Boren Scholarship
Boren Scholarships fund international experiences undertaken by U.S. undergraduate students in world regions critical to U.S. interests. Please see the Boren Awards list of preferred countries and preferred areas of study. Students may apply for a Regional Flagship Language Initiative, or they may select/design their own study abroad program. All Boren Scholarship-funded international experiences must include language study as a core element for the duration of the grant.
Proposal Timelines and Procedures
Boren Scholars study a wide range of critical languages, including Arabic, Chinese, Portuguese, Tagalog, Russian, Japanese, and more. Boren Awards are available to students of all proficiency levels who are committed to enhancing their skills; some languages require a higher proficiency level than others. Boren Scholars from diverse fields of study immerse themselves in the cultures in world regions underrepresented in study abroad, including Africa, Asia, Eurasia, Latin America, and the Middle East. Boren Awards alumni are committed to public service, working in positions critical to U.S. national security throughout the Federal Government, including the Departments of State, Defense, and Homeland Security, and USAID. All Boren Scholars commit to work for the federal government for a minimum of one year.
Maximum Award Amounts:
24-52 weeks (preferred): $25,000
12-24 weeks: $12,500
8-11 weeks (STEM only): $8,000
Proposed programs of two semesters, especially those of at least 25 weeks duration, are preferred. The minimum duration of an eligible program is 12 weeks for most Boren Awards applicants. (A special exception to this rule exists for undergraduate STEM majors, who may propose summer programs of 8 weeks or longer).
For more information on eligibility, preferred countries, and preferred field of study, please see the detailed requirements on the Boren Awards website: https://borenawards.org/eligible-programs.
Boren Application
A completed Boren Scholarship application contains the components listed below. Applications are submitted through the online application portal on the Boren webpage. Applications should NOT be submitted to the online portal until after your Campus Evaluation interview (do not submit before the CSN deadline). The more of your application that is complete prior to the Campus Evaluation, the more feedback Dr. Barroso-Merino and the committee can give you. If not complete, you should have a strong draft of your essays ready at this time.
Please do not submit your application before the CSN deadline; you will only submit your application to the portal after your Campus Evaluation has taken place and your application is complete. After submission, the application will be sent to the national committee.
Application Components
1: Eligibility and Basic Information
2: Personal Information
3: Academic Information: Includes transcripts from each academic institution attended (these may be unofficial)
- Employment History
- Relevant Activities
- International Experience and Budget: includes a one-page description of the international experience. You may create a screenshot or PDF from a website or submit a brochure page. Your budget should contain estimated costs for tuition and fees, room and board, airfare (must be on a U.S. carrier) and other costs associated with the program, such as books, local transportation, and insurance. Please note that there is no incentive to underestimate your costs—the amount of money that you estimate will not affect your chances of winning an award. For assistance with finding an international experience, please reach out to educationabroad@csn.edu.
- Essays and Plans: The application includes two essays, with a maximum of 800 words for each essay. This is the most critical component of the application, and you should review the extensive essay guidelines to increase your chances of success. You should also reach out to your CSN Boren Campus Representative, Dr. Julian Barroso-Merino (julian.barrosomerino@csn.edu), who is available to assist you with crafting a competitive essay.
- Language self-assessment (to be completed even if the student has no prior knowledge of the target language)
- Additional information: international experience, honors and awards, other scholarships or fellowships received
- Two letters of recommendation (you may include an optional third letter, but choosing to do so will not necessarily hurt or help your application). Please review Boren’s guide on selecting strong recommenders. Applicants who have experience in the target language are also encouraged to fill out a Language Evaluation, which should be completed by a recent instructor in that language.
- After the deadline, you will be contacted by Dr. Barroso-Merino to set up an interview time for your Campus Evaluation. Your application must be complete before we can schedule an interview for you.
Next Steps:
- Email CSN’s Boren Campus Representative: Dr. Julian Barroso-Merino, World Languages, julian.barrosomerino@csn.edu
- Check out the official Boren website
- Attend a Boren Scholarship Information session on campus
On Campus Application Process
To begin, please email the CSN Boren Campus Representative: Dr. Julian Barroso-Merino at julian.barrosomerino@csn.edu
Note: The Boren Scholarship does not require campus certification; all complete, eligible applications submitted by the national deadline will receive full consideration. However, it is strongly recommended that students work closely with the Boren Campus Representative and participate in the on-campus interview and application process. The CSN on-campus interview will give the national selection committee valuable insight into your candidacy for the Boren Award, and is a chance for you to articulate your goals in person to the committee.
The Online Application:
Create an account on Boren’s online application portal (application cycle begins in mid-August), which can be found on their webpage. You will submit all of your application materials through this portal.
The Campus Deadline: The campus deadline is a FINAL deadline. It is Friday, December 2nd, 2022.
After the deadline, you will be contacted by Dr. Barroso-Merino to set up an interview time for your Campus Evaluation. Your application must be complete before we can schedule an interview for you.
Please do not call or email to ask about the completeness of your application. You can check on the Boren application system to see if letters of recommendation and language evaluations have been uploaded and submitted.
What is the purpose of the campus interview?
The purpose of the campus interview is to provide additional information about your candidacy to the selection committee. The interviews are your chance to articulate, in person, your reasons for wanting to study or research abroad. Each applicant will be interviewed individually for about 30 minutes by a panel of CSN faculty and staff. Panelists may question students on contacts they have made abroad, academic preparation for the study, knowledge of the host country, and language training.
How does the panel evaluate applicants?
The panel’s rating of your application is based on an evaluation of your complete application and the campus interview. The panel will assess the content and feasibility of your proposed international plans, your language preparation, your plans for fulfilling the service requirement, your host country knowledge, etc., and then complete a Campus Evaluation Form.
PLEASE NOTE: No one is eliminated from the competition at the campus level. All applications will be submitted, regardless of the rating given by the campus committee.
What is the makeup of the panel?
You will be interviewed by CSN faculty and staff members who may or may not be in your area of study, of which some may have language expertise or cultural knowledge related to your proposed country of study.
Please note that the campus interview is meant to support your application, not be the deciding factor in your application. The interview and evaluation is meant to give the national selection committee as much information to work with as possible, and is, thus, very important.
What format will the interview be conducted in? if I will be away from campus during the spring semester?
The preference is to conduct interviews in person, but as needed interviews can be conducted over MS Teams and Google Meet.
National Selection Process
The official selection criteria for the Boren Scholarships, as well as statements on consideration of veterans of the U.S. military and non-discrimination, can be found here.
Applications will be evaluated on these criteria by IIE-organized regional review panels and the national nominating panel. The panels consist of faculty members and administrators representing diverse fields of study from colleges and universities from across the United States. The regional panels will make initial recommendations, and the national nominating panel will designate scholarship finalists to the National Security Education Program office.
Selection panels will also seek wide geographic and diverse institutional representation among candidates, as well as ethnic and gender diversity and distribution among academic disciplines related to national security interests.
You will receive notification regarding your application acceptance any time between mid-March to late April (the notification date can vary from year to year). Please contact your Boren Campus Representative when you receive your official notification, as we are often not informed until a later date.
Additional Tips
- Make this scholarship application a priority and manage your time well!
- Watch a Boren Awards Webinar. Here you will find general information about the awards, as well as specific, useful tips for crafting a competitive application.
- Get everything in on time. Supporting materials can be submitted late, but you should make every effort to have a completed application as soon as possible.
- Please contact your campus representative, Dr. Julian Barroso-Merino (julian.barrosomerino@csn.edu) with any questions you have.
Good luck!