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Asta Schuette Wins National Security Education Program Scholarship
Asta Schuette, a junior diplomacy and world affairs major at Occidental College, has been awarded a $4,300 David L. Boren Scholarship to study at the School for International Training (SIT) in Rabat, Morocco.
Schuette, a Grant High School graduate, will take part in SIT’s culture and society program during spring semester 2003. She will study the relationship between foreign aid groups and women in an Islamic country. Schuette will spend one week of the program living in a rural village.
“I am concerned that the incongruencies between western ideologies and eastern ideologies create inefficiencies in the distribution of aid,” she said. “It is important to realize that language differences constitute only a minor barrier compared to cultural differences in the distribution. As a product of western ideology, I strongly feel that ‘basic human rights,’ as established by the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights, must be upheld for all citizens of the world. I recognize that women and children are, globally, the largest marginalized group, and I feel that my research will benefit them.”
Upon graduation, Schuette plans to join the Peace Corps or Teach for America, the national effort to lure recent graduates to the teaching profession. She ultimately plans to attend law school to study international law.
The David L. Boren Scholarship is named after the former Oklahoma senator whose David L. Boren Act of 1991 started the Virginia-based National Security Education Program. The legislation created a trust fund to provide for national investment in higher education in international studies and to build a base of expertise that would be available to the government.
Recipients of NSEP scholarships and fellowships incur an obligation to work either in higher education or for an office or agency of the federal government involved in national security affairs. Since 1994, about 1,400 NSEP Scholarship winners have studied in 65 countries.