Study abroad is a dream for most college students, a chance to reframe cultural assumptions and rethink the usual learning process. Unfortunately, the price of travel and living in a different country can make that dream difficult to realize. But not for Michelle Enriquez, a USC junior majoring in international relations, who found her way to St. Petersburg, Russia, by winning a prestigious Boren Scholarship.

Also known as the National Security Education Program, the scholarship is unique in several ways. It is funded by the Department of Defense, making it one of the largest government-sponsored awards for undergraduates in the United States. Its purpose is to encourage and enable college students to study languages and cultures which are currently underrepresented in study abroad programs and which are considered critical to U.S. national security.

The goal of the program is to create a generation of leaders who have “the international competence needed to communicate effectively across borders, to understand other perspectives and to analyze economic and political affairs.” Students who have received a Boren Scholarship, which can be worth up to $20,000, are required to work in an international branch of the U.S. government for at least one year after their graduation.

Although language acquisition is a primary goal of the program, students are not required to be bilingual. “The usefulness and rarity of Urdu speakers,” Enriquez said, “makes it a hot language for applicants who want to increase their chances [of being awarded a scholarship].”

Enriquez chose to study abroad because she wanted to enhance her Russian language skills, making the Boren Scholarship a perfect fit for her. “I’d studied [the language] for about a year before I decided I absolutely had to get some experience with it, or I’d never get any better,” she said. Since her arrival in St. Petersburg at the beginning of the academic year, she has been immersed in Russian language and culture and has found that her learning curve accelerated rapidly. “Basically, you either speak it or you die,” she quipped.

Enriquez will remain in St. Petersburg (“the cultural center of Russia,” she said) through the end of the spring semester. She observed that her time in the country already has been invaluable: “Anytime I want to eat or do anything, I have to use Russian. And that’s a learning experience I could never have had at home.”

Do you know of someone who takes undergraduate research and learning beyond classroom walls? If so, please e-mail Professor Mark Kann at mkann@usc.edu to suggest a feature for this column.