A 2001 sophomore political science major from the University of Rochester received a NSEP Boren scholarship to study Portuguese with the School for International Training in Fortaleza, Brazil. The alumna studied Portuguese for three hours a day and lived in a home stay setting, which helped to increase her language proficiency to advanced low. The Boren Scholar was also able to conduct an independent study project in which she studied Brazilian land issues for four weeks.

In May 2003, the alumna secured an internship in the Department of Homeland Security, Bureau of Immigration in the Office of Chief Counsel. Some of her duties included investigating long-term cases involving Latin American respondents and researching changing country conditions in nations experiencing political turmoil. Her office in St. Paul/ Minneapolis handles cases from the midwestern states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa. The alumna explains that the internship exposed her to “so many different facets of immigration law that I never knew existed. I never realized how interconnected foreign policy is with immigration law.”