Boren Scholarship to Fund Student’s Linguistic and Cultural Immersion in Morocco
Katharine Armstrong CSSH’20, a Northeastern University sophomore studying international affairs and Arabic, has earned the Boren Scholarship to fund intensive language study and cultural immersion through study abroad in Rabat, Morocco. She is one of only 221 scholars nationwide to achieve this honor.
The Boren Scholarship, an initiative of the National Security Education Program, enables U.S. undergraduate students to study less commonly taught languages in world regions critical to U.S. interests, and underrepresented in study abroad. In exchange for funding, Boren Scholars commit to work in the federal government for at least one year after graduation.
Katharine traces her desire to work in the national security arena to a swim camp she attended at the U.S. Naval Academy as a teenager. Inspired by the midshipmen and the service ethos she encountered there, she went on to attend Georgetown University’s National Security and Counterintelligence Institute and enrolled in Arabic classes at local community college while still in high school. At Northeastern, she continued her study of Arabic language in Boston and through a Dialogue of Civilizations to Jordan.
Studying abroad for a semester in Morocco will not only further develop her Arabic language skills, Katharine says, but will also deepen her engagement with the culture of the region. Katharine believes it is vital that U.S. diplomats, analysts, and policymakers understand diverse cultures in order to make fully informed, strategic decisions. She looks forward to a career which will draw upon this knowledge.