University of Mississippi Student Zachary Partin Achieves Chinese Language Flagship Capstone

2024 May 16

Zachary Partin, of Jensen Beach, FL, majoring in Chinese and studying in the Chinese Language Flagship Program at the University of Mississippi, is one of seven UM students who have been accepted into the competitive Chinese capstone year program.

As Chinese capstone participants, five students will spend their final year directly enrolled at a university in Taiwan and complete an internship in a field of their choice while abroad. Two of the students, who are also Boren Scholars, will complete their capstone year at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California.

All seven Chinese Language Flagship students who applied to the program were accepted this year, said Donald Dyer, associate dean for faculty and academic affairs and Distinguished Professor of Modern Languages.

"The ratio of how many students apply and how many of those students are accepted has become, in large part, the measure of a Language Flagship program's success," he said.

Launched in 2002, the National Security Education Program's Language Flagship supports intensive programs in languages deemed critical for American government, business and military interests. They include Arabic, Chinese, Korean and Portuguese.

Only 13 U.S. colleges and universities host Flagship programs. In 2003, Ole Miss became one of the first institutions to be awarded a Chinese Flagship Program. The university's Arabic Flagship Program launched in 2018, making UM one of only four institutions with multiple Flagship programs.

Zhini Zeng, associate professor of Chinese and co-director of the university's Chinese Language Flagship Program, said she was excited to learn that seven of her students were accepted into the program.

"This achievement is particularly special, considering the fact that this group of students embarked on this journey during the challenging time of the pandemic," Zeng said.

"Our program usually starts with an intensive pre-freshman summer program. However, this is the only group of students who did not have any summer training prior to their freshman year. Plus, their first study-abroad summer was also completely disrupted by COVID."

Daniel O'Sullivan, chair of the Department of Modern Languages and professor of French, believes the university has created something special when it comes to language learning.

"Learning languages like Chinese and Arabic come with particular challenges to English natives, but the faculty inspire the students to embrace the learning process," he said. "Our record-breaking numbers come down to the hard work of our students and of our faculty."

Besides talented students and faculty, the UM program also benefits from exceptional institutional support, Zeng said.

"This combination sets our program apart from others in the Flagship community," she said.

See the full capstone news release here.