Baylor student Chase Gottlich, a junior University Scholar major from Ormond Beach, Fla., is one of a select group of 165 American undergraduates to be selected to receive a prestigious David L. Boren Scholarship. 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.

Gottlich will use his Boren scholarship to do language study in Swahili in the African country of Tanzania. He will study with the American Council African Flagship Language Initiative at the MS Training Centre for Development Cooperation in Arusha, Tanzania.

“Winning this scholarship allows me to experience a language, culture and reality often forgotten and ignored by Americans,” Gottlich said. “Being able to learn Swahili now will set the stage for my future involvement in a medical capacity addressing systemic inequalities throughout East Africa. I am nervous and yet eager for this adventure and for all of the friends I will meet in Tanzania.”

This year, the Institute of International Education, which administers the Boren awards, received 820 applications from undergraduate students for the Boren Scholarship and 165 were awarded, while 350 graduate students applied for the Boren Fellowship and 105 were awarded. Boren Scholars and Fellows will live in 41 countries throughout Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Eurasia, Latin America and the Middle East, studying 36 different languages.

Since 1994, more than 5,500 students have received Boren Awards. They are named for former U.S. Senator David Boren, who was the principal author of legislation that created the National Security Education Program. Boren is the current president of the University of Oklahoma.