With an eye to foreign service, Briggs Murray wins Boren Scholarship

National Scholar Briggs Murray from Charleston, South Carolina is Clemson University’s first Boren Scholar since 2018.

Boren Scholarships provide funding opportunities for American undergraduate and graduate students to add an important international and language component to their education. The program focuses on geographic areas, languages and fields of study seen as critical to U.S. interests.

“Briggs is the rare student who is both deeply engaged in the study of global policy and equally committed to service, making him a perfect candidate for the Boren Scholarship,” said Erin DeCuir, assistant director of the Office of Major Fellowships. “His curiosity about the world — and America’s place in it — and his future goal of working for the federal public service are directly linked to the program’s purpose.”

Murray plans to use the scholarship to immerse himself in French language study for eight weeks at the University of Florida this summer before spending a semester abroad in Dakar, Senegal, as part of the African Flagship Languages Initiative.

While he’s in Senegal, Murray will continue his language studies and put his new skills into practice with his host family and by engaging with people in the community.

Before he leaves, however, Murray will participate in a Boren Convocation event in Washington, D.C. later this month, where he will meet other scholars traveling to the same region, receive safety and counterintelligence briefings, and meet key federal government and program contacts.

“I am over the moon to have received this Boren scholarship—the African Foreign Languages Initiative is one of those rare programs where you get to learn language through cultural interactions and experiences, and this will prime me for a career in the State Department,” said Murray. “I am truly grateful to the amazing professors and staff who have supported my candidacy for Boren. Their tireless support inspires me to be my best self!”

A political science and modern languages double major, Murray has been using his time at Clemson to explore public policy in different parts of the world. He’s traveled to South Africa and Germany through the National Scholars Program and to Western Europe through the Honors College’s Dixon Global Policy Scholars Program.

Murray is also part of a Creative Inquiry on campus called Every Campus a Refuge (ECAR) that supports refugees settling in the area and co-founded a research team on campus exploring the intersections of transportation policy and health care equity.

Associate Professor of Languages Pauline de Tholozany has taught Briggs in several classes. She said that Murray could not be a better candidate for the Boren program and that he has been talking about going to Senegal for as long as they have known one another.

“Briggs is a humanist: his experience of the world around him and his reading of literature are not separated but rather complement each other,” de Tholozany said. “His enthusiasm is contagious – he gives me hope for the future whenever I speak with him.”

Murray credits serving as the Africa and Middle East desk editor for The Pendulum, Clemson’s international affairs magazine, for sparking his interest in researching French postcolonial policy in West Africa — and in Senegal, in particular.

The Boren Scholarship requires recipients to work in the federal government in a position with national security responsibilities in the future, which fits perfectly into Murray’s career goals.

I couldn’t be more excited for what lies ahead,” said Murray. “With the opportunities provided by Boren, I know that I’m one step closer to realizing my goals.”

Students interested in the Boren Scholarship or other nationally competitive programs should contact the Office of Major Fellowships at 864-656-9704 or fellowships@clemson.edu.