While most people spend their summers taking extra hours or catching up on sleep, UNA junior Allison Ray spends her summers thousands of miles from home studying Arabic in a foreign country.

Ray has received the Critical Language Scholarship for the second consecutive year. The scholarship is designed to fully immerse the student in a desired culture. Nearly 500 students are chosen from around the country.

“The scholarship process was definitely harder the second time around,” said Ray. “Of the 30 people that were in my group last year, half of them reapplied and only three were chosen again.”

The scholarship process is intensified for intermediate-level applicants. Two years of study in the desired language is required. Students must complete four essays, which each have a word limit, get several personal references and complete an Arabic evaluation.

Once Ray was notified of her acceptance, she had to immediately begin written and oral assessments to decide her placement. Ray will not find out her placement until nearly April, but she has requested to be placed in Tunisia again to improve not just her knowledge of the language but her dialect as well.

The trip is anything from a vacation, though. Students are required to spend about five hours a day in class, another five hours studying and working on homework, as well as embarking on a chosen cultural activity. Ray chose to study belly dancing while she was in Tunisia, and even had to perform on stage at the end of the year.

Along with her studies, all the students went on cultural excursions. Ray went on three different trips, one of which was the Kush desert.

“A lot of Star Wars was filmed in Tunisia, and I didn’t know that,” she said. “It was really bizarre because you’d be walking through the desert and suddenly you’d see this big set from Star Wars.”

While the trip greatly improved her Arabic, Ray also made some lifelong acquaintances while she was there.

“There was this café I would go to every day, and in time the owner and I became friends,” said Ray. “He considered me like his daughter. On the last day, he opened up the café for breakfast for me and had gone out and bought me breakfast and had this huge basket of beautiful gifts for me.”

Along with friends, Ray keeps in touch with her teachers, tutors, host family and other students from the trip. She even stayed with one of her speaking partners on a trip to New York recently.

While she would be happy with any of the country options, Ray and those deciding where she will stay are keeping their ears and eyes on the escalating conflict in the Middle East.

“Egypt is still on the table as an option but that may change by April,” Ray said. “The area in Tunisia I stayed is in the suburbs is right outside the city where most of the conflict is happening. While I would be OK being in an area like that, I would never place myself in a dangerous situation. I would never do anything to jeopardize my scholarship.”

Because the scholarship is through Washington D.C., restrictions are made upon illegal activity.

“My parents don’t want me to be in danger, but I was surprised at how supportive they’ve been,” Ray said.

Ray won’t be leaving for her trip until the summer, but there is one thing she missed on her stay that she intends to stock up on.

“All I wanted the whole time I was there was coffee,” said Ray. “I kept telling everyone all I wanted was a big coffee. So I’ll definitely be bringing a coffee pot and lots of coffee.”