An Arabic Journey

           Students intrigued with Arabic and the faraway lands of the Middle East can now follow in the footsteps of the University’s very first student to complete the Arabic Flagship Program.

            Chase Smithburg, a recent graduate of the University of Oklahoma who now works for the University, returned from Egypt a couple of weeks ago, completing the 5-year-long Arabic Flagship Program. 

Chase Smithburg, Program Coordinator 

for the Arabic Flagship Program at OU,

stands beside the Egyptian flag and a 

sign promoting the program.

           The OU Arabic Language Flagship Partner Program is a merit-based undergraduate program designed for learners of Arabic who seek to achieve superior language proficiency while pursuing degrees in the academic majors of their choice, according to the program’s website. The website also states that the program offers an innovative five-year curriculum in Arabic language and culture designed to produce graduates with dual strengths in Arabic language proficiency and their chosen career fields.  

            This flagship program is concerned with languages that are becoming more and more critical for people all over the world to be better versed in.

            “The language flagship itself kind of focuses on these critical languages that a lot of American students don’t usually study like Russian, Chinese, Urdu, Farsi and Arabic,” Smithburg said.

            As a political science major and Spanish minor, Smithburg was somehow drawn to the Arabic culture and interested in its unique language.

            “I started studying Arabic my first semester at OU in the fall of 2007, but the flagship program wasn‘t available at that time. The Arabic Flagship Program came to OU through the efforts of President Boren and other faculty, and I joined pretty much as soon as the program became available my Sophomore year,” Smithburg said.

            The program has high stipulations and eligibility that one must meet in order to be accepted. These requirements include a commitment to complete the entire five-year Arabic Flagship Program, having Arabic as a long-term career goal, and a GPA of at least 3.25, according to the program’s website.

            “As a flagship student I was really determined to reach a certain level with my understanding of the language, and there are certain testing guidelines from novice to advanced to superior that I was required to meet in order to progress in this program,” Smithburg said.

            Each student has their own ideas of what they want to get out of the program. Language proficiency and a better understanding of that culture are two things that every student can expect from completion of the flagship. Smithburg also had some other goals of his own.

            “I was also really wanting to get the point where I could read something as simple as newspaper articles and really understand what’s going on culturally and politically. And of course, today, being able to read what’s on Facebook or Twitter, because a lot of the time, friends that I made over there would post things in Arabic and I could understand the words, but not the context. So I was hoping to someday be able to understand what’s going on at the societal level, too,” Smithburg said.

            With Smithburg’s recent arrival back to the United States, his time spent in Alexandria, Egypt, the second largest city in the country, is fresh on his mind. Although he accomplished the goals he had anticipated to complete going into the flagship program, Smithburg also came home with something unexpected.

            “I’ve only been back from Egypt for about two weeks, so something I didn’t expect was that my experience in Egypt would become such a big part of my life. I made these close relationships with people there, like other Egyptian students or even people I met randomly. These are people that have really become a very important part of my life, and I just didn’t expect that going into this. At first, I looked at this like it’s more about me and my education, and came out of it with really a different life experience,” Smithburg said.

          Being that Smithburg was the first, and at this point, only student to complete the program, OU’s College of International Studies has hired him on to be the Program Coordinator for the Arabic Flagship Program.

Every year the program is gaining more students interested in the Arabic language and culture. There are now six students participating, and Smithburg hopes that the program continues to appeal to students entering the college.

            “I was able to learn and experience so much through this flagship program, so my hope is that the program only continues to grow, so that other students can get this incredible opportunity like I did,” Smithburg said.

Smithburg pins the location of where he lived during his yearlong stay in Alexandria, Egypt.