Boren 2011-2012

[jg33]

This board is for people who applied to the Boren Scholarship/Fellowship for 2011-2012. We can share our results, notification dates, etcetera (much like is being done on the Fulbright 2011-2012 forum).

If we get enough people, we can make a spreadsheet that has information about the results. This should prove helpful for those who come after us.

[acg]

Thanks for setting this up! I applied for Boren to study Swahili in Tanzania and Kenya. I'm an Environmental Engineer by background. Anyone else?

This board is for people who applied to the Boren Scholarship/Fellowship for 2011-2012. We can share our results, notification dates, etcetera (much like is being done on the Fulbright 2011-2012 forum).

If we get enough people, we can make a spreadsheet that has information about the results. This should prove helpful for those who come after us.

[jg33]

Cool, no problem! Sounds interesting. I'm in aerospace engineering.

Thanks for setting this up! I applied for Boren to study Swahili in Tanzania and Kenya. I'm an Environmental Engineer by background. Anyone else?

[elementwil]

This board is for people who applied to the Boren Scholarship/Fellowship for 2011-2012. We can share our results, notification dates, etcetera (much like is being done on the Fulbright 2011-2012 forum).

If we get enough people, we can make a spreadsheet that has information about the results. This should prove helpful for those who come after us.

Hey everyone! Applied for a Boren Scholarship to study at the AUC in Egypt. Majors: Finance/Criminology & Criminal Justice/Arabic L&L. Did you guys receive the "Updated Information Request" email back in late March? I've been told by my advisor that this indicates I/we have made it through the regional selection process and are going to be evaluated by the national nominating committee.

[erica11]

Great idea! I applied to study Swahili in Tanzania and do a research project in public health/HIV for 10 months.

I've received 3 emails from Boren since mid-March. One was the general email asking about any changes in my plans, and two were very specific about my budget/the specific program I'm applying for. I take these as good signs that they're still considering me!

Does anyone know more about when we'll be notified?

[acg]

I have had about 3 emails too. My advisor also thinks it's a good sign. I know the students at school last year found out right around this time in April via email than got official documents in the mail a couple of weeks later (early May).

Erica, did you apply to the African Languages Initiative in Tanzania? I applied to that and then applied to do my independent research for 8 months after in Kenya...

Great idea! I applied to study Swahili in Tanzania and do a research project in public health/HIV for 10 months.

I've received 3 emails from Boren since mid-March. One was the general email asking about any changes in my plans, and two were very specific about my budget/the specific program I'm applying for. I take these as good signs that they're still considering me!

Does anyone know more about when we'll be notified?

[erica11]

Erica, did you apply to the African Languages Initiative in Tanzania? I applied to that and then applied to do my independent research for 8 months after in Kenya...

Good to know. I also applied for Fulbright and I'm waiting to hear back from both. Hopefully we will hear something soon!

I did not apply to the African Languages Initiative since I want to start my research before January 2012. But I am planning to study Swahili at the same site as the African Languages Initiative on Zanzibar, so maybe I will see you there!

[elementwil]

Uh-oh, 3 emails? Are you guys Fellowship or Scholarship applicants?

[jg33]

I haven't received any emails, but this could be because I applied for the fellowship?

Hey everyone! Applied for a Boren Scholarship to study at the AUC in Egypt. Majors: Finance/Criminology & Criminal Justice/Arabic L&L. Did you guys receive the "Updated Information Request" email back in late March? I've been told by my advisor that this indicates I/we have made it through the regional selection process and are going to be evaluated by the national nominating committee.

[jg33]

I emailed yesterday and they said we will be finding out by both email and mail the last week of April or the first week of May.

Great idea! I applied to study Swahili in Tanzania and do a research project in public health/HIV for 10 months.

I've received 3 emails from Boren since mid-March. One was the general email asking about any changes in my plans, and two were very specific about my budget/the specific program I'm applying for. I take these as good signs that they're still considering me!

Does anyone know more about when we'll be notified?

[jg33]

Fellowship here.

From what I understand, the fellowship process is much less involved with the campus than the scholarship process. For example, scholarship people had to do interviews on campus, but fellowship people didn't.

If it makes you feel any better, there are several people on the Fulbright forum who did not have interviews (with the country) that won. So, personally, I wouldn't read too much into the number of emails you've gotten (of course, that is just my opinion, so yeah).

Uh-oh, 3 emails? Are you guys Fellowship or Scholarship applicants?

[elementwil]

Fellowship here.

From what I understand, the fellowship process is much less involved with the campus than the scholarship process. For example, scholarship people had to do interviews on campus, but fellowship people didn't.

