ASU students receive Boren Scholarships to study abroad

Five Arizona State University students have been awarded undergraduate Boren Scholarships to study abroad during the 2012-13 academic year. The scholarships help cover travel expenses, room and board, tuition and fees.

David Choi, a junior majoring in mathematics and economics and a student in Barrett, The Honors College at ASU, will study Korean at the Best Friend Korean Culture & Language Center in Seoul, South Korea, for four weeks followed by mathematics classes at Korea University in Seoul throughout the summer.

Paula Crawford, a senior majoring in business and political science, will study Albanian at the American University in Prishtina, Kosovo.

Jesus DeLintt, a senior majoring in Spanish language and literature and a Barrett Honors College student, will study Arabic at the University of Jordan in Amman, Jordan.

Melisa Frost, a senior majoring is Slavic languages and literature and political science, will study Russian or Farsi. The country in which she will study will be determined.

Danica Harvey, senior majoring in Chinese languages and literature and economics and a  Barrett Honors College student, will study Mandarin at the Institute for Foreign Students at Nanjing University in Nanjing City, China, followed by a semester-long internship, also in China.

David L. Boren Scholarships are sponsored by the National Security Education Program (NSEP), a major federal initiative designed to build a broader and more qualified pool of U.S. citizens with foreign language and international skills. Boren Awards provide U.S. undergraduate students with resources and encouragement to acquire language skills and experience in countries critical to the future security and stability of our nation. In exchange for funding, Boren Award recipients agree to work in the federal government for a period of at least one year. “The National Security Education Program,” according to Michael A. Nugent, director of NSEP, “represents an essential component of a comprehensive national security strategy to address serious and long-time deficiencies in critical language expertise.”

For the third consecutive year, the Institute of International Education, which administers the awards on behalf of NSEP, received a record number of applications for the undergraduate Boren Scholarship. This year, 1014 undergraduate students applied for the Boren Scholarship and 161 were awarded. Boren Scholars will live in countries throughout Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Eurasia, Latin America, and the Middle East and will study 39 different languages. The most popular languages include Arabic, Mandarin, Swahili, Russian, Portuguese, and Japanese.

“Never in our history has it been more important for America's future leaders to have a deep understanding of the rest of the world,” said University of Oklahoma President David Boren, who as a U.S. Senator was the principal author of the legislation that created the National Security Education Program and the scholarships that bear his name. “As we seek to lead through partnerships, respect for and understanding of other cultures and languages is absolutely essential.”