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3 Gordon Institute students earn prestigious Boren awards

3 Gordon Institute students earn prestigious Boren awards

Students from the FIU Jack D. Gordon for Public Policy have earned Boren Awards to study languages critical to national security.

May 12, 2020 at 1:22pm

Three students from the Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy have earned prestigious Boren Awards to continue their international studies. Kamila A., Austin D. and Diana V. will be studying languages critical to national security.

Boren scholarships and fellowships are sponsored by the National Security Education Program and are administered by the Institute of International Education. The program provides funding for the intensive study of language and culture abroad by U.S. undergraduate and graduate students through undergraduate scholarships, graduate fellowships and institutional grants. Undergraduate students can receive a maximum award of $20,000, and graduate students may receive up to $24,000.

“We’re incredibly proud of our Gordon Institute National Security Studies Certificate students,” said Hector Cadavid, deputy director at the Gordon Institute, a part of the Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs. “This recognition demonstrates their unwavering commitment to their studies and professional development.”

Kamila A., an international relations major and philosophy minor, will be studying Russian as a Boren Scholar. Her passion for public policy and national security began when she had an internship in Washington, D.C., and resided near the Pentagon. She’s a member of the Model UN team at FIU. Kamila expects to graduate in Spring 2021.

Austin D. is pursuing a master’s degree in international studies. As a graduate student, he received a Boren Fellowship and will study Arabic and complete research on Iraq for a year. Austin appreciates the level of connection the Gordon Institute has to the political community.  

“The Gordon Institute very much throws its support behind [students] they believe in,” he said.

Diana V. is majoring in international relations and complementing her undergraduate degree with certificates in Global Cybersecurity Policy and National Security. She will be using her Boren Scholarship to advance her Korean language studies. Diana is currently the president and co-creator of the Korean Language Empowerment Club (KLEC) at FIU. She recently completed a study abroad program in China and has since focused her academic interest on Asia.

“The Boren Scholarship Award will assist me in continuing my passion and interest in cybersecurity and learning the Korean language. The helping hand throughout my entire university experience and the application process to the Boren Scholarship has been the Gordon Institute.”

The undergraduate National Security Studies and Global Cybersecurity Policy Certificates are offered through the Gordon Institute’s designation as an Intelligence Community Center for Academic Excellence (IC-CAE).  The IC CAE is a congressionally mandated program established in 2005 to create an increased pool of culturally and ethnically diverse, multi-disciplinary job applicants for the intelligence community. The program provides grants to competitively selected accredited U.S. four-year colleges and universities to support the design and development of intelligence-related curricula.

For more information on the Gordon Institute and certificate programs, visit the institute's website.