Ross Conroy '17 of Berwick, Maine, has received a Boren Scholarship to study in Rwanda during the 2015-16 academic year. The junior political science and international affairs dual major and member of the University Honors Program is one of only 171 students nationally to have received a 2015 Boren award.
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 the United States. In exchange for funding, Boren award recipients agree to work in the federal government for a period of at least one year.
Conroy will spend the spring 2016 semester on the Post-Genocide Restoration and Peace Building program run by the School for International Training, and he’ll study the Kinyarwanda language.
This will not be Conroy’s first time in Africa. He lived in Namibia with his family in 2008, studied in Senegal last summer and he’s participating in an internship at the U.S. Embassy in Cameroon this summer. Someday he would like to work for the Foreign Service as a public diplomacy or economic officer.
The National Security Education Program, a federal initiative designed to build a more qualified pool of U.S. citizens with foreign language and international skills, sponsors the David L. Boren Scholarships and Fellowships.
UNH undergraduates or graduate students interested in applying for a Boren Scholarship or Fellowship may contact the Office of National Fellowships for more information. The Office of National Fellowships provides information, counsel and editorial support to highly motivated students applying for national and international fellowships and scholarships like the Boren.
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Written By:
Jeanne Sokolowski | Office of National Fellowships
