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Sarah Lapin Wins National Security Education Scholarship
Sarah Lapin, a sophomore urban and environmental policy major, has been awarded a David L. Boren Scholarship to take part in the School for International Training’s culture and development program in Nairobi, Kenya.
The award from the National Security Education Program allots up to $17,000 per recipient and will allow Lapin to spend this fall abroad to gain a more global view on concerns such as poverty and population growth.
“I will have the opportunity to understand, on a personal and intellectual level, the complexities of being a student of culture and policy in a nation quite different from my own in its government, language and racial make-up,” said Lapin, a Castro Valley High graduate. “I feel that it is essential that I grow in my knowledge of other cultures and the critical issues they currently face.”
Upon graduation, Lapin plans to work for a non-profit organization dealing with housing for low-income families.
The David L. Boren Scholarship is named after the former Oklahoma senator whose David L. Boren Act of 1991 started the Virginia-based NSEP. 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. Up to 150 undergraduates a year are awarded Boren scholarships to study abroad.