Sniffen takes part in Flagship competitions

University of North Georgia (UNG) freshman Autumn Sniffen participated in the Spring Language Flagship Hackathon held at the University of Maryland, College Park.

"Autumn is a gem in our Chinese Language Flagship program. We are very proud of her. She was the only student representing UNG to participate in the Flagship Hackathon," Chi-Hsuan Catterson, UNG senior lecturer of Chinese, said.

Students in UNG's Chinese Language Flagship study the language and aim to achieve professional-level Chinese proficiency and advanced cross-cultural skills. The program provides individualized tutoring, study abroad opportunities, and Flagship scholarships.

Sniffen attended the Flagship Hackathon event 2021 in Seattle and most recently at the University of Maryland where she was grouped with Flagship students from all over the country. The goal for the 2022 event was to create a mobile app that will help others learn languages.

“It was very encouraging to meet so many other dedicated language learners studying such different languages in such different places,” Sniffen said.

Sniffen took part in the Chinese Summer Language Institute at UNG before her freshman year. She is pursuing a degree in modern languages with Chinese for global professionals concentration.

"She is a talented language learner and a hard worker," Dr. Tianyu Qin, assistant professor of Chinese and academic director of UNG's Chinese Language Flagship, said.