WKU News

Gabe Feinn of Louisville is a senior Chinese major in the Chinese Flagship Program with minors in child studies and teaching English as a second language.  For the second time, Feinn won the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship for study abroad, which gives students that receive Pell Grants the opportunity to study language and culture around the world. Feinn will be going to Taiwan in spring 2023 to study at a Taiwanese university and complete an immersive internship for an academic year. 

“I always knew I wanted to be bilingual and that I wanted to study another language intensely,” Feinn stated. “Being in an immersive environment is essentially a requisite for studying languages.” Feinn fell in love with Taiwan during his first trip in 2020, and studying abroad there a second time is both an exciting and daunting prospect. During the program, students are required to speak Chinese the entire time. As intimidating as that is, Feinn knows it will improve his conversational skills, particularly outside of academic settings.

Targeting what the Gilman Scholarship was looking for seemed to be the trick that allowed Feinn to win twice. “They are really just looking for people who understand what their goals are with their language skills,” said Feinn. “I wrote about how I see language as an imperative; speaking someone's first language is an imperative component of building relationships.”

Feinn plans to work in family and relationship counseling following graduation and will use his study abroad experiences and teaching English as a second language minor to better connect with families of different backgrounds and cultures. “It's going to give me a much deeper understanding of bicultural, bilingual families, and it is obviously going to allow me to converse with a wider range of clients and help them as personally as possible,” said Feinn.