If it makes you feel any better, there are several people on the Fulbright forum who did not have interviews (with the country) that won. So, personally, I wouldn't read too much into the number of emails you've gotten (of course, that is just my opinion, so yeah).

Ah ok. I wasn't sure of the Fellowship process but I did have an on-campus interview for the Scholarship. Our advisors are essentially our IIE contact so it would make sense if Fellowship applicants received more emails inquiring into their proposed programs, seeing as our advisors have all of the information.

[jg33]

Just made a spreadsheet for all of our information:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?hl=en&hl=en&key=t3qOsagddRpBd48y-yJ-aiA&authkey=CPu-4N4N#gid=0

So, if you want information added to the spreadsheet, please email boren2011.2012@gmail.com.

I would give everyone editing privileges, but random people come along and delete everything, so it is best to only have a few people with editing privileges.

[erica11]

I applied for the Fellowship and got the following email on March 18th from the Boren staff:

"Thank you for applying for the Boren Fellowship.

At this time we want to make sure that you don’t have any small changes withyour budget or timeline. We want to make sure the we have a clear idea theexact costs of your program (as near as you can tell at this point) and theexact dates. If you have large changes – i.e. you want to go overseas for6 months, instead of 3, please do not send us those changes at this time.

If you have changes,please email them back to me by Wednesday, March 23. If you are changingyour budget please use the same categoriesas you originally used, which can be found at - http://www.borenawards.org/boren_fellowship/budget.html(you should then specifically look at the overseas and domesticguidelines).

If you have any questions please feel free to call or sendus an email.

Thank you."

The other 2 emails I've received have been very specific, but this one seemed like it was sent out as a mass email. I have no idea what this means though, so I wouldn't stress if you haven't heard from them...

[riverguide]

I'm an undergraduate International Relations (w/ a Middle East focus)/French Language/Islamic Studies/Arabic Language and Literature major from the University of Kentucky applying for a Boren Scholarship to study in Syria for the Fall 2011 & Spring 2012. I've also studied at the Middlebury 8 week Intensive Arabic program at Mills, at AMIDEAST in Cairo, at Middlebury in Alexandria, at the Saifi Institute in Beirut and at the American University of Beirut. I am working on developing my diglossic skills in Egyptian, Lebanese and Levantine dialects. I received the email in late March asking for updated financial information.

For those applying to Egypt or Syria, where your program and ability to study there may be in doubt, I contacted the Boren office and was informed that if we are selected but our program is cancelled or our school won't let us attend because of a travel warning (I was extracted out of Egypt and it wasn't pretty and am now in Beirut), the Boren people will work with us in finding anohter country in which to study. I know of several Boren scholars in Egypt who were relocated to Jordan and Morocco this spring.

Good luck to all and I hope we all make it.

Edited April 17, 2011 by riverguide

[arborio43]

Hi Riverguide,

I applied for a Boren Fellowship to Syria and am curious to hear more about what they said regarding potential study in Damascus given all that's going on there at the moment. If we had planned to study at University of Damascus, for example, it seems unlikely that that program would be shut down despite the unrest. I need to look further into what my home institution's policies are regarding student study abroad, but under what criteria does Boren operate for determining whether or not they will send students to a given country--State Department travel warnings, or what? I had applied to go this June so my thought was either to try and push it back to Spring 2012 or choose another country, although I am hoping Jordan and Morocco are not the only options..perhaps Israel for Arabic?

Cheers.

I'm an undergraduate International Relations (w/ a Middle East focus)/French Language/Islamic Studies/Arabic Language and Literature major from the University of Kentucky applying for a Boren Scholarship to study in Syria for the Fall 2011 & Spring 2012. I've also studied at the Middlebury 8 week Intensive Arabic program at Mills, at AMIDEAST in Cairo, at Middlebury in Alexandria, at the Saifi Institute in Beirut and at the American University of Beirut. I am working on developing my diglossic skills in Egyptian, Lebanese and Levantine dialects. I received the email in late March asking for updated financial information.

For those applying to Egypt or Syria, where your program and ability to study there may be in doubt, I contacted the Boren office and was informed that if we are selected but our program is cancelled or our school won't let us attend because of a travel warning (I was extracted out of Egypt and it wasn't pretty and am now in Beirut), the Boren people will work with us in finding anohter country in which to study. I know of several Boren scholars in Egypt who were relocated to Jordan and Morocco this spring.

Good luck to all and I hope we all make it.

[riverguide]

You probably should contact them yourself, depending on your circumstance. I doubt the programs in Damascus will occur.

