In the Land of Opportunity

RANJU DHUNGANA

Student’s life has taken her from a refugee camp in Nepal to a prestigious U.S. State Department scholarship, via UND.

As a New England college professor in the early 1800s, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow observed, “Music is the universal language of mankind.”

And from a Nepali refugee camp in 2009, nearly two centuries after and a world away from Longfellow’s time, young Ranju Dhungana proved the truth of the American poet’s saying. For Dhungana, who spoke Nepali and was born in that refugee camp, music was what connected her to Hindi, the primary language of neighboring India.

When she moved to Grand Forks at 11 years old, music once again helped Dhungana get a handle on a language – this time, English – and later, master it.

Dhungana is UND’s latest recipient of a Critical Language Scholarship, a competitive summerabroad language program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. This summer, despite the challenges of the coronavirus, she is reconnecting with Hindi, the language she had started to learn in her youth.

The base of knowledge and language skill provided by the scholarship program could be a launchpad for the senior’s intended career in medicine.

Communication and healing

The psychology major and honors student’s inspiration to take a pre-health emphasis at UND was long in the making, albeit through tragedy.

“I’ve always known that I wanted to go into medicine,” Dhungana said.

Life in the refugee camp was difficult for her family. Her parents fled from Bhutan amid civil unrest and violence, and necessities such as electricity and clean water were scarce. Medical services, both in supplies and personnel, were especially lacking.

So, when her father suddenly fell ill, his affliction proved to be fatal. He died due to lack of antivenom or antitoxin for a snake bite.

Dhungana remembers those times and the pivotal role that communication played. In pursuing the Critical Language Scholarship (CLS), and, in turn, picking up where she left off with Hindi, Dhungana hopes to be able to communicate with patients in their native language.

“My goal is to be able to speak with people who would normally require an interpreter,” she said. “People feel more secure in having that connection with a nurse or doctor, and they’re more open to talking about things.”

CLS goes online

Dhungana thought she would be going to the northern state of Rajasthan, in India, for a summer of language and cultural immersion. There, she would have been living with a host family while covering a year of language coursework in a 10-week period.

For a time, it seemed like the coronavirus brought the entire program to a halt. But then, around the end of the spring semester, an announcement came that the 10-week language courses would be offered online.

In her application essays, Dhungana reflected on her upbringing in a Bhutanese-Nepalese camp, her love of Hindi music, and the challenges of coming to the United States at 11, barely understanding English.

Yee Han Chu, UND’s fellowship opportunities coordinator, who had been working with Dhungana nearly every step of the way and has gotten to know Dhungana and her story, is impressed by her resilience and how many challenges she has overcome to excel at UND.

“I’m so grateful for the fact we have people like Yee Han, otherwise I don’t think I would have known about this scholarship,” Dhungana said. “I’m so grateful for all of the opportunities that I’ve had through UND.” ///

By Connor Murphy

Ranju Dhungana, who was born in a refugee camp in Nepal and now attends UND, is the University’s latest recipient of a U.S. government-sponsored Critical Language Scholarship.

Photo by Shawna Schill