Gilman Scholarship
Alumni/Recipients
Effects Gilman had on Students
Diversifying Students
The Gilman Scholarship team seeks out minority students to apply for the scholarship. Approximately 68% of award recipients were minority students in 2013-14 ("The Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program").
This is changing the national average and stereotype of only white female students pursuing studying abroad.
Low Income
In order to qualify for a Gilman Scholarship, students must receive a Pell Grant. In other words, the students combined family income must be lower than $50,000/year ("Federal Grants")
This allows students who genuinely don't have the funds to even think about studying abroad, study abroad.
"If I didn’t receive the Gilman I would’ve had to drop the program because my family doesn’t have the money to send me abroad" (Rios, Maria)
"Pushes the Boundaries of Destinations"
According to the dissertation by Mary Thompson-Jones titled "Not for Kids Like Me:
How the Gilman Program is Changing Study Abroad", Gilman students are traveling to more non-traditional locations than any other study abroad students scholarship program in The United States. "The number of Gilman Scholars who study in Africa is double that of national study-abroad rates, in Asia it is nearly triple, and in the Middle East and North Africa six times the national rate."
Critical Need Language
The Gilman Scholarship team really pushes students to try to study in a country that speaks a "critical need language" even offering a supplemental award of $3,000 to students who study the language(s); Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Turkish, etc.
​
To view and/or learn more about the critical need languages, please visit https://www.gilmanscholarship.org/program/program-overview/
"[Receiving the Gilman] ensured I would be able to [study abroad] without hesitation by eliminating any financial burden it would have caused me and any thoughts of regret" (Rios, Maria)