UH Manoa programs win seven Title VI International Education grants

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Contact:
R. Anderson Sutton, (808) 956-8818
Dean, School of Pacific and Asian Studies
Posted: Oct 15, 2014

Duncan Aylor, second from left, studied Mandarin in China in Summer 2014.
Duncan Aylor, second from left, studied Mandarin in China in Summer 2014.

The University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa has been awarded seven Title VI International Education grants from the U.S. Department of Education, keeping the campus within an elite group of U.S. universities with a dominant presence in international studies, especially in the Asia and Pacific region.

The seven Title VI International Education grants are:
    The National Resource Center (NRC) for East Asia
    The NRC for the Pacific Islands
    The NRC for Southeast Asia
    The Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship for East Asia
    The FLAS Fellowship for the Pacific Islands
    The FLAS Fellowship for Southeast Asia
    The Language Resource Center (LRC)

For the first year, the seven grants total $1,766,750.  It is anticipated that the grants will be for a four-year cycle (2014-2018), with a combined total of $7,067,000.

Said Chancellor Robert Bley-Vroman, “These grants recognize UH Mānoa’s world-class programs in languages and area studies, especially of Asia and the Pacific. Our university is the world leader in scholarship in these areas, and we play a key role in connecting Hawai‘i with the rest of the world.”

The NRCs support modern foreign language training, teacher training, curriculum development, outreach, and library collections.  The FLAS programs fund fellowships for UH Mānoa undergraduate and graduate students who are studying modern foreign languages and area studies.

The NRCs and FLAS grants are housed in the School of Pacific and Asian Studies, which was established in 1987, and is considered a leader in Pacific and Asian Studies nationally and internationally.

The LRC at UH Mānoa’s College of Languages, Linguistics and Literature is part of a national network to improve the learning and teaching of foreign languages.  It accomplishes this through research, the development of teaching materials, including the use of advanced educational technology, and the training of professional language educators.  UH Mānoa has been awarded the LRC since the grant program’s inception in 1990.  It is the oldest LRC in the nation.

"UH Mānoa has proven once again its continued excellence in the fields of Asian and Pacific studies,” said R. Anderson Sutton, Dean of the School of Pacific and Asian Studies.  “Winning these prestigious awards in an increasingly competitive funding environment is a very strong indicator of our past accomplishments and our vision for continued leadership in teaching, research and outreach on these critically important world areas.”

(Full caption) UH Mānoa Asian Studies MA student Duncan Aylor, second from left, and his language teachers.  Aylor studied Mandarin in China in Summer 2014 with Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) support.