Two Nebraska Wesleyan University students are among only 151 students in the nation to win the prestigious Boren Scholarship.
Lesley Dudden of Venango and Matthew Emerton of Burwell have each been awarded a Boren Scholarship, which provides $20,000 to undergraduates to study abroad in areas of the world that are critical to U.S. interests and underrepresented in study abroad.
Dudden will return to Turkey where she will study the Turkish language and international relations at Bogazici University, one of the country’s premier public universities.
“Turkey is a country I can’t seem to get my mind off of,” said the senior political science and global studies major. “I have missed it since I left.”
Dudden first traveled to Turkey after winning the prestigious Critical Language Scholarship to study there as a sophomore. She returned there as a foreign exchange student in fall 2009. Last summer Dudden was selected to attend the G8 and G20 summits in Canada where she met President Barrack Obama who then introduced her to the prime minister of Turkey.
Following her year in Turkey, Dudden plans to pursue a master’s degree in international affairs and would eventually like to work for the U.S. Foreign Service.
Emerton will return to Bangkok, Thailand where he will enroll in Chulalongkorn University’s Intensive Thai Language Program. Emerton, a senior exercise science major, first studied in Bangkok as a foreign exchange student. That experience helped him discover his career path.
“As an exercise science major, I’d always been unsure as to what I wanted to do for a career,” he said. “I’ve bounced around from pursuing careers in physical therapy, optometry, and other areas of health and medicine.
“Studying abroad opened my eyes to other career possibilities in health and medicine by igniting an interest in global public health,” he continued.
Emerton now plans to pursue a master’s degree in public health with an emphasis in global health and health disparities. He hopes to one work for the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention.
Nearly 944 college undergraduates applied for a Boren Scholarship with 151 awarded. Nebraska Wesleyan University students have won 15 Boren scholarships with eight awarded in the last five years.