Ohio State's Summer Linguistic Institute for Youth Scholars (SLIYS)

Are you a looking for an amazing and unique summer program for the high-school language lover in your life? Or maybe even for yourself? In this post, I share my experience at Ohio State University's Summer Linguistic Institute for Youth Scholars.

I found my way to linguistics—the scientific study of language—by chance.

True confession: I came across a YouTube video on the evolution of the English language and was absolutely fascinated. I loved learning about the distinct differences between the old, middle and modern forms of the language and was blown away by how very different each version sounded.

It got me thinking about what contributes to a language's survival. It seems that those languages that survive and thrive have more extensive vocabularies but less complex morphosyntaxes (grammar). I wonder what other influences could be at work.

Around the same time, I watched an episode of the PBS News Hour that paid tribute to a woman named Earnestine Jake Lehi who died of Covid in March of 2021. Sadly, Earnestine was the last fluent speaker of the Paiute language for the Indian Peaks Band in Utah.

I found myself wondering about the unique factors that contributed to the demise of Earnestine's language and how much of a role each factor played. Was the major factor the dominance of the English language in America, the small numbers of people practicing the culture after the termination era, the complexity of the grammar of the Paiute language itself, or something else entirely like economic and political imbalance?

I wanted to understand more about languages from a historical angle.

Enter Ohio State University's Summer Linguistic Institute for Youth Scholars (SLIYS)!

I attended the virtual sessions I and II back-to-back the summer before my junior year and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I knew very little about Linguistics as a formal subject before I started the program but I ended the program with a solid foundational knowledge as to how languages work generally and how languages differ.

Not only did we learn about the technical aspects of language but we also dove into more conceptual branches of the discipline like historical linguistics and psycholinguistics —my personal favorites.

I particularly enjoyed the small breakout groups where I could connect with peers from all around the country and learn from each other.

I am unaware of another summer program like this in the US. If you or a high schooler you know has a passion for language studies, I highly encourage you take a look at SLIYS!