2 OU Students Receive Boren Awards for International Study

By <a href="http://www.ou.edu/publicaffairs">Public Affairs,</a> (405) 325-1701

Two University of Oklahoma students – Michelle Carney of Tulsa, and Jeremiah Cox of Eufaula – have won the Boren Award for International Study, sponsored by the National Security Education Program.

NORMAN – Two University of Oklahoma students – Michelle Carney of Tulsa, and Jeremiah Cox of Eufaula – have won the Boren Award for International Study, sponsored by the National Security Education Program.

Boren Scholarships, named for David L. Boren, OU’s 13th president and a former Oklahoma governor and U.S. senator, focus on geographic areas, languages and fields of study deemed critical to U.S. national security. The awards provide up to $20,000 in funding to undergraduate students to study abroad. This year, 820 undergraduate students applied for the Boren Scholarship and 165 received the award.

“To continue to play a leadership role in the world, it is vital that America’s future leaders have a deep understanding of the rest of the world,” said Boren, who as a U.S. senator was the principal author of the legislation that created the National Security Education Program and the scholarships and fellowships that bear his name. “As we seek to lead through partnerships, understanding of other cultures and languages is absolutely essential.”

Carney is a member of the Arabic Language Flagship program and is pursuing a major in Arabic with minors in Spanish and international security studies. She will study for a full year at the Arab American Language Institute and the Université Moulay Ismail in Meknes, Morocco. Last summer she participated in the intensive Arabic language program at the University of Texas at Austin and spent the spring 2014 semester studying in Granada, Spain. While in Spain, Carney hosted a donations drive for Syrian refugees and volunteered as an aide for an elderly woman. Upon returning from Morocco she plans to attend graduate school and then begin her career as a Foreign Service Officer in the Department of State.

At OU, Carney is the current president of the Arabic Club and member of the Moroccan Dialect Club. As a program assistant for the Arabic Flagship, she works with the directors, tutors students in Arabic, and serves as a teaching assistant. She has been the vice president of the Social Justice Club, and a member of the Crimson Beat dance group. In Tulsa, Carney has led spring break mission trips for youth to Kentucky and served as translator for a trip to Guatemala.

Cox, also a member of the Arabic Language Flagship, is pursuing dual degrees in international security studies and Arabic languages, and a minor in Middle Eastern studies. He will travel to Morocco this summer and begin study for a full year in Meknes, Morocco, at the Arab American Language Institute and the Université Moulay Ismail. Cox has studied for two successive summers in Jordan (2014) and Oman (2015) on Project GO Scholarships, a program sponsored by the Department of Defense that fully funds ROTC students for critical languages study domestically and abroad. A member of the OU Air Force ROTC, Cox will graduate and obtain his commission when he returns from Morocco in 2017. He plans a military career as an Air Force officer.

Active in the AFROTC, Cox has received the Gerrity and State Air Force Association Awards, and Military Excellence Award; other honors include AFROTC Achievement, Military Order of the Purple Heart, Academic Honors, Honor Flight, Physical Fitness, and Expert Marksman. He is a distinguished academic graduate of both programs in Jordan and Oman. Currently employed by the OU Police Department where he works in the records department, Cox is a volunteer for the OU Integrity Council, the Aerospace Booster Club, and OU Sooner Club; in addition, he founded Spartan Flight, an organization dedicated to physical fitness and professional leadership development.

2 Students Receive Boren Awards for International Study

2 OU Students Receive Boren Awards for International Study