Four Undergraduate Students Named David L. Boren Scholars

Four Pitt undergraduate students have been honored with David L. Boren Scholarships from the National Security Education Program. The scholarships will provide up to $20,000 for Pitt’s winners to partake in extended study endeavors in Brazil, China, South Korea and Tanzania.

Katherine Andrews, of York, Pennsylvania, is entering her senior year as a political science major with certificates in global and Latin American studies. She will study Portuguese through the Council on International Education and Exchange in the Brazilian cities of Rio de Janeiro and Salvador, beginning in January.

Matthew Eskuchen, of Cinnaminson, New Jersey, a fourth-year biology major and chemistry minor with a conceptual foundations of medicine certificate, will study Mandarin at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics in China starting in January.

Capri Gaines, of Randallstown, Maryland, entering her senior year as a political science and urban studies major and U.S. Army reservist, is studying Korean at the Korea University in Seoul, South Korea until December.

Nora Wagman, of Villanova, Pennsylvania, a fourth-year economics major with a global studies certificate focusing on global economy and Chinese, is studying Swahili through the African Flagship Languages Initiative in Arusha, Tanzania until March 2018.

The David L. Boren Awards for International Study are named for the principal author of the legislation that created the National Security Education Program in 1991. The program focuses on geographic areas, language, and fields of study critical of U.S. national security including sustainable development global disease and hunger, population growth and migration, and environmental degradation. In exchange for funding, Boren Scholars commit to working in the federal government for at least a year after undergraduate or graduate school.