Profiles
“I had never really been out of Kathmandu, but I had heard Manang is really beautiful. When I went there it was amazing.”
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Q: It sounds like you got more interested in the preservation of languages over the summer. Why did you choose this internship and not go fishing like Dylan? As the 2012-13 academic year began I was set on getting an Ariel Internship. I looked at things I was interested in. One of those things is languages, and then I heard of this project in Nepal. It offered me an opportunity to go home and do what I love doing, which is dabbling with languages. During my first two years at St. John’s I really got into Greek. I am a French Assistant right now because I was fascinated by the French language as well. I am very much interested in the structure of languages and their sounds. They are so important and amazing, it is communication. Even when we interviewed the people in Manang I marveled at how different and beautiful the languages sounded. These people had found a set of totally different sounds for communication. Anyway, when I was checking out the internship, I talked to Kristine Hildebrandt, my project coordinator. She told me that we were going to interview people and ask them what they thought about their own language. She said we were going to record the people telling a story. Then she said we were going to hike to the remote parts of my home country, Nepal. I had never really been out of Kathmandu, but I had heard Manang is really beautiful. When I went there it was amazing. I am also not very physical; I like walking but when it comes to hiking it is really hard for me. But when we hiked I was surprised to look at the time and realize I had been hiking for 11 hours. It was amazing. Q: Did you have a Plan B for this summer? No, I didn’t actually. My only other option was to stay on campus and work. I am really glad I got the Ariel Internship. I discovered a lot about myself. I realized that I can do anything. For example, I was asked to work with some language software and I thought I would never get it, but, surprisingly, I got really good at it by the end of about three weeks. I hiked up the mountain; it’s such a gradual process you know. You take one step and then you take another step, and then you get up the mountain. When we got to the top I was like, “Yeah, I can do anything.” I was on top of a mountain, looking toward other icy peaks, the wind was blowing, and the rest of the view was gorgeous. It was just the best place to have such a realization. I am glad I got the Ariel, which made it possible for me to take advantage of this very interesting internship. 4