More AU students earn full rides to exotic study-abroad programs than applicants from any other school through the prestigious David L. Boren Fellowship. The undeniable bonus to the big money is an intense life experience.
Boren Fellows collect unusual passport stamps as the scholarship targets less-traveled sites, especially those in strategic countries for U.S. security interests. AU winners in 2004 are currently in the depths of cultural immersion from the Philippines to Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Junior Adam Poulemanos flew home to Hamilton, Ohio, from urban Egypt over winter break. The School of International Service student returned with a "malish" mentality learned in Cairo.
"'Malish' means something like 'it doesn't matter' or 'no worries' in colloquial Arabic," Poulemanos said. "It is an ethos in Egypt - a way of life. While the city is utterly crazy due to crowding, absurdly dangerous traffic, especially for us pedestrians, everyone simply is unconcerned with most anything."
"I think this was the hardest part to adapt to, as I found it very frustrating at first, coming from blood sport, go-getter Washington," he said. "Now I find it marvelously freeing."
One in every nine Boren Fellows is an AU student, according to the Office of Merit Awards' annual report. Each student is eligible for up to two semesters of study abroad and backed with a maximum of $30,000. Scholars are required to undergo service for the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, State or the intelligence community during their fellowship, the Boren Web site reported.
The Boren application process is intense, said successful students. Poulemanos compared the effort to a three-credit class. Junior Forrest Dunbar is spending a year in Tokyo and remembered frantic trips to Kinko's Copy Center during the application process.
"I'd say at [the application's] height, I was working at least eight hours a week, but probably more," said Dunbar, a native of Fairbanks, Alaska. "The people at Merit Awards helped me more than I could have imagined. They kept me re-writing drafts, and they trudged through the nonsense I kept creating," he said.
Boren applicants propose their own program of study centered on a contemporary issue in their chosen nation. For example, some AU winners are currently exploring peace building in Uganda, or women's organizing in China. Dunbar focuses on U.S.-Asian trade relations in Japan.
Seventeen AU students are undergraduate and graduate Boren Fellows living in the West Bank, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Georgia, Philippines, Uganda, China, Japan, Egypt and United Arab Emirates. An AU student was selected as an alternate to study in Poland.
Fellows on long stays become so attuned to their adopted nations that they even expect to experience reverse culture shock, Poulemanos said. He noted his Cairo site has more American fast food chains than Washington, D.C.
The popularity of the fellowship seems to be growing each year with more institutions forwarding candidates and a greater applicant pool, the Office of Merit Awards said.
Boren Fellow Rebecca Byerly is an SIS junior from Pleasant Garden, N.C.
On a road trip from American University of Cairo, Byerly rented a van with friends and traveled through Turkey.
"We stopped in Kurdish villages that just a few years ago had been riddled by war," she said. "We were the first Americans some of the kids in the villages had ever seen."
Byerly knitted the real-world knowledge into her many academic papers about the Kurdish people.
"Living in the Middle East is a 24-hour lesson that opens your mind to things you would never have known existed if you did not experience them first-hand," she said. "Whatever field I go into, I am a thousand times more prepared after living in Egypt."
Dunbar was firefighting in Alaska this summer when he found out about the results of his semester-long application effort. He said the Boren is a "benchmark" to test his ability to get into a top-flight graduate school or compete for other prestigious scholarships.
"I'm not sure what I would have done had I failed to win. It probably would have set my confidence back about three years and left me with a gnawing, angry emptiness in my stomach," Dunbar said. "But hey, I won, so who cares? No risk, no reward."
Junior Alex Peterson is forgetting English. Peterson offered this disclaimer just one semester into his two-year stay in Japan. He is the first U.S. citizen to enroll in AU's dual undergraduate degree program with Ritsumeikan University. Usually, Japanese students cross the ocean to attend AU, not the other way around. Instruction at RU is solely Japanese.
Peterson is majoring in International Relations and said the Boren "perfectly" fits with his career goals. "I hope to join the State Department, so the service requirement is wonderful," he said.
Boren Fellows spoke glowingly about the Office of Merit Awards.
Writing from Cairo, Byerly said, "They were a constant support system the entire way and I am forever grateful."
Freshmen and sophomores interested in applying for the scholarship should contact the office through the Career Center.
'Wish you were here...': Something to write home about
Abby Parker Dublin, Ireland Senior, SPA
[Excerpt from an e-mail home to family]
"I went on a weekend trip to Cork on the train about four and a half hours away from Dublin. I kissed the Blarney stone ... which the Irish laugh at. So now I'm blessed with 'the gift of gab,' says the old myth. On our way back to Dublin we stopped at the beeeeaaauuutiful Rock of Cashel. It's basically an old cathedral all in rocky ruins on a little hill surrounded by green pastures."
Hannah Stocks Cameroon Senior, SIS
[Excerpt from a 50-page report]
"One morning I made the one-hour walk to Dschang with Patrick, a 20-year-old "son" of the chief. ... He told me the walk was very difficult, especially for the young people. 'The young people?' I questioned, 'Shouldn't a five-kilometer hike be more difficult for an old maman carrying yams on her head and carrots in a bag than for us? We're 20 and we're healthy.' Patrick's response was something I heard hundreds of times, 'Mais elles sont habitu?es' (translation: 'but they are used to it.') And it is true; these older women know nothing other than the walk to and from the city."
Josh White Cape Town, South Africa Sophomore, SIS/SPA
[Excerpt from e-mail to friends]
"I started my volunteering position at the Baphele Orphanage. ... I'll be working four days a week as one of 10 adults taking care of 65 children, ages 1 day to 17 years old. I say 1 day, because within two hours of me arriving and holding toddlers out in the street (since there's no room in the actual house), police dropped off a baby with its umbilical cord still attached, covered in blood. ... She was named after one of my fellow volunteers"
