CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign undergraduate student Almoatasim Shahbain was one of more than 200 students nationally to receive the Boren Award. He will use the scholarship to study abroad in Indonesia during part of the 2025-26 academic year.
David L. Boren Scholarships and Fellowships are funded by the National Security Education Program, a federal initiative designed to increase U.S. expertise in languages and cultures in world regions critical to U.S. interests. The awards provide U.S. graduate and undergraduate students with an opportunity for intensive language study and cultural immersion.
Shahbain, of Burr Ridge, Ill., and graduate of Hinsdale Central High School, is a political science major and is pursuing a minor in philosophy. He will study in a summer term administered at the University of Wisconsin-Madison before spending the fall term studying Indonesian at the State University of Malang, Indonesia. His time in the country will also come with cultural immersion activities, such as participating in festivals, dance lessons, cooking and connecting with local residents.
During an internship last summer for the U.S. State Department, Shahbain engaged with top Indonesian officials in Washington, D.C., and deepened his passion for the Indonesian language and the importance of the country to U.S. interests. He plans to become a U.S. diplomat to Southeast Asia to further advance and promote good relations with the region, especially in Indonesia.
Beyond his academic work, Shahbain is enlisted in the U.S. Army National Guard, where he is a certified linguist in the languages of Arabic-Yemeni and Arabic-Levantine, and works in the Chez Veterans Center at Illinois as a program assistant helping incoming military veterans and military-connected students at the university. He also has served as a committee chair for the past two years in the General Assembly of the American Model United Nations in Chicago. Shahbain actively participates in the Indonesian Students Association at Illinois and plans to pursue additional study of the language in graduate school.
NSEP is a federal initiative designed to build a broader and more qualified pool of U.S. citizens with foreign language and international skills. The Boren Awards provide U.S. undergraduate and graduate students with resources and encouragement to acquire language skills and experience in countries critical to the future security and stability of the nation. In exchange for funding, Boren Award recipients agree to work in the federal government for at least one year.