How the Gilman Scholarship transformed my semester abroad.

A semester abroad should be an adventure.  It should teach you new things about your host country, your own country, international relationships, and even things about yourself. Luckily, this tends to happen no matter what your plans or expectations are. Things will happen that draw you into your new community and open your eyes to more than you could have imagined as you were loafing on your sofa back in the good ol’ US of A. For me, the unexpected connections and unplanned experiences are the best part of international travel.

Last semester, I attended a university in South Korea and the catalyst for my awesome adventures was, surprisingly, my Gilman Scholarship that funded the trip itself! After I received the Gilman award, I was sent an email by an international non-profit called Reach the World. They worked closely with Gilman to recruit students who could report about foreign culture, environment, and society in an enhanced blog format.  They would then use these blogs to teach science, social science, geography, and even math to classrooms in disadvantaged schools of New York public schools. Once the students were paired with specific classrooms, we were able to chat with the students through video conferences and share experiences as we both discovered the host country together! 

Even though my research and articles were intended for 4-5 grade classrooms, I was blown away by the depth and scope of the topics my students were interested in. Each week I would get a new topic to write about and would spend 5 or 6 days researching the topic before I was able to complete the article. Topics included everything from language and cultural differences to waste management! It was a lot of work at first, but then I began to realize that in researching these topics, I was also meeting some pretty incredible people and visiting some extraordinary sites that I never would have sought out on my own. I ended up making contacts with leading news agencies, international politicians, inspiring students, and remarkably diverse immigrants. These experiences changed the entire course of my time in Korea and definitely made it into one of the most exciting and fulfilling experiences I have ever had.  

I never would have believed that just by signing up for a single scholarship I would be setting myself for interviews with Ethiopian nightclub owners in Seoul, private tea ceremonies with Buddhist nuns, conversations with the mayor of Glendale, California, and chats with Brooklyn 4^th graders about Kim Jong-Un and nuclear proliferation. The Gilman Scholarship did all this and more. I can’t imagine what my trip would have been without it and the connections it provided for me. It made my semester abroad an adventure abroad.

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About the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program

The Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program (http://www.iie.org/Programs/Gilman-Scholarship-Program) offers grants for U.S. citizen undergraduate students of limited financial means to pursue academic studies abroad. Such international study is intended to better prepare U.S. students to assume significant roles in an increasingly global economy and interdependent world.