My firend, Tik Root, who was at Middlebury in Alexandria with me, went to Damascus as I went to Beirut after we were extracted. The secret police arrested him near one of the protests and he spent 3 weeks in prison before they would let somebody talk to him. He is now in the states and back at Middlebury. Middlebury's program in Alexandria is still on but I doubt, given what I'm hearing about Egypt at the moment, that it will take place in the fall of 2011, perhaps in the spring 2012 it will be a "go."

The Middlebury program is incredible and is only surpassed by the CASA program; I'm considering the CASA program, but sadly, the study points are Damascus and Cairo. I've been accepted to the CET program in Aleppo and that closed down over night and the students were extracted on April 13. They are still planning their program for next year but I think we should have a back up plan. CET has an outstanding reputation, is an immersion program also and is only for serious Arabic students. Middlebury and CET require two years of Arabic and an intense Arabic essay to apply. CASA requires three years of Arabic and a series of Arabic essays to apply. I have 3 1/2 years of Arabic and Arabic dialects and CASA is the program I'd like to attend in grad school -or between grad and under grad programs.

Middlebury has a program in Jordan and I am considering that, although it won't have the same benefits as Aleppo. Aleppo is the second largest city in Syria and very few speak english there and the region is known for its loyalty to Assad. I chose Aleppo over Damascus because I learned that the city is not westernized and no one speaks english so it truly is an immersion program. I am only interested in immersion programs at the moment. Middlebury both spoiled me and tortured me in that regard. It is the only way to learn.

Because Aleppo is pro Assad is why CET thinks that it may go next fall and their program for this summer is still a "go."

What I learned "at the revolution" is that -in these times- you have to have a back up plan becuase if your program is cancelled right before or right after it starts you could end up sitting on the bench for the semester. With language studies, we need to keep moving forward and nurturing our skills.

I would not want to study Arabic in Israel. I would study Hebrew there but not Arabic. Besides I don't want an Israeli stamp on my passport while I'm completing my Arabic studies. Security studies in Israel are excellent from what I've heard and I may spend a summer taking those courses. I am not trying to be flippant about the Boren people. They were very polite and helpful and you should touch base with them yourself, given the present future ambiguity. I hope we all make it to DC and I hope we get a chance to meet.

If you're planning to study in Syria it means that you are a serious "player" when it comes to Arabic and I hope we get a chance to cross paths.

Edited April 17, 2011 by riverguide

[elementwil]

Quite the resume riverguide! My study abroad advisor told me my school's risk management committee is close to cancelling the AUC program so I'm going in Tuesday to work on a backup plan...in your experiences, what would you recommend? I really want to spend some time in Egypt, so I was thinking of spending the first semester in Saudi Arabia (know of any good programs?) and then going to AUC the second semester if the situation improves.

I'm an undergraduate International Relations (w/ a Middle East focus)/French Language/Islamic Studies/Arabic Language and Literature major from the University of Kentucky applying for a Boren Scholarship to study in Syria for the Fall 2011 & Spring 2012. I've also studied at the Middlebury 8 week Intensive Arabic program at Mills, at AMIDEAST in Cairo, at Middlebury in Alexandria, at the Saifi Institute in Beirut and at the American University of Beirut. I am working on developing my diglossic skills in Egyptian, Lebanese and Levantine dialects. I received the email in late March asking for updated financial information.

For those applying to Egypt or Syria, where your program and ability to study there may be in doubt, I contacted the Boren office and was informed that if we are selected but our program is cancelled or our school won't let us attend because of a travel warning (I was extracted out of Egypt and it wasn't pretty and am now in Beirut), the Boren people will work with us in finding anohter country in which to study. I know of several Boren scholars in Egypt who were relocated to Jordan and Morocco this spring.

Good luck to all and I hope we all make it.

[riverguide]

Thanks for the compliment!

I was accepted to both the AUC and the AMIDEAST programs and I would definitely recommend AMIDEAST over AUC. My preference and choice is because AMIDEAST is in downtown Cairo and we lived in our own apartment and developed a feel for the neighborhood and Cairo itself. We learned to live and survive in the second largest city in the Middle East and most of our friends were Egyptian and we tended to spend a lot more time with them than with our fellow study abroad/ex pat community. It was a great experience. AUC is outside of Cairo and is a walled, secure facility. My room mate in the AMIDEAST program and good friend was a Boren Scholar and he relocated in the spring to Jordan after the Egyptians crossed the Rubicon.

