Athens, Ga. – Seven University of Georgia students will enhance their language skills abroad this summer through two federally funded scholarship programs.
Four students received Boren Scholarships, which are funded by the National Security Education Program and offer up to $20,000 for language study abroad in areas of the world that are critical to U.S. interests. Three additional students received awards from the U.S. Department of State’s Critical Language Scholarship Program and will spend seven to 10 weeks in intensive language institutes abroad.
“The Boren and Critical Language scholarship programs offer superb immersive experiences, and I know that our students will take full advantage of these wonderful opportunities,” said David S. Williams, associate provost and director of the Honors Program. “I am pleased that UGA is one of only a handful of institutions with as many as four Boren Scholars this year, which underscores that our students can successfully compete with the very best across the nation.”
The 2014 Boren Scholarship recipients are:
• Andrew Jarnagin, a sophomore Honors student from Atlanta, majoring in history and Arabic in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences;
• Blake Traeger, a freshman Honors student from Fleming Island, Florida, majoring in international affairs in the School of Public and International Affairs and Romance languages in the Franklin College;
• Kara Fambrough, a junior from Conyers, majoring in international affairs and Arabic; and
• Rodrigo Tapia, a junior from Elijay, majoring in chemistry and mathematics in the Franklin College with a minor in Japanese.
Jarnagin will study in Amman, Jordan at the Qasid Institute through AMIDEAST’s Language and Area Studies program, where he will take courses in modern standard Arabic and the Jordanian dialect. Traeger will study Portuguese at the Universidade Estadual Paulista in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where he will take classes in Brazilian culture and history. Fambrough will study in Amman, Jordan at the Princess Sumaya University of Technology through the Council for International Education’s Language and Culture program, where she will take courses in modern standard Arabic and colloquial Arabic. Tapia will study at Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan, where he will take courses in Japanese language and culture, applied chemistry and research.
Boren Scholarships are named in honor of David L. Boren, who served in the U.S. Senate from 1979 to 1994 and is the principal author of the legislation that created the National Security Education Program and the Boren Awards. UGA’s Boren Scholarship recipients were among 165 nationwide to receive the award. Boren Scholarships provide U.S. undergraduate and graduate 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 2014 Critical Language Scholars, along with their hometowns, majors, languages of study and host nation, are:
• KC Shornima, a sophomore from Marietta, majoring in international affairs and Arabic who will study Arabic in Oman;
• Caroline Griffith, a master’s student in education from Grand Rapids, Michigan, who will study Arabic in Oman;
• Walker DePuy, a doctoral student in anthropology from Alexandria, Virginia, who will study Indonesian in Indonesia.
The Critical Language Scholarship Program is part of a U.S. government effort to expand dramatically the number of Americans studying and mastering critical foreign languages. The UGA recipients are among the approximately 550 U.S. undergraduate and graduate students who received a scholarship from the CLS Program in 2014. CLS participants will attend intensive language institutes this summer in one of 13 countries to study Arabic, Azerbaijani, Bangla, Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Indonesian, Japanese, Persian, Punjabi, Russian, Turkish or Urdu. The CLS Program is administered by American Councils for International Education, the Ohio State University and Ohio University.
For more information about the Boren Scholarship, see http://www.borenawards.org/. For more information about the CLS Program see http://www.clscholarship.org.
