Marissa S. Allison, a History and Middle Eastern Studies graduate (2010) of the University of Mary Washington, has won a Critical Language Scholarship from the United States Department of State. With this prestigious award, she will travel to Muscat, Oman for a 9 weeks of intensive study of the Arabic language.
As noted in UMW’s own announcement of the award, Marissa completed study abroad programs in Costa Rica, Jordan, and Egypt while a Mary Washington student. She also has gained experience as an Arabic media research intern with the global intelligence network Stirling-Assynt, as a research intern at the Palestine-Israel Journal in Jerusalem, and through a Baghdad Embassy virtual internship. In addition to being named to the Dean’s List and receiving honors with the Virginia Social Sciences Association for an undergraduate paper and student presentation (based on her senior thesis, written with Dr. Al-Tikriti, on the 1979 Siege of Mecca), Marissa is a magna cum laude graduate of UMW.
