Baylor Students Win Boren, Critical Language, Fulbright UK Summer Institute Awards

Contact: Shelby Cefaratti-Bertin, 254-327-8012 
Follow us: @BaylorUMedia on X and LinkedIn 

Baylor University students continue to be awarded the most prestigious – and highly competitive – scholarships and fellowships at the national and international level for critical language study and cultural exploration. This includes outstanding Baylor students earning Boren Awards, Critical Language Scholarships and a Fulbright UK Summer Institutes award.

“Awards like the Boren and Critical Language Scholarship make a greater degree of language fluency possible for students,” said Anna E. Beaudry, Ph.D., assistant director of major fellowships and awards for the OEL. “As wonderful as learning a language in college is, there’s no comparison to having an immersive language experience. These students will be advancing their language acquisition alongside immersion in the cultures from which that language evolved.

“And for our first-ever graduate student winner of the Boren Fellowship, this experience is giving her unparalleled access to language skills she requires to complete her dissertation work,” Beaudry said.

In addition to the Boren and CLS, the Fulbright UK Summer Institutes award provides opportunities that help propel students into a global educational experience that can have a lasting impact on their futures as well as the knowledge they will bring back to Baylor.

“Having Baylor students out on these awards means that the Baylor name is traveling around the world through these student ambassadors,” Beaudry said. “As Baylor lives out its commitment to being Pro Mundo, it’s essential not only that our student ambassadors represent Baylor abroad, but also that they return to campus and represent the world to us back here in Waco.”

Boren Awards

An initiative of the National Security Education Program, Boren Scholarships and Fellowships focus on geographic areas, languages and fields of study critical to U.S. national security that are not emphasized in other U.S. study abroad programs. Through a national merit-based competition, successful applicants distinguish themselves as both highly motivated in their academic and career goals, as well as in their strong commitment to public service.

Two Baylor students have been selected for 2025 Boren Awards, including Baylor’s first-ever graduate student to win a Boren Fellowship:

• Rebeca J. Blemur, a history doctoral student, College of Arts & Sciences, from Woburn, Massachusetts, who won the Boren Fellowship - African Flagship Language Initiative (or AFLI) for the study of the French language over the summer at the University of Florida followed by the full fall and spring semesters in Senegal.
• Shannon Barton, a junior University Scholar, Honors College, from Georgetown, Texas, who won the Boren Scholarship for the study of the Korean language in South Korea with an emphasis on STEM studies in medical sciences.

Critical Language Scholarship

The U.S. Department of State sponsors the Critical Language Scholarship, part of a larger U.S. government effort to expand the number of Americans studying and mastering foreign languages that are critical to national security, economic prosperity and engagement with the world.

Baylor’s 2025 CLS recipients are: 

• Taylor Chung, a senior international studies major, College of Arts & Sciences, who will study Swahili in Arusha, Tanzania, at the MS-Training Center for Development Cooperation.
• Mike Ermis, a senior history major, College of Arts & Sciences, from Montgomery, Texas, who will study Russian in Daugavpils, Latvia.

Fulbright UK Summer Institutes

One of the many awards under the Fulbright umbrella, the Fulbright UK Summer Institutes are three- to four-week programs for U.S. undergraduate students who have no or very little travel experience outside North America. Participants can explore the culture, heritage and history of the UK while experiencing higher education at a UK university.

Baylor’s 2025 recipient of the Fulbright UK Summer Institutes award is:

• Nikolas Gillaspie, a sophomore double major in history and political science, College of Arts & Sciences, from Rutland, Massachusetts, who will spend the summer studying Scotland’s history at the Fulbright University of St Andrews Summer Institute.

ABOUT THE OFFICE OF ENGAGED LEARNING

The Office of Engaged Learning at Baylor University is a central hub of programs through which students discover opportunities to maximize their undergraduate education by learning beyond the classroom. Here, faculty and staff work with a diverse array of students to moor the transformational work they do in the classroom to opportunities for application and engagement. OEL brings together mentoring opportunities for students across fields of study, empowering our undergraduates to:

• deepen learning by participating in faculty-led research,
• apply burgeoning academic expertise to work for the good of the community,
• broaden and diversify understanding through global involvement,
• gain valuable professional experience through internships, especially in research and public service, and
• compete for major fellowships and awards at the national and international level, including the Fulbright, Truman, Rhodes, Marshall or Churchill that support post-graduate study, research or international engagement, and other notable awards such as the Goldwater, Boren, Critical Language Scholarship, Gilman and NSF-REU that fund student research and study at the undergraduate level.

ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY

Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked Research 1 institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 20,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions.