Pranav Rao is the recipient of Boren Scholarship for Hindi in 2019
Pranav Rao is a sophomore, and he is minoring in India Studies. He is fascinated
with Indian culture and history, and has taken two semesters of Hindi with Dr. Tiwari
along with her course "Indian Cinema: Bollywood and Beyond." This summer, he will
be traveling to Madison and Jaipur in India where he will be participating in the
Boren South Asian Flagship Languages Initiative. The South Asian Flagship Languages
Initiative (SAFLI) offers opportunity to American students for intensive language
study of less commonly taught languages such as Hindi or Urdu, and cultural immersion
through domestic and overseas language programs. SAFLI students participate in a full-time
domestic summer program at the University of Wisconsin. The program is funded through
the Boren Scholarship. SAFLI students then participate a full-time overseas program,
administered by American Councils for International Education. This takes place at
the American Institute of Indian Studies in Jaipur (Hindi) or Urdu (Lucknow). Pranav
hopes that after spending time in India he will become more fluent in Hindi. As a
Political Science major, who has keen interests in subjects of national security and
international studies, Pranav believes that India will play a bigger role in the international
community in the coming decades. Pranav hopes that his participation in the Boren
SAFLI program will shine a spotlight on India Studies as well as the Hindi language
courses offered at UH.
