Colorado State University student Paine Lewis is the winner of the prestigious David L. Boren Scholarship, which he will use to study abroad in Latvia.

He is one of the 244 undergraduate students in the country to receive the award, and the 4th CSU student to be given the honor since 2001.

The purpose of the scholarship is to help students play leadership roles in the world by learning about other cultures and languages.

According to SourceLewis will live with a Latvian family in the country's capital of Riga, near the Baltic Sea.

The purpose for his trip is to study Russian, which he will work on for 25 hours a week. Lewis has already taken Russian classes at CSU, with his professors stating that he "has a talent for the...language."

The student is no stranger to traveling abroad. Prior to college, he visited South America to help children in violent and politically corrupt cities.

He even taught English to orphans in Brazil, who lived in a neighborhood run by the cartel.

These trips helped develop his passion for languages and fighting political corruption. Lewis was inspired to learn Russian after seeing how the country's influence affected Bolivia.

Lewis will leave for Latvia in January and stay until August. He said that while he will miss his wife and dog, he feels "lucky" to have this opportunity.

He will graduate from CSU in December of 2020.

More From Mix 104.3