Christine Kim, a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill graduate student, and Julia Tenyotkin, a Carolina alumna, have each been awarded the National Security Education Program’s David L. Boren Fellowship, which supports fields of study, particularly languages, identified as critical to United States national security.
Valued at up to $30,000, Boren scholarships are awarded to graduate students in exchange for their commitment to pursue work in federal government departments like defense, homeland security and state or intelligence agencies after graduation. Boren Scholars live and study in areas of the world that are important to national security.
Kim, 31, is currently a doctoral student in health policy and management in UNC-Chapel Hill’s Gillings School of Global Public Health. She is also a 2015-16 FHI 360-UNC Research Fellow. The Boren Fellowship will enable her to travel to Uganda where she will immerse herself in Swahili and plans to complete a project focused on quality improvement for community-based family planning. Kim graduated with a major in history from the University of California-Berkeley in 2007 and also earned a master’s degree in public health from Johns Hopkins University in 2011.
Tenyotkin, 26, graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2012 with a global studies and peace, war, and defense double major and a Chinese minor, all from the College of Arts and Sciences. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in international affairs at Monterey Institute of International Studies. The Boren Fellowship will enable Tenyotkin to study Mandarin in China, where she also plans to complete a project focused on understanding the nuances of the South China Sea dispute.
“The Boren Fellowship is among the few awards available to fund deep pursuit of language study for graduate students, and the award underlines the commitment of both the federal government and the Institute of International Education to educate our country’s citizens,” said Mary Floyd-Wilson, director of Carolina’s Office of Distinguished Scholarships. “Without the substantial funding and programs available through the Boren Awards and the National Security Education Program, excellent students like Christine and Julia might find it difficult to gain advanced knowledge of less commonly studied and taught languages that are important to U.S. national security.”
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