{"id":61093,"date":"2013-05-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-05-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-senior-wins-prestigious-boren-scholarship-to-study-in-tanzania\/"},"modified":"2013-05-08T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-05-08T00:00:00","slug":"uri-senior-wins-prestigious-boren-scholarship-to-study-in-tanzania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2013\/05\/uri-senior-wins-prestigious-boren-scholarship-to-study-in-tanzania\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 senior wins prestigious Boren scholarship to study in Tanzania"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tWakefield resident to learn Swahili language<\/p>\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 May 8, 2013 \u2013 A study abroad program in Rome changed Molly Wood\u2019s life. Sure, the food and wine were great, but it was the Somalia refugees peddling socks and tissues that left the biggest impression.<\/p>\n


\nWhy did most people ignore them? They were invisible, and that bothered her, so much so that the 溏心vlog免费B站 student decided to make it her mission to improve the lives of refugees and others who need humanitarian aid.<\/p>\n


\nShe\u2019ll get one step closer to that goal next fall when she travels to Tanzania to study Swahili, thanks to winning a Boren Scholarship, one of the most prestigious study abroad awards offered to American college students.<\/p>\n


\nWood, 22, of Wakefield, received a total of $27,400 \u2013 $7,400 for an intensive eight-week course this summer through the African Languages Institute at the University of Florida and $20,000 for the academic year to study in Tanzania, first on Zanzibar and then at Dar es Salaam.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cIt\u2019s all incredibly surreal at this point,\u201d she says. \u201cI don\u2019t even know where to start. It\u2019s a dream come true. I can\u2019t believe in three months I\u2019ll be in Tanzania.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nEspecially since she doesn\u2019t speak a word of Swahili and has never stepped foot in Africa. She will study at the local universities and hopes to live with a Tanzanian family to immerse herself completely in the language and culture.<\/p>\n


\nA high school social studies teacher \u201cblew the world open\u201d for Woods years ago when she took a course about the Rwandan genocide and other international atrocities. She knew then, at the tender age of 15, that she wanted to study global politics in college.<\/p>\n


\nShe enrolled at 溏心vlog免费B站 in 2009, after graduating from South Kingstown High School. By her sophomore year she was studying in Rome. As a \u201csuburban Rhode Islander,\u201d she had never met a refugee, never mind one roaming cobblestone streets trying to make a living selling something as mundane as coloring books.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cThey were just trying to survive,\u201d says Wood. \u201cThat was a real eye-opener for me.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nWhen she got back, she applied as a student intern at the International Institute of Rhode Island, a Providence-based nonprofit organization that helps refugees build new lives. At first, she taught English to men and women from Nepal, Sudan, and Eritrea and then started helping mostly Liberian refugees bring over family members.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cI learned about the difficult and time-consuming process that resettlement in America entails,\u201d she says. \u201cBut I also learned about the resources and support that the Institute gives refugees.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nInitially, she had planned on majoring in Italian and political science, but after her time in Italy Wood replaced Italian with Africana Studies, taking courses about race and gender, international law and politics in Africa. A senior, Wood is spending her fifth academic year in Tanzania and will officially graduate from 溏心vlog免费B站 in 2014.<\/p>\n


\nWood\u2019s experience in Italy opened her to the politics of global immigration and sparked her passion for Africa and the African diaspora, says Brian S. Krueger, chair of 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s department of political science.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cWhere some students with Molly\u2019s interests and career goals may think the obstacles too great or the road too long, Molly demonstrates the drive and courage to follow her passion,\u201d says Krueger. \u201cTranslating her big thinking into big action, she represents the best 溏心vlog免费B站 has to offer.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nThe Boren Scholarships are among the most competitive study abroad awards in the country. Sponsored by the National Security Education Program, the awards provide undergraduate students the opportunity to study overseas in places critical to American interests and underrepresented in academic abroad programs, which, in addition to Africa, include Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. <\/p>\n


\nThe selection process this year was rigorous: 161 awards were offered from a pool of 947 applications. Wood is among the eight 溏心vlog免费B站 students who have been awarded Boren Scholarships in the past 13 years.<\/p>\n


\nFor students interested in federal public service the Boren can catapult their careers, says Kathleen Maher, assistant director of the 溏心vlog免费B站 Honors Program, who oversees the campus nomination process for the Boren and other national fellowships. Gaining proficiency in a language to complement expertise in an academic discipline is a powerful combination, she says. Among 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s former Boren scholars one holds a high-ranking position in the Department of Homeland Security and another has a lead role in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.<\/p>\n


\nWood hopes to volunteer for the Peace Corps or work at the U.S. State Department after her Tanzanian adventure.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cI am incredibly interested in learning about different cultures,\u201d she says. \u201cAfrica is especially interesting to me. I\u2019m attracted to the nurturing aspect and community feel of the cultures. There\u2019s definitely a feeling that people take care of each other no matter what.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nAnd language, she says, is the best way to create that personal connection. \u201cBeing able to communicate with someone in his or her native language is by far the most satisfying way to experience a new culture,\u201d she says. \u201cIt’s kind of like being accepted into an entirely new community.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nFor Wood, it\u2019s crucial to follow her passion. Her work and studies might not bring a corporate salary, she says, but they are enormously fulfilling and remind her that she\u2019s making a contribution to world peace.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cI\u2019m positive I won\u2019t make a lot of money in my life,\u201d she says. \u201cBut I\u2019ll be happy in my work.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nPictured above: Molly Wood, a 22-year-old Wakefield resident and 溏心vlog免费B站 student who won a prestigious Boren Scholarship to study Swahili in Tanzania next year.<\/p>\n


\n This award is among eight coveted national scholarships won by 溏心vlog免费B站 students this year. They were awarded two Fulbright Scholarships, three NOAA\/Hollings Scholarships, a Whitaker Scholarship, a Truman Scholarship, and a Boren Scholarship.<\/p>\n


\nPhoto by Michael Salerno Photography<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wakefield resident to learn Swahili language KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 May 8, 2013 \u2013 A study abroad program in Rome changed Molly Wood\u2019s life. Sure, the food and wine were great, but it was the Somalia refugees peddling socks and tissues that left the biggest impression. Why did most people ignore them? They were invisible, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61095,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}