By Anneliese Mackel and Kristin Janka
EAST LANSING, Mich. – Michigan State University Ph.D. candidate Tatiana (Tanya) Iretskaia has been awarded a Critical Language Scholarship (CLS).
The CLS program, funded by the U.S. Department of State, is an immersive summer opportunity for American college and university students to learn languages essential to our country’s engagement with the world.
More than 500 American undergraduate and graduate students have been selected from a pool of 5,000 applicants for the CLS Program in 2025. These awardees represent all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.
Iretskaia is a doctoral candidate in sustainable tourism and protected areas management in the Department of Community Sustainability within the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Her research focuses on the lasting impacts from peak experiences in nature-based travel.
An avid traveler herself, Iretskaia has visited over 80 countries, many through her field biology assignments and expedition guiding work prior to MSU. In addition to working on her doctorate, researching, and teaching, Iretskaia has been studying Arabic for the last two years through MSU classes and will continue in Meknes, Morocco this summer through the CLS program.
“Tanya not only has a strong aptitude for learning the Arabic language and culture, but she is also a strong leader,” her instructor Professor Sadam Issa said.
“She goes beyond what is required of her to take her classmates under her wing and help them become better learners of Arabic through guiding them through the tasks in a variety of occasions,” Issa said.
Iretskaia is also a Foreign Languages and Area Studies fellow though MSU’s African Studies Center.
Please contact Melanie Brender at brenderm@msu.edu for media inquiries on this story.