Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA-34) congratulates 21-year-old University of Chicago senior Barbra Kim – who is from Little Tokyo in Downtown Los Angeles in the 34th District – on being awarded a prestigious $20,000 scholarship to study for a year in South Korea.

A double major in Political Science and East Asian Studies, Barbra plans to hone her Korean-language skills and cultural knowledge of the country as a student at Seoul National University in Korea next year and while living with a local Korean family during her year abroad.

Out of more than one thousand applicants, fewer than 140 students from throughout the country received the competitive Department of Defense National Security Education Program’s David Boren Scholarship.  The award recipients study in a wide-range of countries including Croatia, China, Jordan, South Africa, Brazil, Romania, Russia and many others.  As part of the program, the students commit to serving in a national security-related government agency for one year.

Barbra was in our nation’s capital for two days to attend the all expenses-paid National Security Education Program orientation and awards convocation June 9-10.

Before studying abroad, she plans to intern for 10 weeks in Washington, D.C. this summer at The Hill newspaper.  Barbra said she hopes to one day attend graduate school in foreign service.