Alumnus Andrew Smith Receives Prestigious Boren Award

Andrew Smith, U of Utah History alumnus (BA, 2015), is among the latest recipients of the Boren Award, the prestigious and nationally competitive fellowship program that supports service and language learning abroad. He is currently at work in Tanzania and learning Swahili. Tanzania’s Kigoma province has received a majority of the over 400,000 Burundi refugees. Andrew hopes to work with them by moving into an internship at the UN High Commission for Refugees. Back in the States, he is enrolled as a graduate student in American University’s International Affairs program, where he is focusing on comparative and regional development. After completing the MA, he will return to East Africa to work with the rural poor and at-risk youth in the Great Lakes Region.

“If Boren didn't give preference to those wanting to participate in [the] American Council's AFLI program,” Andrew said in reference to the Council’s African Flagship Language Initiative, “I would have come straight to Tanzania,” because “I'm learning more here” than in the traditional classroom. The U’s History Department encourages all students to pursue their interests by engaging in global affairs both on and off campus. The Department is in the process of expanding its own internship opportunities History undergraduates, both in Utah and beyond.

Congratulations to Andrew for his exemplary work!