HAWKINS, Texas — Jarvis Christian College announced their three visiting Fulbright Scholars and the foreign language courses they'll teach this 2021-22 academic year.
Waleed Elyaakoubi will teach beginning Arabic. Sarah David Lotto will teach Swahili. Pei-Ru Lin will teach Mandarin Chinese.
Lin says she's excited to not only teach the native language of Taiwan but the culture as well to encourage Americans to be "international-minded thinkers."
"I'm excited to share the story of my home and to let them know about the program [Fulbright Scholars] because it's offered to American students as well," Lin said.
"I'm excited to learn new things so that I can take what I learned back to my country," Lotto said.
Jarvis Christian College is among the nation's historically Black colleges and universities. Elyaakoubi says the cultural exchange will help students have a better understanding of other cultures around the world:
"People fear what they do not know so maybe they have stereotypes about Muslims or Arabs. So to be here, as Tunisian and Arabic and teaching my language is an opportunity because it can create mutual understanding between people around the world," Elyaakoubi said.
Registration for their language courses is still open until September 7th. JCC plans to post their scholars weekly on their social media to document their discoveries of American culture and share their own culture.