Written by: Tiffany Westry
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Sophomore Benjamin Harvey, has been awarded a Project Global Officer scholarship to study abroad from the United States Department of Defense.
Project GO is an initiative sponsored by the Defense Language and National Security Education Office. The program is aimed at improving the language skills, regional expertise and intercultural communication skills of future military officers. Project GO provides institutional grants to colleges and universities with large ROTC student enrollments. In turn, the institutions provide language and culture training to ROTC students from across the nation by coordinating domestic and overseas ROTC language programs.
Harvey, a UAB Army ROTC cadet, is an international studies major in the UAB College of Arts and Sciences with a focus on the Middle East. Harvey is also a student in the UAB Honors College Global and Community Leadership Honors Program. He will spend the summer studying Arabic in Meknes, Morocco, through the University of Arizona’s School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies program. He will live with a host family while abroad.
Harvey’s father is a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army. His family has lived all over the world. Harvey says his exposure to Middle Eastern culture and the Arabic language while living in Qatar as a child created an appreciation that led him to want to study abroad and pursue a full-time career in this region of the world.
“It is one thing to study Arabic in a traditional classroom setting, but it is another thing to completely immerse yourself where the language is spoken natively,” Harvey said. “Living in Morocco for two months will play an important role in further developing my Arabic language skills. As an Army cadet, my goal is to combine military intelligence with my international studies degree and hopefully become a civil affairs officer. I would like to use my Arabic language skills to work with local populations to bridge the gap between the military and what local populations want and need.”
Harvey serves as the representative at large for the Honors College Leadership Council and was recently elected to serve as treasurer for the HCLC in 2019.