Madeleine Scherer, a 16-year-old Falls Church resident and junior at McLean High School, studied abroad over the summer at in Moscow through the National Security Language Initiative for Youth. Run by the State Department, the initiative is an immersion program sponsored in collaboration with the Russian American Foundation and the internationally renowned Moscow State Academy of Choreography.

Scherer was one of 14 American high school students who studied in Russia through the program, which provides merit-based scholarships for eligible high school students to learn less commonly-taught languages in summer and academic-year overseas immersion programs. The scholarship covered all program costs for participants, including travel, tuition and related academic preparation, language testing, educational and cultural activities, meals and accommodations, among other things.

The goals of the program are to develop advanced linguistic skills and related cultural understanding and enable the students participating in the program to advance a positive international dialogue and compete effectively in the global marketplace.