Natalia Arutynov felt like she was trying to apply for college all over again.

She said she spent four months with Pitt Director of National Scholarships Judy Zang, writing essays and participating in panel interviews, hoping to get a scholarship from the National Education Security Program, for which she would delay her graduation.

Arutynov, a fifth-year senior studying economics, political science and Russian and European studies, checked her mailbox about “a hundred times” last spring. she said.

On May 1, she received a letter from the program: She’d won its David L. Boren Scholarship and will now spend a year in Georgia to study the language.

“I actually let out a scream and was just completely overjoyed,” Arutynov said. “I felt like all those years of work and the past few months of a rigorous application process all have finally paid off.”

Arutynov’s scholarship gives her up to $20,000 to study in an area critical to the United States’ national security. Born in the Republic of Georgia, Arutynov will return to her country Thursday.

“Now that I get to return for nine months, I can’t wait because I know that I’ll be able to see more of the country and experience and learn more of their amazing culture,” she said.

Arutynov was five years old when she immigrated to the United States in 1991. Since then, she visited Georgia but does not remember much of it from her birth. Much of what she knows about the country now comes from family and personal research.

She said one of her biggest obstacles will be the language barrier, which she hopes she can break after her classes.

“Adjusting to a new lifestyle will also be a challenge, because visiting a country is one thing, but living in a country is in a whole different league,” she said. “You not only have to adjust to a new way of living, but to a new culture, a new set of rules and a very different outlook on what’s acceptable.”

Arutynov, the seventh consecutive Pitt student to receive the scholarship, said she plans to improve her knowledge of Georgia’s language, history and culture.

“What I like about learning foreign languages is that one is connecting different nations and its people,” she said. “The same goes with diplomacy. It’s something that is associated with peaceful communication and understanding between nations. It’s a way to contribute to peace, humanity, understanding and a bettering of relations between nations, no matter how small.”

Arutynov said she wants to see as much as the world as she can and has visited more than 18 countries.

“I love sightseeing and experiencing new cultures. It’s like stepping into a whole new world,” she said. “Traveling is just that. It’s about experiencing, learning and immersing yourself in a new country and culture.”

Arutynov, who eventually hopes to attend graduate school for diplomacy, will work in the Department of Defense as part of the National Security Education Program requirement. She hopes to study in the Washington D.C. area and evenutally work at the U.S. Embassy in Eastern Europe.