As a high school student, Anna Sklenar initially studied Spanish and Chinese. But after hearing about the study-abroad scholarships available to students learning “critical languages,” or those that are less commonly taught, she made the change to Russian—a culture toward which she felt an unexplainable pull.
The decision paid off for Sklenar when, in 2012, she was awarded a scholarship to study in Russia as part of the U.S. State Department’s National Security Language Initiative for Youth program. The program provides merit-based scholarships to students to learn critical languages in immersion programs abroad.
Her experiences in Kazan, Russia, strengthened her grammar and speaking skills, so much so that she’s earned another scholarship: the prestigious David L. Boren Scholarship, administered by the National Security Education Program (NSEP).
The scholarship provides support to undergraduate and graduate students to continue to acquire language skills and experiences in countries critical to the future security and stability of the United States. This year, the Institute of International Education, which administers the awards on behalf of NSEP, received 750 applications from undergraduate students for the Boren Scholarship; 171 were awarded.
A rising sophomore mechanical engineering major, Sklenar will spend six months studying Russian in Kazakhstan in spring 2016. Through the experience, she hopes to gain a technical proficiency in the language.
“With my increased comprehension of the language, I feel like once I get to Kazakhstan I’ll be able to dive in and start developing relationships with people right away,” Sklenar said. “I’m happy to have this opportunity to continue to develop my knowledge of the language, and also relationships abroad.”
To help prepare for her time in Kazakhstan, Sklenar will travel to St. Petersburg, Russia, this summer for eight weeks to intensively study the language and then independently study next fall with instructor of Russian Tatiana Zilotina.
Sklenar will participate in the Advanced Russian Language and Area Studies Program, run by American Councils for International Education in Almaty, Kazakstan. Throughout her six months there at the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Sklenar will mostly take Russian language courses, but also plans to take a few mechanical engineering courses in Russian to keep up with planned coursework at Case Western Reserve. She also hopes to travel to destinations such as Georgia and Kyrgyzstan.
As a stipulation of the scholarship, Boren award recipients agree to work in the federal government for a period of at least one year. Sklenar would like to work for the Department of State as an engineer. Then, after her commitment is up, she would consider staying with a government agency or moving into the private sector. But, she noted, she eventually would like to return to her engineering roots and use her Russian-language skills “to aid international collaboration in space-related projects by building infrastructure to aid Mars exploration missions.”