10 students win study-abroad scholarships to increase national security

Ten ASU undergraduates have won prestigious $20,000 Boren Scholarships, funded by the National Security Education Program, to study in areas of the world that are critical to the interests of the United States.

All will carry out intensive language study, increasing their knowledge of less-common languages which they began studying at ASU. Their other interests include public health, the environment, energy policy and economics. Three will be in Russia next year, two in China, and the rest in Jordan, Egypt, Kosovo, Bosnia Herzegovina and Japan.

The program is designed to develop the national capacity to understand foreign cultures, strengthen U.S. economic competitiveness and enhance international cooperation and security.

ASU students are unusually successful at winning these overseas study grants, because of ASU’s emphasis on global studies and foreign languages and the strong support they receive from faculty mentors. Eight of the 10 are students in Barrett, The Honors College.

• Cameron Bean of Mesa, a senior in political science and sociology, will go to Jordan to attend an intensive Arabic language program at the University of Jordan in Amman. Bean hopes to work as a U.S. intelligence analyst.

• Christian Hoyt of Mesa, a junior in economics, will participate in Russian studies at Moscow Humanities University, also researching the Russian economy. He will have a focused program dealing with business incubators, organizations and law. Hoyt plans to serve as a foreign service officer in economic affairs.

• Lana Larkin of Tucson, a junior majoring in Chinese and East Asian languages and literature, will increase her fluency with the Language Flagship program at Nanjing University. She plans a career as an international trade specialist for the U.S. government.

• Adam Starbuck of Oro Valley, a senior with a double major in biology and Slavic languages, will go to Russia to study at the GRINT Center for Education and Culture at the Moscow University for the Humanities. He also plans to study public health and to attend medical school on his return to the United States.

• Galen Lamphere-Englund of Nogales, an international relations junior, will study Serbo-Croatian at the International University of Sarajevo in Bosnia Herzegovina. A singer and instrumentalist, he also will study the use of music as a tool for peace-building. He hopes to work in the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

• Melissa Tse of Mesa, a senior in English literature and Chinese, will study Mandarin at the Language Flagship program at Nanjing University in China. The daughter of Chinese immigrants who has visited the country only once, she plans to attend law school to study international economic law.

• Hannah LaLuzerne of Fountain Hills, a junior in environmental studies with a minor in East European and Russian studies, will study Russian and also energy policy at Moscow Humanities University in Russia. She wants to work in an international development organization such as the U.S. Agency for International Development.

• William Pentis of Los Angeles, a senior majoring in finance and criminology with a minor in Arabic languages, will study Arabic at American University in Cairo, Egypt. He hopes for a career in U.S. law enforcement or intelligence.

• Jonathan Sankman of Ahwatukee, a senior in biology with a minor in East Asian languages, will study Japanese and biomedical science at Kyushu University in Japan. He is interested in the regenerative medical research being done in Japan, as that is his future career goal.

• Zachary Yentzer of Tucson, an ASU junior in political science with a minor in Eastern European and Russian studies, will go to Kosovo to study Albanian at the Faculty of Islamic Studies in Prishtina. He hopes eventually to work in the U.S. Foreign Service.

Boren Scholars must complete a service requirement within three years after completion of the program, working in a federal government position with national security responsibilities for at least one year.