Three students, Saleen Aljakhbeer ’24, Roman Fermanian ’26, and Philip Nazzaro ’24, won highly competitive awards that allowed them to study in Oman. Nestled on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, Oman offers these awardees a unique opportunity to immerse themselves in its rich culture and enhance their understanding of the Arabic language.
Nazzaro, a physics major, was awarded the $25,000 Boren Scholarship to study in Oman for the 2024-25 academic year. The Boren Awards are an initiative of the Defense Language and National Security Education Office, funded by the United States government.
Aljakhbeer and Fermanian participated in the Summer Arabic Language and Media Scholarship (SALAM) program in the summer 2024. This program covers travel, accommodation and coursework. The students studied at the Sultan Qaboos Institute for Teaching Arabic Language to Non-Native Speakers in Manah, Oman. Aljakhbeer is a business major at UNCW, while Fermanian is an international relations major at Appalachian State University. Fermanian has also completed two Arabic courses at UNCW through the UNC System's Language Exchange Courses.
Studying abroad in Arabic-speaking countries allows UNCW students “to develop skills in a critical language in high demand among employers and nuanced views of a region whose culture is not well represented or understood in the United States,” said Assistant Professor of Arabic Michael Turner, who taught all three students.
“Being offered a fully funded award to travel abroad for immersive language study is a huge accomplishment, as both the Boren and SALAM programs select only a small percentage of the students who apply to them,” added Turner. “Having three of our students achieve this in a single year is a source of excitement for our Arabic program and a sign of its growth in recent years.
Nazzaro is enrolled in the Noor Majan Arabic Institute in Muscat, Oman. The institute believes successful language acquisition occurs when students are continually challenged to develop their listening, speaking, reading and writing abilities in a structured environment. For Nazzaro, the learning extends beyond the classrooms.
“I am also meeting incredible people from around the world,” Nazzaro said. “Most of the people I am studying with are exceptional. They are driven, hardworking, knowledgeable and come from diverse backgrounds globally. All of them are deep thinkers with a strong work ethic and international perspectives that are hard to find in a university setting.”
Aljakhbeer and Fermanian had early exposure to Arabic. Fermanian’s mother speaks Aramaic, a sister language to Arabic, while Aljakhbeer, a Palestinian American, speaks Arabic at home with her family.
The immersion experience sharpened the students’ communication skills and boosted their confidence in speaking the language. Fermanian wants to focus on studying Arabic, Aramaic, and Hebrew in the hopes of entering the field of comparative Semitic linguistics.
“I will admit that SALAM was a humbling experience for me; speaking to others, even about the simplest topics, was immensely challenging,” Fermanian said. “However, all these communication challenges significantly improved my skills. You can’t progress without facing some difficulty.”
Aljakhbeer was inspired by her experience and hopes to continue traveling.
“It was my first study abroad experience,” she said. “It challenged me to step outside my comfort zone, not just in terms of travel, but also in fully immersing myself in a new culture and language. It opened my eyes to how much of the world I want to explore and how much I enjoy connecting with people with similar interests.”
