David L. Boren Scholarships provide up to $20,000 to U.S. undergraduate students to study abroad in areas of the world that are critical to U.S. interests and underrepresented in study abroad.
Boren Scholars and Fellows study throughout the world, including Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Eurasia, Latin America and the Middle East. The countries of Western Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are excluded.
Boren Scholars and Fellows represent a variety of academic and professional disciplines, but all are interested in studying less commonly taught languages, including, but not limited to, Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian and Swahili.
Boren Scholarships and Fellowships are funded by the National Security Education Program (NSEP), which focuses on geographic areas, languages and fields of study deemed critical to U.S. national security.
Applicants identify how their study abroad programs or overseas projects, as well as their future academic and career goals, will contribute to U.S. national security, broadly defined.
NSEP draws on a broad definition of national security, recognizing that the scope of national security has expanded to include not only the traditional concerns of protecting and promoting American well-being, but also the challenges of global society, including sustainable development, environmental degradation, global disease and hunger, population growth and migration and economic competitiveness.