Pitt Graduate Student Jessica Kuntz Wins David L. Boren Fellowship

PITTSBURGH—University of Pittsburgh graduate student Jessica Kuntz has received a David L. Boren Fellowship to study the Bosnian language and conduct economic research in Bosnia-Herzegovina during the 2013-14 academic year. The fellowship was awarded by the Institute of International Education on behalf of the National Security Education Program, which promotes education in geographic areas, languages, and fields of study deemed critical to U.S. national security.  

This is the 11th consecutive year that University of Pittsburgh students have been winners in the Boren Awards for International Study program, which includes the David L. Boren Fellowship for graduate students and David L. Boren Scholarship for undergraduate students. Earlier this month, the University announced three Pitt undergraduate winners of the Boren Scholarship.   

Kuntz, who is pursuing a Master of Public and International Affairs degree with a focus on international political economy in Pitt’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, will receive up to $30,000 from the Boren program for her language study and research in Bosnia-Herzegovina. She will be required to work in the U.S. federal government for a minimum period of one year after she has completed her education.

For her Boren research project, Kuntz will investigate how public goods, such as social welfare, have been provided to Bosnian citizens of multiple ethnicities and whether such goods have reduced the potential for economic and social conflict between the ethnic populations. “Economic underdevelopment, as manifested in Bosnia, is the central challenge I intend to tackle through my career in public service,” Kuntz wrote in one of her fellowship application essays.

Kuntz holds a Bachelor of Science degree in international politics and international security studies from Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. She is from Mt. Lebanon, Pa. 

The Boren Fellowship is named for David L. Boren, principal author of the legislation that created the National Security Education Program in 1991. Boren served as the governor of Oklahoma from 1974 to 1978 and as a U.S. senator from Oklahoma from 1979 to 1994; since 1994, he has been president of the University of Oklahoma. He is the first person in Oklahoma state history to have served in all three of these roles. Boren is widely respected for his academic credentials, his longtime support for education, and his distinguished political career as a reformer in the American political system.

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5/24/13/mab/cjhm