Three W&L Students Awarded Boren Scholarships for Global Language Study With the scholarship, the graduating seniors will conduct intensive language studies in Indonesia and Japan.

(l-r) Darby Burgett ’26, Jack McClure ’26, Ciel Morrill ’26

Three Washington and Lee University students were offered a David L. Boren Scholarship to support intensive language study around the world. The Boren Scholarship supports American students’ study of critical languages that are deemed important to U.S. interests, allowing students to study in and learn the language and culture of a country with the goal of applying this experience to their professional careers.

This year’s W&L recipients include:

• Darby Burgett ’26 to study Indonesian with the Southeast Asian Flagship Languages Initiative at the University of Wisconsin and then the State University of Malang in Indonesia.
• Jack McClure ’26 to study Indonesian in Malang, Indonesia.
• Ciel Morrill ’26 to study Japanese at Kansai Gaidai University in Osaka.

Darby Burgett ’26
Burgett, from Waxhaw, North Carolina, is an environmental studies major with minors in law, justice and society and poverty and human capability studies. With the Boren Scholarship, she will study Indonesian with the Southeast Asian Flagship Languages Initiative, spending this summer at the University of Wisconsin’s Southeast Asian Studies Summer Institute before studying at the State University of Malang in Indonesia in the fall.

“This opportunity is a recognition of my commitment to public service and will allow me to develop a linguistic and regional specialization that will inform my future graduate studies and career in the federal government,” said Burgett, who attended the Public Policy and International Affairs Junior Summer Institute at Princeton University in 2025. “It is a culmination of my four years at W&L – a result of my extensive time abroad, as well as my professional and academic experiences. It can also be attributed to my family and the faculty and staff who have supported me, both with this application and during my time at W&L.”

Studying abroad has been a cornerstone of Burgett’s W&L experience, and she credits these experiences with “fundamentally altering how [she views] the world” and inspiring her to apply for the Boren Scholarship. She spent a semester studying in Australia and interning in Singapore, a semester as a visiting student at Korea University, and Spring Terms in South Korea, Sweden, Denmark and Zimbabwe.

On campus, Burgett is the vice president of partnership and outreach for the Student Environmental Action League, president of the W&L Climate Alliance, co-chair for the Library Student Advisory Board and a trip leader for the sustainability Leading Edge program. She is also involved with Leyburn Library’s outreach program and the Office of Sustainability and Energy Education’s compost crew.

Jack McClure ’26
McClure, an economics major with minors in environmental studies and data science, will study Indonesian in Malang, Indonesia. His interest in international education was sparked by the Spring Term Abroad class he took in 2024, Caste Intersection of Economy, Religion and Law, taught by Timothy Lubin, the Jessie Ball DuPont Professor of Religion, and Shikha Silwal, professor of economics. With the Boren, he is looking forward to returning to and deepening his understanding of the region while laying the groundwork for future environmental research opportunities there.

“This honor holds both academic and personal significance for me,” said the Spartanburg, South Carolina native. “W&L has developed my interest in international education and cross-cultural understanding, and the Boren Scholarship feels like a natural extension of that in a region I have already had the privilege of visiting.”

On campus, McClure is a member of the alpine snowboard team and the Outing Club and is a trip leader for the Appalachian Adventure Leading Edge program.

Ciel Morrill ’26
Morrill is a computer science and Japanese double major from Draper, Utah, and is looking forward to returning to Japan with the Boren Scholarship. Morill studied at the International Christian University in Tokyo during Fall Term 2024, and spent the summer of 2025 conducting thesis research in Shibuya and Shinjuku with a student summer independent research grant from W&L. She also received a Critical Language Scholarship to complete an eight-week language program at Okayama University this summer.

With the Boren Scholarship, Morrill will complete a year of intensive Japanese study at Kansai Gaidai University in Hirakata, Osaka, which will include a homestay during her second semester. She is interested in pursuing a career in the government where she can apply her cultural knowledge and language skills and the Boren is an important step in that path, particularly because of the scholarship’s requirement to work for the federal government for one year after graduation.

“I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to continue my studies of Japanese abroad,” said Morrill, who plans to apply to graduate school to study applied linguistics or Japanese linguistics after her completing the Boren program. “This scholarship puts me in an extremely competitive position for my future studies and career, and I am looking forward to working with professors at Kansai Gaidai University who specialize in my desired field. Above all, I am over the moon to spend the next year living in Japan and taking part in the culture.”

On campus, Morrill works in W&L’s Global Discovery Laboratory as a technology and learning specialist and is one of the coordinators for the Language Exchange Program. She is a Japanese tutor in the Harte Center and has previously taught Japanese to local elementary students through the Languages for Rockbridge Program.

If you know a W&L student who has done great, accolade-worthy things, tell us about them! Nominate them for an accolade.