This year’s Boren Award recipients have been chosen, and we’re pleased to announce that seven BYU students have received scholarships:
- Emma Crockett (Economics) received a scholarship to study Thai in Thailand.
- Faith Hall (Family Life and Russian) received a scholarship to study Russian in Kazakhstan.
- Caleb Harding (Computer Science) received a scholarship to study Mandarin in Taiwan.
- Lillian Malay (Linguistics and Chinese) received a scholarship to study Mandarin in Taiwan.
- Rachel (Ray) Shurtleff (Middle East Studies/Arabic) received a scholarship to study Turkish in Azerbaijan.
- Isaac Theobald (Middle East Studies/Arabic) received a scholarship to study Arabic in Morocco.
- Evan Tsubaki (Biochemistry) received a scholarship to study Mandarin in Taiwan.
Named for Senator David L. Boren and administered by the National Security Education Program, Boren Awards provide funding for US students to live in other countries while they study languages and cultures, particularly those that are critical to US national interests. At BYU, the Kennedy Center’s scholarships coordinator, James Mayo, assists students from across campus with preparing and submitting their applications; in recent years, BYU has consistently been ranked one of the top schools in the nation in terms of number of Borens received.
A Wide Variety of Languages
A look at the wide variety of languages and places in this this year’s list of winners illustrates what Mayo considers one of the best parts of the Boren Awards: the many and diverse languages that students can apply to study. While many similar scholarships cover a limited number of languages, the Boren Awards provide money for students to study over 60 preferred languages in over 90 countries.
This means that in addition to the usual suspects—commonly studied languages like Arabic and Chinese—BYU students over the years have received scholarships to study less commonly taught languages like Swahili, Urdu, and Xhosa.
To facilitate the study of some of those less commonly taught languages, the Boren Awards have recently introduced Regional Flagship Language Initiatives. In most cases, Boren applicants must research and select a language school on their own; with the Flagship Language Initiatives, students can apply to participate in language education programs arranged by Boren. This year, two of the BYU recipients will be participating in Flagship Language Initiatives: Ray Shurtleff in the Turkish Flagship Language Initiative and Emma Crockett (studying Thai) in the Southeast Asian Flagship Languages Initiative.
This diversity of available languages makes Boren Awards a great match for BYU students, many of whom come into contact with less commonly taught languages while serving as missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For those students, a Boren Award could help them deepen their comprehension of the language. Says Mayo, “Any student who’s studied a language outside of western Europe should apply for a Boren.”
Interested in learning more about how to apply for a Boren? Click here.