Project Go

In Summer 2010, Project GO started an initiative aimed at promoting standard expectations for critical language study and study abroad within the ROTC student population. The purpose of this initiative is to codify the expectation that ROTC students studying critical languages will complete the equivalent of four semesters of the same critical language and study abroad for eight weeks or longer.

With the exception of the Senior Military Colleges, all major Project GO institutions serve as national resources for summer critical language instruction for the ROTC student population. ROTC students from across the nation may participate in Project GO programs regardless of the location of their home institutions. Building national infrastructure for summer study is particularly important for languages such as Hindi-Urdu, Persian, Uzbek, and Swahili, for which there are very few national resources and very low student enrollment nationally; pooling resources and students offers the most cost-effective option for developing officers with experience in these regions and languages. 

Project GO currently supports five of the six Senior Military Colleges (SMCs). Each SMC uses its grant funding to support efforts designed to internationalize the ROTC experience. These efforts may include increasing the number of ROTC students who study abroad, increasing language learning opportunities, or integrating study abroad into the corps experience and courses of study. 

Each military service's language strategy speaks foremost to the importance of developing officers with an enhanced ability to work with and among people of other cultures. It is therefore imperative that ROTC students begin communicating and interacting with people of other cultures during their pre-commissioning experience. Starting in Fall 2010, select Project GO institutions will begin a pilot initiative designed to enhance the cross-cultural skills of ROTC students. These pilots will investigate the potential for utilizing peer-to-peer dialogue projects to further develop communication skills.