Undergrad Fellow wins Boren Scholarship

David L. Boren Scholarships and Fellowships are sponsored by the National Security Education Program (NSEP), a major federal initiative designed to build a broader and more qualified pool of U.S. citizens with foreign language and international skills. 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 our nation. In exchange for funding, Boren award recipients agree to work in the federal government for a period of at least one year.

Sam Karnes is a Plan II and Middle Eastern Studies fourth year in UT’s Arabic Flagship Program. His primary academic interests revolve around the language, politics and culture of the Arab world, as well as refugee and forced migration policy. Sam spent his last summer interning at the Department of State in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, writing and researching about civilian casualty recording in the Syrian conflict and detainment treatment in Iraqi cities liberated from Da’esh control. He co-founded and served as president of the Liberal Arts Refugee Alliance, is the acting president of the Texas Blazers and Texas Roundtable, and is writing his Plan II Thesis on the impact of language education accessibility on the integration of resettled refugees.