Arts and Sciences Students Win Boren, CLS Scholarships to Study Languages

Five Penn Arts and Sciences students have received scholarships that will send them abroad to study foreign languages in the next year. 

Benjamin Filreis, C’14, has been awarded a National Security Education Program (NSEP) Boren Scholarship for the 2014-15 academic year. A political science major, he will study Persian Farsi and Tajik with American Councils for International Education (ACIE) in Tajikistan.

David L. Boren Scholarships and Fellowships provide U.S. undergraduate and graduate students with resources to acquire language skills and experience in countries critical to the future security and stability of the U.S. In exchange for funding, Boren award recipients agree to work in the federal government for a period of at least one year. 

Filreis is also one of five Penn Arts and Sciences students to receive Critical Language Scholarships for this summer from the U.S. Department of State. The Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program offers intensive summer language institutes with the chance for immersion and cultural excursions. The other students are Jamie Fisher, C’14, and Ronan Maye, C’17, studying Chinese in China; Laura Fabian, GR’16, studying Russian in Russia; and Ethan LaFrance, C’16, studying Turkish in Turkey.

Filreis will learn with about 30 other CLS students in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, this summer. In late August he will begin courses covering literature, journalism, and politics with ACIE’s Eurasian Regional Languages program, also in Dushanbe, as a Boren scholar. All the courses will be conducted in Persian Farsi or Tajik.