Hadley Spadaccini
  • Electrical Engineering and Applied Mathematics
  • Class of 2019
  • Belvidere, NJ

UA Student Hadley Spadaccini of Leesburg Earns Boren Scholarship to Study in China

2018 May 1

University of Alabama student Hadley Spadaccini of Leesburg, VA, has received a Boren Scholarship for the study of languages in world regions critical to U.S. interests and underrepresented in study abroad. She will be studying Mandarin in China.

Spadaccini is a senior pursuing electrical engineering, mathematics and French majors with a minor in Chinese. She originally comes from the small town of Belvidere, New Jersey, and is the eldest of four children, one of whom also attends UA. A lifelong love of languages has pushed her to apply for and win many scholarships to study abroad while at UA. Her goals are to one day work in an analyst or intelligence position where her love of math and language can have tangible benefit to the country.

Boren Scholarships, an initiative of the National Security Education Program, provide funding opportunities for U.S. undergraduate students to study less commonly taught language in such regions as Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.

Boren Scholarship recipients represent a vital pool of highly motivated individuals who wish to work in the federal national security arena. In exchange for funding, Boren Scholarship recipients commit to working in the federal government for at least one year after graduation. Amounts range from $8,000 for a summer program to $20,000 for six-to-12 months of study.