Senior Shannon Mann wins $20,000 Boren Scholarship to continue study of Mandarin in China

Shannon Mann, a University of Richmond senior from Abingdon, Va., has won a $20,000 Boren Scholarship, given to undergraduate students for study abroad in areas critical to U.S. interests and traditionally underrepresented in study abroad.

Mann received one of 161 awards from 1,014 applications. She is double-majoring in Chinese studies and international studies. Her Boren program will begin this summer at Princeton University’s intensive Mandarin language program in Beijing, followed in the fall by study at Peking University’s China Studies Institute, also in Beijing.

Mann began studying Mandarin in high school. Her goal is to achieve a working proficiency in the language and complete her one-year Boren service requirement with the U.S. Department of State in China.

Boren Scholarships are funded by the National Security Education Program (NSEP), which focuses on geographic areas, languages and fields of study deemed critical to U.S. national security.

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