{"674699":{"#nid":"674699","#data":{"type":"news","title":"How Georgia Tech Foreign Language Education Helped a Georgia Tech Student on the Road to Officership ","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ELt. Joseph Fajloun\u2019s career will be in the air, helping control the flow of battle for the U.S. Air Force. But he knows the power of the humanities will help make him a well-rounded leader.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u201cThe humanities are called that for a reason, they make us human,\u201d said Fajloun, who minored in Japanese while completing his mechanical engineering degree ahead of graduating, and being commissioned as an Air Force lieutenant, in May.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHe will work as an air battle manager, an officer tasked with providing U.S. and allied forces with tactical command and control and providing surveillance information about ground and airborne targets. Some also work at the North American Aerospace Defense Command, helping provide homeland air defense.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhile Fajloun values his Georgia Tech engineering education, he credits the language and humanities courses he took in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, especially in Japanese, for helping complete him as a whole person.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cYou can be talented in the sciences and engineering, but if you are fulfilled by the arts and humanities, it provides a different level of creativity and makes you a better scientist or engineer,\u201d he said.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn his case, his experience in the immersive Project GO program for ROTC cadets, a U.S. Department of Defense initiative managed at Georgia Tech by the School of Modern Languages, opened his eyes culturally in ways that even his early years living in his native Lebanon had not.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt was the most meaningful and impactful experience. It changed my worldview and gave me a sense of the interconnectivity of cultures, of common humanity, that I hadn\u2019t had before,\u201d he said.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAdditionally, based on his Japanese proficiency, the Air Force selected him for a language-learning program called LEAP designed to \u201cdevelop cross-culturally competent leaders who can meet Air Force global mission requirements.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe confidence and skill I will gain through this program will undoubtedly help me better support joint operations by bridging cultural and linguistic differences between U.S. and Japanese forces,\u201d Fajloun said. \u201cI\u2019m grateful to the Air Force for the opportunity, and to the School of Modern Languages for helping set the table.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESimilarly, he credits his training in ROTC \u2014 which is hosted at Georgia Tech by the Ivan Allen College \u2014 for helping transform himself from a shy, insecure child into a confident, well-prepared future leader.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI\u2019ve become more confident, more prepared, and while I still feel fear in some situations, I\u2019ve learned the value of making a decision and committing to it, just pushing forward,\u201d he said.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn all, he says, it\u2019s a confluence of forces that came from combining his top-notch Georgia Tech engineering education, his ROTC training, and his exposure to the humanities that\u2019s made him into the prepared future leader that he is today.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt\u2019s like three legs of a stool. Remove any one and the structure is less sound,\u201d he said.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFajloun will soon report to training at Tyndall AFB, Florida.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ELearn how newly commissioned Air Force Lt. Joseph Fajloun credits the humanities for helping develop him into a leader.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Learn how newly commissioned Air Force Lt. Joseph Fajloun credits the humanities for helping develop him into a leader."}],"uid":"34600","created_gmt":"2024-05-13 17:37:08","changed_gmt":"2024-06-07 17:58:47","author":"mpearson34","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2024-05-13T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2024-05-13T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"673989":{"id":"673989","type":"image","title":"IMG_8533.jpg","body":"\u003Cp\u003EU.S. Air Force Lt. Joseph Fajloun, pictured while still a Georgia Tech ROTC cadet, says his humanities education, especially his studies in Japanese, helped open his eyes to the importance of cultural competency, skills he says will help him in his military career.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","created":"1715621851","gmt_created":"2024-05-13 17:37:31","changed":"1715621851","gmt_changed":"2024-05-13 17:37:31","alt":"An ROTC cadet in uniform stands in front of the Atlanta skyline on the Georgia Tech campus","file":{"fid":"257451","name":"IMG_8533.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2024\/05\/13\/IMG_8533.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2024\/05\/13\/IMG_8533.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":847440,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2024\/05\/13\/IMG_8533.jpg?itok=0B1olH3z"}}},"media_ids":["673989"],"groups":[{"id":"1281","name":"Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts"},{"id":"1284","name":"School of Modern Languages"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:michael.pearson@iac.gatech.edu\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMichael Pearson\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EIvan Allen College of Liberal Arts\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["michael.pearson@iac.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}