Rebekah

Congrats!!! I got the call, too, and I am heaading to Tanzania for the year!! I can't believe it. I had made other plans, too. Such great news! Does anyone on here know if there is an orientation in DC for fellowship winners before we leave?

Hi All! I need everyone's help - if you or anyone you know applied for a Boren Fellowship or Scholarship for any of the African Language Initiative Programs please get in touch with me immediately (by this Sunday night, May 8 at the latest). I have some exciting news and a potentially great alternate opportunity if you would still like to go!! JG33 - thanks again for doing such a great job with the spreadsheets and getting this board up and running. I hope you know how much we all appreciate it! ALI aplicants email me at: wilbergr@uwm.edu as soon as you can. Thanks!!

Thanks for a great reminder, Emily! I love that you wrote out your plan B before the award announcements. What a great reminder of everything else you have to offer....you should have told all of us to do that sooner!! I also applied for ALI and was wondering how many awards were given. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the Boren reps made it sound like an extra 10-15 awards would be given to applicants interested in ALI. I'm also curious how many alternates there are for each country. Were you planning on attending the UF SCALI program this summer?

Thanks again for doing this, jg33....I think you missed my post earlier for the spreadsheet. I am an alternate

Let us know what Boren responds regarding whether or not it is country specific. I was wondering the same thing, but will spare them the extra email. Thanks and good luck!!!

I hadn't contemplated it until receiving the email, but now it's an option. I am registered. I'm looking into it today. Problem is that I am just about finished with my MA so I may just head over to TZ on my own and take independent lessons there. I went this past January and have made enough connections that it may be more cost effective to do it on my own - not as intense, but who knows? To be honest, I'm not sure which end is up right now.

Yeah, I don't know what to think. Especially considering I included the summer portion of the program and I would have to start in 5 weeks at UF. Do you know if alternate means someone else has to drop out from your specific country program or just not accept any of the programs?

alternate....let the wait continue

If I had a dollar for every time I checked my email in the past 48 hours, I would already have the $30K and I could fund my own program.

New FB and Twitter update from Boren: "The award notifications for the Boren Scholarship and the Boren Fellowship will go out this week." Pretty much the same ol' message...

I got the email, as well. On April 21 I contacted UF regarding registration confirmation. The email you should have received when you registered for UF states that you are not completely registered until your emergency contact info is updated; however, in order to do this, a UFID is needed. The rep at UF said she would email the registered students to let them know how to set up a UFID when she had further information. I am assuming the email today is in response to this. In short, don't forget to update your emergency contact info!

Thanks for joining in, alanz! Welcome to the excruciating wait....

Wow! 29 Users reading this post today?!?! That's the most I've ever seen. For those of you who are guests and haven't joined in the discussion yet, what were your program proposals? Good luck to everyone....Looks like we may have another restless night ahead of us

If this were facebook I'd "like" your response, riverguide.

Ok, I'm back. So here are a few things you can check out: http://www.omprakash.org/travelresources http://www.abroadreview.com http://www.cev.be/29-links-EN.html http://www.volunteerlogue.com/guide/resources/ A great book to check out: 500 Places You Can Make a Difference Also, this may be an obvious one, but check with your local Rotary Club to see if they have scholarships available to support your overseas program. Hope this gives you a start. A word of warning: after taking my last trip to Tanzania in January I found that of the 15 volunteers who came and went while I was there we all paid different amounts of money to different organizations all owned and run by the same man. What a discouragement! Be careful. Do your homework and try to find an organization that is, at the very least, a nonprofit.

Thanks for the heads up! Now I can go to NY and not have to worry about what's waiting in my mailbox at home! Just got back from the Y - worked out some of the anxiety!

I'm running out the door right now, but just gave a presentation at a local high school about different volunteer abroad opportunities for undergrads. Check out abroadreviews.com for volunteer reviews on the agencies they have used. I will get you some more info later on today!

See, things are already turning around for you!!!

