IU Student Selected to Receive Prestigious Scholarship to Study Overseas

The National Security Education Program (NSEP) has selected Kathryn Davis, a student at Indiana University-Bloomington, to receive the prestigious National Security Education Program David L. Boren Scholarship to study abroad during the 2004-05 academic year. Ms. Davis will study at St. Petersburg State University in Russia.

Congress established the National Security Education Program in the aftermath of the Cold War to address the national security education needs of the United States. NSEP provides outstanding and highly motivated U.S. students with the necessary resources and encouragement to study abroad to acquire language skills and experience in countries critical to the future security of our nation, in exchange for a commitment to seek work in the federal government. NSEP Boren Scholars achieve high levels of language proficiency, are drawn from a wide range of academic fields, and represent our future government leaders.

SEP granted a total of 181 scholarships to undergraduate students for academic year 2004-05. Interest in the National Security Education Program has continued to rise in recent years, as students have responded to world events by seeking to learn more about other languages and cultures. The number of applications for NSEP Boren Scholarships rose by 13% to 866 in 2004, and has more than doubled since 2001. “The National Security Education Program,” according to Robert Slater, director of the NSEP program, “represents an essential component of a comprehensive national security strategy to address serious and long-time deficiencies in critical language expertise.”

Since 1994, more than 1,900 students have received NSEP Boren Scholarships. Program alumni are working throughout the federal government and contributing to the critical missions of, among others, the Departments of Commerce, Defense, Homeland Security, Justice, State, and Treasury; the Intelligence Community; NASA, USAID, and the U.S. Congress. In addition to undergraduate scholarships, NSEP also awards fellowships to graduate students, and supports the National Flagship Language Initiative, a partnership between the federal government and higher education to produce university graduates with a superior level of proficiency in languages critical to U.S. national security. The Institute of International Education (IIE), the nation’s largest nonprofit educational and cultural exchange agency, serves as the administrative agency for the NSEP David L. Boren Undergraduate Scholarships.

Undergraduate students can apply for NSEP Boren Scholarships for 2005-06, with an application deadline of February 10, 2005. For more information, please contact IIE at 1-800-618-NSEP, or visit www.iie.org/nsep.

Information about study abroad at IU is available through the Office of Overseas Study located in Franklin Hall 303 and on the web at http://www.indiana.edu/~overseas. Contact the office by phone at 812-855-9304.