FAMU Architecture grad student makes history with prestigious Boren Award, spends semester in Vietnam

Ashley Arthur Saddler Jr., a FAMU architecture graduate student and Army ROTC Second Lieutenant,  from Jacksonville, FL, has returned from a transformative fall 2024 semester in Hanoi, Vietnam, where he became the first ROTC cadet from a historically Black university to earn the prestigious Boren Award—a U.S. Department of Defense initiative fostering critical language skills and global cultural fluency.

Saddler’s journey, funded by the competitive national security-focused scholarship, marks a milestone for HBCU representation in the program. “The Boren Awards are important for college students to expand their understanding of the world and themselves,” said retired Lt. Col. Larry Rentz, who is President of the FAMU Washington DC Alumni Chapter, and an outreach consultant with the Institute for International Education, which administers the award. “Saddler’s selection is historic… he’s paving the way for others.”

Before his six-month immersion, Saddler, who had never traveled outside the U.S. beyond the U.S. Virgin Islands, embarked on a rigorous stateside preparation. He completed a crash course in foreign affairs in Washington, D.C., followed by two months of intensive Vietnamese language training in Wisconsin. There, he logged over 40 hours weekly in classes and self-study, grappling with the language’s tonal complexities. “I passed with an A, but I feel like I passed with a high D,” he quipped.

His cohort shrank from six students to five by the program’s end, a testament to its demands. “Vietnamese is brutal,” Saddler admitted. “Pronunciation can shift meaning entirely. You have to rebuild how you think.”

In Hanoi, Saddler moved into a five-story home with a local host family, embracing a rhythm of academic rigor and cultural exploration. By day, he attended the University of Languages and International Studies (ULIS), where four-hour classroom blocks and tutoring sessions forced him to rely on his budding Vietnamese. “We rarely spoke English,” he said.

By night, he wandered the capital’s labyrinthine streets, drawing parallels between Hanoi’s compact urban landscape and New York City’s boroughs. “Architecture felt similar to the Bronx or Brooklyn—everything layered and tight,” he observed. The city’s fusion of French colonial influences, bustling markets, and serene temples deepened his architectural perspective.

Saddler also navigated cultural nuances, from conversational quirks (“They ask ‘why’ at the end of sentences”) to the warmth of his host family, who introduced him to traditions like Tết Trung Thu (Mid-Autumn Festival). “It was unfamiliar but oddly familiar,” he reflected.

Now back at FAMU, Saddler plans to leverage his Vietnamese proficiency and cross-cultural insights in his military career and architecture work. “This experience taught me adaptability,” he said. “Whether designing spaces or building alliances, understanding people is everything.”

As the Defense Department pushes to diversify its pipeline of global-ready professionals, Saddler’s story underscores the expanding role in shaping national security leaders—one vowel tone at a time.