The Boren Scholarship and Fellowship Awards grant funding for long-term, overseas, immersive study to U.S. undergraduate and graduate students who are committed to public service. The authors of this report conducted interviews and a survey to learn about the career paths and decisions of Boren awardees, understand how policy changes since 2013 may affect awardees' experiences, and inform plans to strengthen the program in the future.

Developing Global Professionals for the U.S. Federal Workforce

Insights from the Careers of Boren Scholarship and Fellowship Awards Alumni

Jennifer J. Li, Lisa Wagner, Richard S. Girven, Stephen Lee, Shreya S. Huilgol, Denis Agniel

ResearchPublished Oct 8, 2024

Following two world wars and the Cold War, U.S. defense and national security policies have increasingly recognized the importance of foreign language capabilities, cultural skills, and regional expertise related to U.S. allies and adversaries. However, these capabilities — especially foreign language and cultural skills — have been consistently underrepresented in the federal workforce. The David L. Boren National Security Education Act of 1991 took significant steps to address this critical shortage.

One of the Boren Act's provisions authorized the Boren Scholarship and Fellowship Awards, which grant funding for long-term, overseas, immersive study to U.S. undergraduate and graduate students who are committed to public service. Boren awardees study less commonly taught languages while living in cultures and countries less commonly chosen by U.S. students. In doing so, they acquire language and skills critical to U.S. national security while attaining their undergraduate or graduate degrees. In exchange, they agree to use those skills in the employment of the U.S. Department of Defense or another federal agency for at least one year after graduation.

Since 2014, when the Boren Awards program was last evaluated, more than 2,000 new Boren awardees have completed the federal employment service commitment, yielding an alumni count of more than 4,600. The authors of this report conducted interviews and a survey to learn about the career paths and decisions of Boren awardees from 1994 to early 2023, understand how policy changes since 2013 may affect awardees' experiences, and inform plans to strengthen the program in the future.

Key Findings

Many alumni had positive results from the program; some described it as key to their career success

  • The average time between graduating and fulfilling the service requirement was 3.6 years; many award recipients completed their service requirements in a short time frame, facilitated by program supports (e.g., mentoring, career fairs, and federal job postings).
  • Boren alumni tended to stay longer in jobs that satisfied their service commitments, suggesting that these jobs were satisfying enough to motivate them to stay.

The Boren Awards attract students interested in public service to work in federal government, as intended

  • Alumni were drawn to the program for the opportunities it offered: travel overseas, language study, regional studies, funding to study abroad, and an onramp to careers in public service.
  • Many alumni described valuable experiences that helped launch successful careers.
  • Boren alumni currently working in federal government reported having jobs with substantial responsibilities and leadership roles.
  • Alumni became more likely to work in the federal government with each subsequent job and even to remain government employees for their entire careers.

Alumni suggested building more-effective connections with employers

  • A large majority of alumni satisfied the service requirement within the time allowed, but some awardees reported difficulties in doing so.
  • Some alumni suggested building stronger relationships between the program and federal agencies that would benefit from employing Boren awardee talent.
  • There are signs of the Boren network becoming more meaningful among recent students and alumni.

Recommendations

  • Expand and increase the supports available to Boren awardees who face difficulties while seeking employment to fulfill their federal service requirements.
  • Adopt a business-strategic approach to clearly identify key stakeholder groups that are important to the continued growth and success of the Boren program, and then engage with each audience in ways more tailored to its needs.
  • Build values of diversity, equity, and inclusion into Boren practices — especially in regard to outreach, communications, award selection, awardee supports, and community building.
  • Invigorate and grow the Boren community around a compelling shared ethos — for example, by articulating a set of values and professional characteristics that Boren community members support, promote, and share — and then use these values and characteristics as the foundation of the Boren brand in program decisions and internal and external communications.

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Li, Jennifer J., Lisa Wagner, Richard S. Girven, Stephen Lee, Shreya S. Huilgol, and Denis Agniel, Developing Global Professionals for the U.S. Federal Workforce: Insights from the Careers of Boren Scholarship and Fellowship Awards Alumni. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2024. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA494-1.html.
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This research was sponsored by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness and the Defense Human Resources Activity, with the Defense Language and National Security Education Office, and conducted within the Personnel, Readiness, and Health Program of the RAND National Security Research Division (NSRD).

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