Lillian Ferraz

Lillian Ferraz is a recipient of the Summer 2017 Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship. The award provides undergraduate, graduate, and professional school students with financial support to develop fluency in less commonly taught languages (LCTLs) and expertise in the regions in which these languages are spoken. Every year the Center for Global Studies awards between 12-15 fellowships to UW students. Click here to learn more.

I started out my language journey by fulfilling an undergraduate language requirement at Pacific Lutheran University. Chinese fascinated me, and I got the opportunity to study at Szechuan University. I was lucky enough to continue the interaction with Han culture living in Kinmen, Taiwan, completing at Fulbright Taiwan English Teaching Assistantship. After staying for another year and a half, I find that the US has so much to gain in deepening its cultural and economic relationship with a flourishing democracy in Asia like Taiwan.

I’ve studied in Taipei ShiDa for an intensive summer FLAS Fellowship and now in the 2017-2018 year in combination with my Public Policy and Governance Masters. It’s expanded and diversified my learning experience, and given me so many ideas on career paths. I hope to complete scholarly study in Taiwan on Queer Studies and Economic Policy Evaluation post-grad, as well as work in either the Chinese-US Embassy or Taiwan Economic Cultural Office. As a first-gen student, these dreams had seemed vague and unreachable. Now, with excellent mentors and knowledge they seem more possible every day.