In the fall of 2018, Rachel Wallace — then a sophomore at Summit High School — decided on a whim to learn Mandarin Chinese. At the time, she only knew one phrase, “ni hao,” which roughly means “hello.”

“I said, ‘Yeah, that sounds fun, like a challenge,’” Wallace said.

Two and a half years later, her whim has become a college opportunity.

The U.S. State Department awarded Wallace a scholarship to spend her first year of college studying Mandarin in Taiwan, with tuition, housing and airfare all covered. She’s thrilled to get the opportunity to master the language that has become her passion.

“I love speaking foreign languages. It’s one of the only things I know I love,” said Wallace, 18. “Why not pursue it even further?”

Wallace’s scholarship to Tamkang University in New Taipei City — Taiwan’s largest city — is being paid for by the National Security Language Initiative for Youth program.

The initiative’s goal is to teach young Americans, through immersion, languages that are crucial to global diplomacy. Many of these languages, such as Arabic, Russian and Turkish, are less commonly found in high schools.

“(Mandarin) is critical because of the relationship between China and the U.S.,” said Lin Hong, associate professor of Chinese language and culture at Central Oregon Community College. “No matter if the relationship is combative or friends, it’s going to offer a lot of job opportunities for the young generation if they’re interested in international affairs.”

Bend-La Pine Schools currently does not have a full-time Mandarin program, although in the past, Mandarin teachers would temporarily visit from China, said district spokesperson Alandra Johnson. However, the new Caldera High School is planning to offer a permanent Mandarin program when it opens this fall, she said.

Bend-La Pine has also offered dual-credit Mandarin courses with Central Oregon Community College, which is the class Wallace took at Summit High School.

This school year, Wallace has been enrolled in the Baker Early College public charter program, and takes all her classes through COCC — including Hong’s Chinese language and culture class.

She credits Hong with inspiring her to pursue an interest in Mandarin.

“I can honestly say she’s changed my life and helped me become the person I am today,” Wallace said of Hong. “Whoever has her is really, really lucky.”

Wallace’s year of study in Taiwan will help her master Mandarin more quickly than if she continued to take Mandarin classes in the U.S., Hong said.

In particular, learning the language is tricky in Bend, where there isn’t much of a Chinese population, she said.

“Other cities, similar sizes as Bend, they usually have more opportunities to learn Chinese or other critical languages,” Hong said.

More than 12% of Hillsboro and Beaverton’s population identify as Asian, compared to only 1.8% for Bend, according to U.S. Census estimates. The U.S. Census does not distinguish what percentage of those Asian-identifying residents are Mandarin speakers, but both Hillsboro and Beaverton also have significantly higher percentages of residents who speak a language other than English at home.

Wallace said she hopes to eventually earn a degree in Mandarin, and then either work in the travel industry or for the U.S. government in East Asia.

“A state department job would be really awesome,” she said.

Although Wallace has never visited Taiwan, she did get an opportunity to visit a Mandarin-speaking country during a two-week trip to China in the summer of 2019.

Still, Taiwan will be a bit of an adjustment, Wallace noted.

“Taiwanese people speak Mandarin, but it’s a little different than the mainland (China) Mandarin,” she said. “They have different words, and a different accent … that will be something to dive into.”