First-year student Megan Grubb (Indianola, Iowa) has been awarded a Boren Fellowship to study in Brazil during the 2019-20 academic year. Grubb will study Portuguese at Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais in São Paulo.
She joins previous University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service students Sean O’Keefe (’14) and John Delurey (’14) as Boren Fellowship recipients.
Grubb is a graduate of the University of Iowa with degrees in international studies and Spanish. She was an AmeriCorps member with the Greater Des Moines Partnership and was an ESL instructor for the Ministry of Education in Colombia before enrolling at the Clinton School.
Grubb was part of a team of first-year Clinton School students that recently concluded their Practicum project work with Our House Shelter. The group spent the year researching the expansion of Our House’s reentry services.
David L. Boren Scholarships and Fellowships 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 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 National Security Education Program,” according to Dr. Michael A. Nugent, NSEP Director, “is helping change the U.S. higher education system and the way Americans approach the study of foreign languages and cultures.”
This year, the Institute of International Education, which administers the awards on behalf of NSEP, received 851 applications from undergraduate students for the Boren Scholarship and 244 were awarded; 273 graduate students applied for the Boren Fellowship and 106 were awarded.
Boren Scholars and Fellows will live in 39 countries throughout Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Eurasia, Latin America, and the Middle East. They will study 30 different languages. The most popular languages include Arabic, Mandarin, Russian, Portuguese, Swahili, and Hindi.
“To continue to play a leadership role in the world, it is vital that America’s future leaders have a deep understanding of the rest of the world,” said former U.S. Senator David Boren, the principal author of the legislation that created the National Security Education Program and the scholarships and fellowships that bear his name. “As we seek to lead through partnerships, understanding of other cultures and languages is absolutely essential.”
Since 1994, over 6,000 students have received Boren Awards. Boren Scholars and Fellows represent a vital pool of highly motivated individuals who wish to work in the federal national security arena, and program alumni are contributing to the critical missions of agencies throughout the federal government. An independent not-for-profit founded in 1919, IIE is among the world’s largest and most experienced international education and exchange organizations.
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