{"id":15851,"date":"2026-05-06T16:30:40","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T20:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/?p=15851"},"modified":"2026-07-13T20:43:45","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T00:43:45","slug":"umes-boren-award-winner-embarks-on-second-japan-study-abroad-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/umes-boren-award-winner-embarks-on-second-japan-study-abroad-trip\/","title":{"rendered":"UMES\u00a0Boren Award Winner Embarks on\u00a0Second\u00a0Japan\u00a0Study Abroad Trip\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"681\" src=\"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/219\/2026\/05\/DSC_0113-scaled-1-1024x681.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-15854\" style=\"width:798px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/219\/2026\/05\/DSC_0113-scaled-1-1024x681.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/219\/2026\/05\/DSC_0113-scaled-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/219\/2026\/05\/DSC_0113-scaled-1-768x511.jpg 768w, https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/219\/2026\/05\/DSC_0113-scaled-1-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/219\/2026\/05\/DSC_0113-scaled-1-2048x1362.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">University of Maryland Eastern Shore student Isaiah Butler (right) poses with President Heidi M. Anderson.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Traveling to Japan was Isaiah Butler\u2019s dream and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore helped him realize&nbsp;it&nbsp;in just&nbsp;three&nbsp;semesters.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That was the fall of 2023. Fast forward to today and Butler has been awarded&nbsp;nearly $60,000&nbsp;to study international&nbsp;languages&nbsp;and cultures.&nbsp;&nbsp;The Senior Hospitality and Tourism major is only one of a few UMES students to receive such a scholarship to study abroad in Japan.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While scholarships&nbsp;help&nbsp;ease&nbsp;the financial challenges&nbsp;of&nbsp;travel,&nbsp;Butler said&nbsp;the experience of&nbsp;becoming&nbsp;familiar with world cultures&nbsp;is priceless.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s made me more confident as I get to know more about other cultures and people there learn about mine,\u201d&nbsp;he&nbsp;said.&nbsp;\u201cStudy abroad is something I encourage more students to take advantage of because you\u2019ll learn the world is so much bigger&nbsp;than&nbsp;UMES and Maryland.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Phillip Broussard, director of&nbsp;the Center for International Education, said&nbsp;that\u2019s&nbsp;the&nbsp;point of the Boren Scholarship, Butler\u2019s most recent award.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe can have greater success if we can encourage students to think globally and expand their horizons,\u201d&nbsp;said Broussard.&nbsp;\u201cAmerican national security needs more&nbsp;citizens&nbsp;with&nbsp;an&nbsp;understanding of foreign languages&nbsp;and cultures&nbsp;to help our country protect our interests&nbsp;and understand&nbsp;what\u2019s&nbsp;going on in the world.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"922\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/219\/2026\/05\/IMG_1380-scaled-1-922x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-15853\" style=\"width:643px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/219\/2026\/05\/IMG_1380-scaled-1-922x1024.jpg 922w, https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/219\/2026\/05\/IMG_1380-scaled-1-270x300.jpg 270w, https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/219\/2026\/05\/IMG_1380-scaled-1-768x853.jpg 768w, https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/219\/2026\/05\/IMG_1380-scaled-1-1382x1536.jpg 1382w, https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/219\/2026\/05\/IMG_1380-scaled-1-1843x2048.jpg 1843w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 922px) 100vw, 922px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">University of Maryland Eastern Shore student Isaiah Butler shares his experience participating in the Boren Scholarship Award program.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Though&nbsp;Butler&nbsp;may be&nbsp;a&nbsp;clear example of the power of learning&nbsp;languages,&nbsp;there\u2019s&nbsp;still work to be done in getting more UMES&nbsp;students&nbsp;and others across the country&nbsp;interested&nbsp;in&nbsp;faculty-led&nbsp;study abroad opportunities.&nbsp;For example,&nbsp;more than 250,000 Chinese&nbsp;students&nbsp;study in&nbsp;the United States&nbsp;compared to about 2,000 American students studying abroad in China.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Butler&nbsp;not only made&nbsp;UMES&nbsp;history&nbsp;by earning&nbsp;three different scholarships for travel, but he&nbsp;also&nbsp;helped&nbsp;UMES reach a record high of 80 students&nbsp;studying abroad&nbsp;in 2025&nbsp;compared to about 15 students in prior years.&nbsp;&nbsp;The Japanese major will refine his language skills in Tokyo over the next&nbsp;six&nbsp;months.&nbsp;Then,&nbsp;as required by the Boren Scholarship,&nbsp;Bulter will&nbsp;fulfill&nbsp;his public service&nbsp;pledge by going on to&nbsp;serve as a U.S. diplomat.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cEventually, I want to own my own restaurant and hotel, combining my love for travel, language with leadership,\u201d&nbsp;Butler&nbsp;said.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Traveling to Japan was Isaiah Butler\u2019s dream and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore helped him realize&nbsp;it&nbsp;in just&nbsp;three&nbsp;semesters.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; That was the fall of 2023. Fast forward to today and Butler has been awarded&nbsp;nearly $60,000&nbsp;to study international&nbsp;languages&nbsp;and cultures.&nbsp;&nbsp;The Senior Hospitality and Tourism major is only one of a few UMES students to receive such a scholarship&#8230;<span class=\"cpschool-read-more-link-holder\"><a class=\"btn btn-basic cpschool-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/umes-boren-award-winner-embarks-on-second-japan-study-abroad-trip\/\">Read more <span class=\"sr-only\">UMES\u00a0Boren Award Winner Embarks on\u00a0Second\u00a0Japan\u00a0Study Abroad Trip\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1559,"featured_media":15853,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","wds_primary_category":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[103],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-15851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1559"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15851"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=15851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}