Abigail Griffin is a senior Plan II Honors, Government, and Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures triple-major with an Arabic minor and a certificate in Security Studies. She is passionate about counter-terrorism, conflict resolution, and statecraft, focusing primarily on issues related to the Near East and North Africa. She is writing her honors thesis on the domestic and international circumstances surrounding the Syrian civil war and how they affect the Islamic State’s success in the region. After graduation, Abigail intends to continue her study of Arabic in order to contribute to greater peace in the Arab world and around the globe. Abigail studied abroad in Rome for a summer and interned for a semester at the US Department of State and in the US House of Representatives as a 2016 Archer Fellow. She also recently completed an internship with the Military Child Education Coalition® after the nonprofit’s National Training Seminar, where she got to meet and spend quality time with her FASP donor– former Secretary of the Army Pete Geren. Abigail was born in Denver, Colorado but grew up as an Army brat, moving all over the country. Before coming to UT, she lived in Colorado, Ohio, Texas, Tennessee, Maryland, Georgia, Missouri, and Kentucky, but she definitely consider herself an honorary Texan after her time on the Forty Acres.

Majors:

Plan II Honors,;Government; Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures

Honors Program:

Plan II Honors

Other Academic Interests:

National Security, Statecraft, Foreign Policy, International Relations, Conflict Resolution, the Near East, Arabic

Extracurricular Activities:

Clements Center for National Security Undergraduate Fellowship, Arabic Flagship Program, Archer Fellowship Program, Camp Texas, Student Government, PlanTutoring, Longhorn Run Student Committee, Women’s Club Soccer, Foot in the Door, Undergraduate Research with Dr. Jeremi Suri

What drew you to the Forty Acres Scholars Program (FASP)?

I loved the fact that it was truly a scholarship program and not just a check. The opportunities the program offers, from networking with prestigious alumni to finding a family in my fellow scholars, really makes FASP unique. The financial support is obviously amazing, especially because of the enrichment funding, but the people and the opportunities really drew me to this program in particular.