Matthew Zeller, a candidate for May graduation from Hamilton, has been awarded the Boren Graduate Fellowship through the National Security Education Program (NSEP). Zeller will pursue a joint master's degree in public affairs and international relations at Syracuse University's Maxwell School.
The Boren Fellowships are intended to support U.S. graduate students who will pursue the study of languages and cultures deemed critical to U.S. national security and who are motivated by the opportunity to work in the federal government. They enable students to add a significant international dimension to their curricula by encouraging study abroad. As part of Zeller's domestic study he will learn Arabic. During the international component of his fellowship he will study the democratic development of Bahrain, a predominantly Arab-Muslin society in the Middle East. Support for the combined overseas and domestic study is $28,000.
Zeller, a government major at Hamilton, will conduct his research on the premise that the development of local representative government and institutions is the true measure of the democratic transformation of a society. He hopes to pursue the topic of security studies in graduate school. Using this study he hopes to develop a model that can be applied to future endeavors to democratize Arab-Muslim societies using western ideals, while paying due respect to the laws and traditions of Islam. Ultimately he plans to enlist his knowledge and service to our nation's effort to spread democracy to the Middle East by working with the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.
While at Hamilton, Zeller has been a Dean's List student since 2000; a member and co-president of the Model European Union Club; a delegate for the Student Conference on U.S. Affairs at West Point and a member of the choir. He received a Levitt Center Research grant to conduct research on oil's influence on U.S. foreign policy and received the National Defense Medal of the New York State Army National Guard. He attended a conference on the European Union in the Netherlands in January. Zeller is a graduate of Allendale Columbia School.
Zeller is the son of Edmond Zeller and Dr. Elizabeth Blades-Zeller of Meigs Street in Rochester.