A few thoughts: First, on one of the webinars I attended the Boren folks told us that they receive numerous career declarations from all of the different applicants. It is only one portion of what is considered by the committees. The moderators recommended DOD career options and Dept of State options. They were careful to emphasize that, while your proposed career path at this point is obviously not definite, an applicant whose proposal included a well thought out career path that suggested that the applicant was not simply picking an objective because it was a part of the application process would stand out. The moderators recommended finding a way to distinguish yourself from other candidates by suggesting some lesser known career options and tying them into your proposed region/language and the bigger picture of national security. All in all, I took the suggestions as a way to boost your application. In no way did I get the sense that some of the more commonly proposed careers (ie: FSO) would hurt you though - the suggestions were more of the "Career specifications won't hurt you, can only help you" type. Also, did anyone respond to the earlier post regarding mail vs email notifications for next week? If anyone knows how we are to be notified, let us know! I'll be in NYC next week and won't be home to get my mail until May 8. Talk about bad timing!

Intelligence Analyst for the DIA

I attended one of the online webinars last fall for Boren and the Boren reps on the webinar told us that with the new African Languages Initiative there would be approximately 10-15 extra fellowship awards given out this year specifically for the ALI program. As long as this hasn't changed since last fall that could improve the odds for everyone even if you're not an ALI applicant. For anyone new to the board who hasn't gone all the way back to the first page, jg33 started a great spreadsheet for everyone who applied for Boren. Check it out and let him know your info so we can add it: send to boren2011.2012@gmail.com

I feel your pain, Emily! I know we won't know anything for at least a week and a half so I should just stop thinking about it. I'm glad we have this forum to vent, but it is also proving to be a big distraction!

Ok, I'll try this again. Maybe my post is too long... I received the ALI email today and got some additional information that may save some other ALI applicants some legwork. The long and the short of it is to apply directly to your domestic program (in my case Swahili is at the U of F this summer) and pay the application fee. The reimbursement deadline will be extended for anyone who pays the fee and does not receive a Boren award. Hi Rebekah, My pleasure to hear that you’ve applied for the AFLI Swahili Domestic program. Please go ahead with registration process – the deadline is April 30 and you will be eligible to request for application fee refund up to May 15 (in case you do not win the Boren Fellowship). For complete info regarding AFLI at UF, please visit: http://www.africa.ufl.edu/scali/afliinfo.html Best, bwenge Good afternoon, Dr. Bwenge, Per the emails below, I was directed to contact you to confirm whether or not I should register and pay the application fee for the Swahili Domestic Program at this time. If I do win the Boren Fellowship I expect to find out the first week of May and could apply then. Is this too late? Any recommendation you can make is appreciated. Thanks in advance for your time. Sincerely, Rebekah You should contact the professor in charge of the domestic program and ask him if it’s OK to postpone registration until after you find out if you won the Boren or not. I think that’s going to be fine but you should double check. Swahili Domestic Program Dr. Charles Bwenge Coordinator, Program in African Languages (PAL) Phone: 352-392-2183 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 352-392-2183 end_of_the_skype_highlighting cbwenge@ufl.edu If you have any questions please feel free to call or send us an email. Thank you. Michael Saffle Program Manager NSEP David L. Boren Graduate Fellowships Dear Mr. Saffle, Thank you for sending out the additional information below. I'm sure you get a million emails a week from anxious applicants wondering when we will hear the final results. You are probably as anxious as we are to complete this process! Could you confirm that because I am a Swahili African Language initiative applicant for the Boren Fellowship I should also apply directly through the University of Florida for the summer domestic SCALI program and pay the $150 application fee? It is my understanding from your email that this is the case, but seeing as the refund deadline has passed, I wanted to double check before paying the application fee. Thanks in advance for your time. Sincerely, Rebekah Hello from the Boren Awards. We see that you applied for the African Language Initiative’s summer domestic program. We just want to remind you that you need to apply for the domestic program separately from the Boren Fellowship if you have not already done so. If you have, disregard this message. If you have not, please follow the link below to apply for the program. This is the site - http://apps.americancouncils.org/africanlanguages/?q=content/overview. You can find the information about the domestic programs at this site, along with any deadlines, etc. Please contact American Councils with any questions about their application process. We don’t have the final results for the Boren Awards yet but expect to hear from us around the first week of May. If you have any questions about our application process please feel free to call or send us an email. Thank you. Michael Saffle Program Manager NSEP David L. Boren Graduate Fellowships

@Riverguide: Your humor in the midst of all of this anxious waiting is much appreciated!!

@Emilyestlerock: I received the same email this morning...what does it mean?!?! Have any of the other ALI applicants received it? These next two weeks are going to drag by!! Good luck and happy waiting!!