very near and dear to my heart. I'm I miss it greatly. And yeah, I would. I guess. 1 point that I didn't make earlier is, you know, I found my community by studying Russian. You know, Ucla can feel like such a big

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Derek Groom: school. I mean, it is a huge school, huge student body. And so

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Derek Groom: by studying some of these less commonly taught languages. Your class sizes are going to be smaller, your ability to interact with your professors, your teachers is greater. You really make those connections, the faculty and the administrators. And all these departments are fantastic. They really just want to help you

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Derek Groom: find these opportunities for funding, and just like grow as individuals, as students, as professionals. I'm also speaking out with my hat on as an administrator in a parallel institute here in Ann Arbor. But yeah, just thank you for inviting me. I really enjoyed sharing my experiences.

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Bryan Pitts: Well, thank you so much to everyone for joining us this evening. This is the 1st time we've done this during our current 4 year. Grant Cycle. It's fabulous. I think we'll try to do the same thing again next year, probably for students who are still watching today. Actually, the floss applications have opened and the application deadline is going to be January 31.st So if you have any questions about the application process, if you go to each of our center's websites. Whichever center is offering the language you're interested in.

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Bryan Pitts: and we have information up with current application requirements and Faqs as well. It'll address most of the questions that could come up. But if your questions still haven't been answered, after looking at that, feel free to or for Latin America, email me for Southeast Asia, to Emailet.

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Bryan Pitts: for New York East to study Bahama for Russia and Europe, to message liana and for East Asian languages. Jeannie and Aaron to be able to answer all your questions. Thank you, everybody for joining us, and have a great evening.

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León García Garagarza: Thank you, Ucla. They're great. You're great.