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Boren Awards for International Study
David L. Boren is the principal author of the legislation that created the National Security Education Program and the Boren Awards, the scholarships and fellowships that bear his name. In arguing in the U.S. Senate for passage of NSEP, Boren expressed his view that the U.S. needed a large increase in experts in the languages and cultures of nations which were underrepresented in the number of U.S. students studying there. With changes in the world, Boren felt that the U.S. would work more and more through partnerships with other countries whose needs and perspectives needed to be more fully understood.
As a United States Senator from 1979 to 1994, President Boren served on the Senate Finance and Agriculture Committees and was the longest-serving chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. He served as Oklahoma’s governor from 1974 through 1978. He is the first person in Oklahoma history to serve as a state legislator, governor, U.S. senator, and president of the University of Oklahoma. He is a graduate of Yale University, Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and the University of Oklahoma College of Law. Senator Boren is widely respected for his academic credentials, his longtime support for education, and for his distinguished political career as a reformer of the American political system.
National Security Education Program
The National Security Education Program (NSEP) was established by the National Security Education Act of 1991, which created the National Security Education Board, the National Security Education Program, and resources to provide undergraduate scholarships, graduate fellowships, and institutional grants. It is guided by a mission that seeks to lead in development of the national capacity to educate U.S. citizens, understand foreign cultures, strengthen U.S. economic competitiveness and enhance international cooperation and security.
Program policies and direction are provided by the 14-member National Security Education Board. Congress has mandated that the Board be comprised of eight senior federal government officials and six individual citizens appointed by the President of the United States. The Board determines critical areas the program should address and recommends criteria for the awards.
Defense Language and National Security Education Office
NSEP is a key part of the broader Defense Language and National Security Education Office (DLNSEO). DLNSEO addresses, at a DoD and a national level, the spectrum of activity including language, regional expertise, and culture – from initial foreign language training for civilian and military populations; assessment, enhancement, and sustainment of that training; to the leveraging of international partners. Through DLNSEO, DoD has the unique ability to develop coherent departmental and national language strategies; to develop and coordinate programs, policies, and initiatives; and to lead the way forward in shaping our nation’s capability to effectively teach critical languages.
Institute of International Education
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