Undergraduate Student Spotlight

Mica Belton: Jewish Studies Champion of Language Learning

Senior Mica Belton (Jewish Studies; minors in Hebrew and Arabic) learns languages, it seems, like other people drink water. He will be taking advanced Modern Hebrew in the fall as well as beginning Biblical Hebrew, and he has already completed the Standard Arabic sequence, a course in Jordanian colloquial Arabic, Egyptian colloquial Arabic, advanced Spanish, a course in Portuguese, and intermediate French. He plans to learn Ladino and Judeo-Arabic as well. This constellation of language skills, among other things, gives him access to primary texts in huge swaths of Jewish history and culture. Belton says he began learning languages for mostly practical reasons:

Mica Belton Hebrew was the frst language I started to learn because my niece is Israeli; French because I had plans to go to France for a few days during high school (I somewhat overshot what was expected of me for a three day trip); Spanish because I was going on a mission trip to Puerto Rico and also because many of my coworkers at the time were Spanish speakers; Portuguese because a coworker was from Brazil; and Arabic because I heard a lullaby in Arabic and became absolutely enchanted by the fantastic history of the language and the perplexing constellation of dialects that belonged to it.

He confdes, however, a deeper and more motivating reason for his language learning: “I wanted to be someone else. I was a little gay black kid in the middle of the religious white suburbs of Minnesota, so, to say the least, I never fully felt comfortable in my skin no matter where I was. Language was an outlet to fnd other parts of my personality that I could explore and be comfortable in when the world around me did not seem to want me.” Belton has discovered in the course of his studies, however, that what began as a strategy to escape himself has become an opportunity to introduce himself into contexts that would otherwise seem inaccessible. He observes, “What motivates me today is being able to engage with people around the world that I otherwise, as an American, would never have had contact with. By being able to speak multiple languages, I feel like I’m able to pick myself up and drop myself into entirely new worlds.” His education has thereby become empowering. As he says, “Occasionally, I forget that I have this ability when I’m watching or listening to something in Spanish or any other language, and I go to share it with my family and they give me blank stares. It’s strange how quickly a whole new world can become so familiar that you forget that it’s not as plainly visible to the people around you as it is to you.” Belton did not quite choose to major in Jewish Studies; rather, he says, he “fell into it.” He started out, he says, “in my frst year at the U swearing that I would take all the Hebrew courses offered in order to talk to my niece. Then it turned into taking a few more Jewish Studies classes, like Dr. Renana Schneller’s “Multiculturalism in Modern Israel.” One course led to another. Eventually, he says, “I had taken enough classes within the Jewish Studies major that it almost didn’t make sense not to declare the major. I also fgured it would give me the most amount of mobility after graduation. I could move on to almost any graduate program that interested me, and if I decided against graduate school, I could go into the work force with my Hebrew skills.” As a senior, Belton is actively thinking about his future direction and his many options. He confesses, “Having these skills translates (pun intended) into so many felds that making a decision to choose just one is somewhat overwhelming.” Not a bad problem to have for a kid who felt he didn’t belong anywhere. Ultimately, though, he would like to be a teacher or professor. And he is motivated in this by a desire to help others see that they belong anywhere they wish to be:

I’ve always wanted to be a teacher of some sort, ever since I was very small. One of my strongest memories is that of a particular teacher I had in elementary school who was my frst and last black teacher. Ever. Community