Madison Weisend ’20 Awarded Boren Scholarship

Madison Weisend '20

Before leaving for India, Madison will undertake an intensive, eight-week immersion program in Hindi through the South Asian Flagship Languages Initiative at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This coming fall, Madison will head to Jaipur, where she will spend a semester studying Hindi at the American Institute for Indian Studies. In the Spring 2018 semester, she will move to the School of International Training in Jaipur to participate in their Sustainable Development and Social Change Program.  

In her Boren Scholarship application, Madison made the case that food insecurity in India, one of our largest and most important trading partners, creates potentially disastrous political instability and strengthens the role of the Naxalites, who have a stated desire to overthrow the Indian government.  

After graduation from MMC, Madison plans to serve in the Indian Peace Corps for two years while earning her MA in Environmental Policy. With her degree in hand, she hopes to become an Adviser on Agricultural Development for the U.S. State Department. 

A native of Ohio, Madison is a double major in Environmental Studies and Politics & Human Rights. She has an outstanding academic record. She was a member of the National Honor Society in high school and is now thriving in the College Honors Program. A multifaceted student, Madison participated in eleven years of dance training at the Central Ohio Youth Ballet and summer intensives. She is extremely active on the MMC campus, particularly in her role on the executive board of the GoGreen Coalition. She has organized a trip for 20 of her fellow students to Washington, DC, for the People’s Climate March on April 29th. She has also brought a carbon-pricing campaign to MMC through her internship with Our Climate.

The David L. Boren Scholarship is highly competitive; fewer than 20% of applicants are accepted. Madison’s success as a freshman applicant is an extraordinary achievement. Madison reports, “I am beyond blessed to have been given this opportunity. I can’t wait to spend my sophomore year in India!”

For more information on applying for a Boren Scholarship, please see Marymount Manhattan’s External Student Scholarships page.

Published: April 19, 2017