Maya Luster

2021 Boren Fellow

Hometown

Meridian, MS

Major

Industrial Engineering

College

College of Engineering; The Graduate School

 

2021 Boren Fellow Maya Luster will conduct her research in Japan for 52 weeks - the full length allotted by the Boren award. The Boren Scholarship provides up to $25,000 toward undergraduate study abroad and graduate research funding, respectively, in regions that are critical to U.S. interests. In addition to taking 10 credits per semester in Japanese language and cultural studies at Keio University, Maya will conduct research in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering in the School of Science for Open and Environmental Systems. She points to our national interest in understanding the technology that is used by our foreign allies.

In addition to cultivating her commitment to serving our national interests, Maya credits growing up in a military family for the foundational experience that she has from living in multicultural environments both inside the military and around the world. Drawing on previous volunteer experience in youth outreach programs, Maya will be further immersed in this critical language by working with a Japanese organization that supports students who have lost a parent. Maya will return with knowledge of how to design complex systems such as autonomous vehicles, which she will contribute to the completion of her Ph.D. at Purdue.