Student Spotlight: Lord Wins Boren Award
Caroline Lord, a sophomore majoring in Asian Studies, History and Middle East and North Africa Studies at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, has been awarded the David L. Boren Scholarship for International Study.
The Boren Scholarship provides unique funding opportunities for undergraduate students to study less commonly taught languages in world regions critical to U.S. interests, and underrepresented in study abroad, including Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Eurasia, Latin America and the Middle East.
With her award, Lord plans to travel to Amman, Jordan for seven months spanning the summer and fall 2016 semester to study Arabic at the Qasid Arabic Institute.
Lord said she was completely taken aback when she found out she had been selected as a Boren scholar.
“This award seemed like such a remote possibility that I had already made other plans for the summer,” Lord said. “The Boren Scholarship will allow me to live and study in Jordan for seven months, an experience I never thought I would be able to have as an undergraduate. I look forward to the opportunity to completely immerse myself in the language and culture of a region to which I have devoted my undergraduate studies.”
In addition to supplementing the classes she has taken at the Pardee School, Lord said her time in Jordan will be a practical test of her skills in Arabic.
“My studies in Jordan will enrich my cultural awareness, enhance my understanding of the history of the Middle East, and provide a setting to test my Arabic skills with native speakers, building upon the classes I have taken so far through the Pardee School,” Lord said. “While such immersive knowledge is the ideal complement to my History and Middle Eastern Studies Majors, I also look forward to applying this enhanced understanding to my Asian Studies Major. Although it may seem like a counterintuitive connection, increasing linkages between Asia and the Middle East demand a greater understanding of both regions.”