Twelve Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University students have been awarded Project Global Officer (Project GO) scholarships for critical language study this summer.

Project GO is an initiative sponsored by the Defense Language and National Security Education Office and administered by the Institute of International Education. It offers overseas summer language program scholarships to ROTC students studying critical languages, such as Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Korean and Swahili.

“Between the nine Project GO host institutions, there were only 215 total scholarships available for 2025,” said Jennifer Fox, director of International Student Engagement and Outreach at the university’s Center for International Education. “That Embry-Riddle students were able to earn 12 of those 215 scholarships is very impressive.”

Four of the students will be studying Mandarin Chinese in Taiwan with Embry-Riddle’s Project GO program. They include Navy ROTC student Korey Bell and Air Force ROTC student Rachana Dacumos from the Daytona Beach Campus, plus Air Force ROTC student Kaden Burleson and Army ROTC student Brielle Hamilton from the Prescott Campus.

Embry-Riddle’s Project GO program, which will be held June 1 to July 26, is taught by American and Taiwanese faculty in conjunction with the National Kaohsiung Normal University in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. This year, its program admitted 15 students from 12 institutions nationwide, including the Citadel, Howard University and the University of Hawaii-West Oahu.

Embry-Riddle, which has been offering the Project GO Chinese program since 2009, was one of only nine universities chosen to offer Project GO language programs this past cycle, and it is the only university offering Year 1, 2 and 3 of Chinese instruction.

Three students are studying Arabic in Morocco with the University of Maryland’s Project GO program. They include Air Force ROTC student Liam McMaster from the Prescott Campus, and Air Force ROTC student Makalee Patterson and Navy ROTC student Justin Paul from the Daytona Beach Campus.

The other Project GO awardees from Embry-Riddle include:

  • Joshua Eres, an Air Force ROTC student from the Prescott Campus who is studying Russian in Latvia with the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Project GO program.
  • Taylor Jackson, an Air Force ROTC student from the Prescott Campus who is studying Russian in Kyrgyzstan with the Indiana University’s Project GO program.
  • Horace Huntsberry, a Navy ROTC student from the Daytona Beach Campus who is studying Arabic in Morocco with the University of Arizona’s Project GO program.
  • Ryan Martin, an Air Force ROTC student from the Prescott Campus who is studying Mandarin Chinese in Taiwan with the University of North Georgia’s Project GO program.
  • Samantha Chaffins, an Air Force ROTC student from the Prescott Campus who is studying Russian in Estonia with the University of Pittsburgh’s Project GO program.