SLLC MAJOR VICKY BARAMKI ON GYMKANA, LANGUAGES, AND IDENTITY
ARHU senior attends Arabic, Spanish and French classes during the day, while vaulting and tumbling in a leotard at night.
School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures senior Vicky Baramki exemplifies what SLLC is all about—languages, diversity, and community. Baramki, an active, fourth year member of UMD’s Gymkana Troupe, Arabic major and Spanish minor, Language House resident, and previous Global Communities resident, certainly keeps her hands full as she juggles staying above the curve in languages and gymnastics alike.
“Gymkana! It’s my life now,” says Baramki. In addition to her recent election to the Gymkana executive board as the troupe historian, she serves as the troupe’s current equipment chair responsible for over 15,000 equipment items. A seasoned Gymkana member, Baramki specializes in ladders, vaulting, large-scale pyramids, and double mini-trampoline acts. Gymkana began as an outreach project of the School of Public Health and remains a noncompetitive, performing gymnastic troupe dedicated to promoting healthy lifestyles among children and teens in local schools in the surrounding DC area. All Gymkana members pledge to abstain from alcohol, drugs, and tobacco while participating in the troupe. Here at UMD, students know Gymkana for the troupe’s impressive performances in the semifinals of the NBC hit TV series, “America’s Got Talent.” During Gymkana’s broadcasted competitions, UMD students cheered and voted for the team as they flipped their way through several rounds of the show.
While attending practice and logging extra hours at the gym, Baramki dedicates just as much time to furthering her Arabic and Spanish, in addition to taking a few French classes, which she picked up for fun this semester. “When you’re trying to learn a new language, it’s like learning a tumbling skill,” says Baramki. “At first, it seems like the hardest thing ever, much like a language. But, even if you don’t have the right form yet, just try and practice!” Baramki relates learned skills and values from Gymkana to new language acquisition both here at UMD and beyond. In anticipation for graduation, Baramki is currently applying to the undergraduate Boren Scholarship program to help cover costs of studying abroad in Egypt for a year with the UMD Arabic Flagship Program.
Following graduation, Baramki hopes to use her foreign language proficiencies to translate across Arabic, English, French, and Spanish. “I know how difficult it is to learn another language, so I want to help those without the means or support to learn a second language too,” says Baramki. In pursuing her dreams, whether tumbling or advancing her language skills, Baramki’s family and search to understand her identity drive her ongoing explorations of languages and the world. As a Palestinian-American, with a German mother and Arab father, Baramki poignantly summarizes her family and mixed identity, saying, “Growing up, we always made Arab food in German pots.” Baramki decided to study Arabic at UMD to investigate her own identity and relationship with her father’s culture, language, and experience. “I knew Arab culture through my dad’s eyes,” says Baramki. “But I wanted to know what [speaking Arabic] is like, and who I am exactly.” Through language studies and Gymkana, Baramki harnesses her personal and academic curiosity to cross not only language barriers but also to tumble through hoops and over ladders to inspire others to reach their full potential and live a more fulfilled, inquisitive, and bold life.