I was at AMIDEAST for the year long program but the Arabic classes, after Middlebury, were not challenging enough so I enrolled in Middlebury in Alexandria for the spring 2011 semester. I hated to leave my friends. If you have not been in an immersion program, AUC and AMIDEAST should be fine and are a great intro into colloquial Egyptian. The professors and the staff at AMIDEAST were awsome. I do not know of any programs in Saudi Arabia but I am looking. The friends I made at the Middlebury Alexandria program were the best Arabic students I have encountered to date. Their Arabic skills were amazing. We all bonded pretty tight with our Arabic abilities. After you escape and go to ground in a safe house, sleeping with your shoes on so you can bug out, with the sounds of automatic weapons filling the night air, you tend to bond even more, lol. There are a lot of us from the Spring Middlebury Alexandria program looking to return someday.

I would also recommend the American University of Beirut but the Boren people may not let you go there because of the travel warning. I love Beirut and I take advanced Arabic and Lebanese Arabic downtown at an institute the university referred me to. I tested out of the Arabic classes at AUB. Middlebury in Jordan is probably hands down the best remaining program left, outside of Egypt and Syria. I do not know much about the African programs. The problem with Jordan is that there are a lot of English speakers and you have to be militant about speaking Arabic. It is also expensive. Its a great country though. I am presently looking at a program in Oman as well.

I have some great friends in Cairo and Alexandria but after seeing the police stations burned, the government building torched, the armories and the banks looted and the police force either non existent or in hiding its tough to recommend Egypt at the moment although I would prefer to return to Alexandria if possible. Once you have been through the experience and you realize that lives, liberty and everything you're used to can change in a heartbeat, you start to plan carefully -and always have a plan B.

Egypt was basically a repressive police state living under emergency powers. When the security forces left there was a lawless vacuum that still hasn't been filled. I am all for the revolution but the transition is tricky. I long to return to Egypt but I don't believe it will calm down in the fall. Remember: there are elections on the horizon.

Edited April 18, 2011 by riverguide

[Rebekah]

I applied for a Boren Fellowship this year, as well. Specifically the Swahili program of the African Languages Initiative in Tanzania. For the others who have applied for Tanzania, do you already have some knowledge of Swahili?

Two weeks and counting....good luck all!

[Rebekah]

I am a fellowship applicant and received the same email. I responded explaining that I still did not have budget details for the summer program (African Languages Initiative) and was told not to worry about it - those numbers would be figured on their end and did not need to be estimated and submitted.

I applied for the Fellowship and got the following email on March 18th from the Boren staff:

"Thank you for applying for the Boren Fellowship.

At this time we want to make sure that you don’t have any small changes withyour budget or timeline. We want to make sure the we have a clear idea theexact costs of your program (as near as you can tell at this point) and theexact dates. If you have large changes – i.e. you want to go overseas for6 months, instead of 3, please do not send us those changes at this time.

If you have changes,please email them back to me by Wednesday, March 23. If you are changingyour budget please use the same categoriesas you originally used, which can be found at - http://www.borenawar...hip/budget.html(you should then specifically look at the overseas and domesticguidelines).

If you have any questions please feel free to call or sendus an email.

Thank you."

The other 2 emails I've received have been very specific, but this one seemed like it was sent out as a mass email. I have no idea what this means though, so I wouldn't stress if you haven't heard from them...

[arborio43]

Different question. If we go with the notion that the March checkin/clarification emails were a sign that we made it through the regional rounds of competition and were going on to the national round, a) does anyone have any insight into how each proposal is evaluated at the two levels? (Same criteria or different?) Any idea how many additional proposals will be cut in the national round?

I suspect none of us have any idea but thought I'd put that out there!

[elementwil]

From what I understand, the regional selection process determines which applications are meritorious based on the essays/proposed programs, and the national nominating committees select recipients that reflect maximum diversity (ethnicities, programs, countries, universities, etc.). This is mostly speculation, but the language shifts from my advisor when I asked her about the difference (who has served on both) indicate something of the sort.

Different question. If we go with the notion that the March checkin/clarification emails were a sign that we made it through the regional rounds of competition and were going on to the national round, a) does anyone have any insight into how each proposal is evaluated at the two levels? (Same criteria or different?) Any idea how many additional proposals will be cut in the national round?

I suspect none of us have any idea but thought I'd put that out there!

Edited April 18, 2011 by elementwil

[arborio43]

Interesting, thanks!

From what I understand, the regional selection process determines which applications are meritorious based on the essays/proposed programs, and the national nominating committees select recipients that reflect maximum diversity (ethnicities, programs, countries, universities, etc.). This is mostly speculation, but the language shifts from my advisor when I asked her about the difference (who has served on both) indicate something of the sort.

[jg33]

Just wanted to repost the link to the spreadsheet for all our information:

https://spreadsheets...=CPu-4N4N#gid=0

So, if you want information added to the spreadsheet, please email boren2011.2012@gmail.com.

I would give everyone editing privileges, but random people come along and delete everything, so it is best to only have a few people with editing privileges.