BYU and the Kennedy Center have a long history of performing well when it comes to the number of students receiving Boren Awards, a prestigious national program that gives students money to live in another country to study a foreign language for a year. In the 2025–2026 school year, we achieved a surprising new milestone: for the first time, we had married students who both received Boren scholarships—and it happened twice, to Grant Gurr and Bailey Morris Gurr and Raden Wilford and Heather Condie Wilford.
In both cases, the Boren program had no idea they were giving the award to couples; the Wilfords were only engaged at the time they applied for the award, while the Gurrs didn't indicate on their application that they were married. All four students were delighted to become Boren recipients, and the Gurrs spent the 2025–2026 school year studying Mandarin at National Taiwan University, while the Wilfords also went to Taiwan to study Mandarin at National Chengchi University.
Heather and Raden Wilford both majored in Chinese at BYU. Raden explains, “We both fell in love with how unique the language was on our missions and learned how vast it is, including the dialects, history, food, and everything in between. Then ultimately learning how useful it is for business, government work, teaching, we both unanimously felt we should pursue it further.”
Both already had plans to someday use their Chinese skills to work for the US government; Heather’s parents are both military veterans, while Raden, a South Africa native, recently became a US citizen, so they both felt a strong desire to serve the country.
When they learned about the Boren program, it seemed a perfect fit for them. “The Boren's tie to government service afterward was a big value proposition for us—an almost guaranteed job after you graduate that would use Chinese,” says Raden. “That was what we focused on! And the scholarship was offering that plus time abroad in a Chinese-speaking country.”
When they learned they had both received Boren scholarships and would be going to Taiwan together, Raden says, “that was a happy day. It felt like we could both celebrate for our individuals achievements together!”
Heather adds, “We were prepared for the possibility of only one of us getting it when we applied, so when we found out we both received it, we were so happy! It allowed us to work on our individual academic goals alongside each other. Since we shared many of the same classes, we could also support each other through it. It was so cool to go through it together, learning and growing in the same ways.”
The Wilfords recently completed their time in Taiwan and are looking forward to the future. Raden explains, “The NSEP team who works with Boren is actively looking for jobs, posting jobs, and guiding us toward placement in this career. So, Boren isn't just tying us in—we are bound to them directly! In the best way possible, and it is a privilege to say that we both are.”
Bailey and Grant Gurr both minored in Chinese at BYU; Bailey’s major was Strategic Management, while Grant’s was Spanish. Bailey’s Chinese-speaking mission made her fall in love with learning the language and understanding the culture, and she knew from early on that she wanted to live abroad and continue studying Chinese. Grant, on the other hand, learned Spanish on his mission in Panama; while there, he felt an unmistakable prompting from God that he should learn Chinese. Upon his return, he started studying in the BYU Chinese program, where he would ultimately meet Bailey.
Bailey’s plans for the future had to pivot after the Chinese Flagship program at BYU was discontinued. After that, she says, “I wasn’t sure the best path to continue my language learning. I had already mapped in a gap year abroad into my 5-year plan, and Grant and I had talked about living abroad for that year while we were dating.” Grant worked his way through all of BYU’s core Chinese language classes, then found that he wanted to “build upon the foundation he had gained at BYU and jump into an immersive learning environment where he could take his language from intermediate to professionally proficient,” she explains.
They visited the Kennedy Center in the fall of 2024 without knowing much about the opportunities available, and James Mayo, scholarships coordinator for the Kennedy Center, presented them with several options they could look into. “We decided on a couple programs that fit what we were looking for and started applying right away for 2025–2026,” says Bailey. “The Boren program was always appealing to me, since I have some background in cybersecurity, which is closely tied to national security.” They both also felt that it would fit their interests and needs well, given the focus on intensive language study.
Bailey says, “We didn’t indicate in our application that we were applying together, but we were praying consistently for the miracle of both receiving the scholarship. They didn’t realize we were married until we showed up for orientation, which was a fun surprise for everyone. They’ve been incredibly supportive of us doing this together, and it’s been fun to take classes and be immersed together!”
She adds that they had prepared themselves for the possibility of only one of them receiving the scholarship, and the other one tagging along and looking for other Mandarin-learning opportunities in Taiwan, but, Bailey says, “both of us achieving the Boren scholarship has allowed us financial and educational freedom.”
Their program will end at the end of the summer; in the meantime, they’ve enjoyed being able to tackle this learning experience together. “Being in the program together means that we get to support one another through the challenges of an intensely rigorous program,” says Bailey. “We can remind one another that it is a marathon, not a sprint, that we get to enjoy the journey and enjoy the country and the people, and that there is so much more to our experience here than merely getting good grades. It’s been fun to be newly married in such a new and exciting context, and has been incredible not only for our language progress but also for our personal development!”
Both of them plan to study law; Grant has been accepted to the University of Chicago’s Law School for this fall, while Bailey will fulfill her year of Boren service before beginning law school next fall. While both are still exploring their options before committing to a specific practice area, Bailey is focusing on immigration, cybersecurity, and international law, while Grant is considering religious freedom and international corporate/trade law. “The Boren program provides a direct pipeline into federal government employment in positions related to national security,” Bailey says. “This is an amazing opportunity to serve the public and gain real world experience at the same time.”
Want to learn more about Boren Awards and how BYU students can apply? Click here.