Three University of Oklahoma students – Jack Bergum of South Range, Wis., Daniel Glickstein of Dallas, and JoAnne Kosta of Fairfax, Va. – 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.
Bergum, a sophomore with a double major in political science and International Security Studies, will spend the 2014-2015 academic year at Moulay Ismail University in Morocco. After receiving his bachelor’s degree from OU in 2016, he plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Middle Eastern studies and then begin a career as a political analyst for the U.S. Government.
A National Merit Scholar, Bergum is a member of the OU Honors College where he moderates a political discussion group. He also has served on the student advisory committee for the Department of Political Science and contributed to a budget analysis project through the department. Last summer, he participated in the OU Journey to Turkey program.
A senior International Security Studies major with a minor in Arabic, Glickstein plans to study in Amman, Jordan, for the fall 2014 semester at the Jordan Institute of Diplomacy. While abroad, he will participate in an internship focused on economic development and refugee assistance. Upon graduation in December, Glickstein plans to continue development work with U.S. Agency for International Development or as a regional analyst for an organization such as the Center for Strategic and International Studies. This summer he will be a research intern at the Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pa.
Following his freshman year at OU in 2010, Glickstein enlisted in the Army National Guard and deployed to Afghanistan from May 2011 to April 2012. Returning to OU, he began studying Arabic and is now an undergraduate research assistant in the Department of International Area Studies. Glickstein is a member of the OU Student Veteran’s Association and has served on the planning committee.
Kosta, a member of the Arabic Language Flagship, is pursuing a double major in Arabic Languages and Literatures and Middle Eastern Studies. She will travel to Morocco this summer and begin to study for a full year in Meknes, Morocco, at the Arab American Language Institute and the Université Moulay Ismail. Last summer, Kosta studied in Meknes, and in 2012, she participated in the summer Arabic immersion program at the University of Texas-Austin. After her year abroad, Kosta will graduate Summa cum Laude and then attend graduate school for the study of Arabic dialects.
Active in the Lebanese, Arab, and Saudi Student Associations at OU, Kosta also has served as an Arabic tutor and teacher’s assistant for Arabic classes. She is a member of the Phi Theta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi honor societies, the OU Equestrian Club, where she has held several offices, and is a regular participant in the OU Big Event.
