Marie Gleeson, and I am a study abroad coordinator in the Center for Global Programs and Services. And one of my roles is to let students know about this wonderful opportunity available to them, and it's called the Benjamin A Gilman International Scholarship Program. And tonight's session is to give you an overview about the program and let you know if you qualify or not. And just a little bit more about the details about this program. So this is a let me started here, here we go. So the Gilman program is, like I said, a federally funded. It comes out of the Department of State. And if you take a moment to read the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, their mission statement, you'll understand the overriding goal of this scholarship program. So and what some of the questions that they will ask you as part of the application program. So this is just a part of what this Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs do, but this is a scholarship. They want to increase mutual understanding, and one of the ways to do that is to have students go abroad. And so here's the basics about the Gilman program. All Gilman scholars have to be eligible hell grant recipients. So as you see here, 50% are first generation college students, So they participated in over 160 countries of study, and they've come from over 1,300 US colleges and universities, including the University of Delaware. We have a pretty good track record with having students be selected for these very competitive scholarship awards. But we just I don't know if you saw the article on U daily, but we had two students selected in the last round of the Gilman scholars from UD. So that's really great that we are known as an institution from which Gilman scholars do come. So here's a little more about the program and eligibility. So you must be a US citizen. And or national. And undergraduate student, Federal Pew grant recipient, as I said, your credit your Study broad program must be for credit, must be credit bearing. All of UD pro study of broad programs are credit bearing. And the program of broad must be in a country or area with an overall travel advisory level of one or two, and you say, well, who does that? Well, the Department of State does that. And that's something you could look up on their website. There is no minimum program length. So some of our faculty led programs are short, some of our January programs, just given the fact that our January winter session is a little shorter than usual in 25 W and perhaps in 26 W as well, but it doesn't matter if you go for two weeks or two months or four months, a whole semester, you would still be eligible if you meet all the other eligi eligibility requirements to apply for for the scholarship. So You can only receive the scholarship once. That's important to note. But when you do, it opens up a whole world. Now, the Gilman application has a basic application, and then it also has some subsets. So one of the subsets is if is called the Gilman McCain Scholarship, and it's in honor of John McCain, the former senator. And the additional eligibility requirements are that a student must be a child or spousal dependent of an active or activated service member. And you the military personnel must be active or activated during your time of application. So that's important. So, unfortunately, if your parent is retired Navy, you wouldn't qualify. But if they are currently serving abroad in the Navy when you apply to Gilman, then you could certainly be eligible for the Gilman McCain scholarship. So it's just another avenue for Gilman in order to fund, especially earmarked students. So you see there what forces they consider. So your Air Force, the Air National Guard, the Army Reserve, the Coast guard, so all Navy, the Marines So that's important to note. You're still filling out the same application. It's just whether you then also qualify for consideration for Gilman McCain. And here again is the again, you've got to be a US citizen, undergraduate. So it's the same as any Gilman applicant has to meet the basic requirements. The only difference is you can be a recipient of any type of title for federal financial aid because you're having because of the military active military funding. So The Gilman Award, scholarships up to $5,000 for any term abroad. So at UD, we have fall and spring semester programs. We have short term faculty led summer programs and also short term faculty led winter programs or what some people call J term at other schools. We don't have an academic year programs at UD, but you could, if you students at other institutions who go for whole academic year, they would also be eligible. Now, another thing that students could consider, and this is a bonus, but again, same application is if you knew you were going to study a critical need language while you're as part of your study abroad program. And if you did, and if it was any of the languages listed here, like Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Portuguese. These are all taught at UG. Then you would have access to an additional $3,000. So and you would fill out another part of the application, an additional essay to be considered for the critical need. Critical language awards. Also, if you happen to be studying, and this is a brand new one. They just started this in the last round of Gilman. But they have what they call Stem supplemental. So it's up to an additional $1,000. If you're going to do Stem research while you are abroad. So if you're going to be conducting research of any kind, these would cover your lab fees, perhaps, your equipment, your printing calls, Internet. They have it listed here. If you need to go out into the field, and you need to hire local transport, you need to pay for that, then that would be. But this also requires an extra essay to be considered for that. So keep that in mind. And if you are awarded a Gilman scholarship, these are some of the benefits that you can reap. So you'd be joining over 40,000 alumni, and then So you have this great network of Gilman scholars. You could become an alumni ambassador to help spread the word about Gilman to other institutions, and they have wonderful Gilman throughout the year, have special events. They have different seminars and workshops geared towards the Gilman alumni, and they're very, very interesting and always cutting edge up and coming policy, non policy, but very interesting topics. You could apply for a Gilman alumni changemaker grant. But most importantly, for some students, it would give you the non competitive eligibility in case you want it to ever apply for a federal government job. So that's really a big deal if you ever think about applying for a job in the federal government, because non competitive means that kind of moves your application ahead of somebody else. You already have that edge because you are a Gilman scholarship. So that's really quite And a lot of Gilman applicants, some of them become future Fulbright awardees, Fulbright scholars after having the opportunities sedy abroad. So the Gilman application is straightforward. You will need to provide all the details about your specific study abroad program, name, dates, we, all that sort of thing. You need to complete the essays, and we'll go into those in a moment. You need to upload your unofficial UD transcript, which you can get easily from UDSIS, and logging in there and uploading your unofficial transcript. And then you will select the advisors to certify your application. And it's very simple. As soon as you put the University of Delaware, only two names will show up. You'll see Study Abroad advisor, you'll see my name, Marie Gleason. And then you will see Financial Aid advisor, and you will see Rayonaldo Blanco is the current financial aid advisor. So there's only two of us. We've certified student applications for many years now. So we're used to it, and Gilman, their system will let us know. Right away once somebody has submitted an application. So you don't have to worry about notifying us Nice if you do, but you don't have to because the system will tell us, and we have time to go we have seven days after your application deadline in order to certify your application, and we will get it done. So the first essay, And the main thing to note is that you really should start working on your essays now. And it's a max of 7,000 characters. Not word, 7,000 characters. So think like maybe about a page and a half. And It's your statement of purpose. So it's really a personal interview. They want to know who you are, why this program, what your goals are, academically, professionally, personally. What challenges have you ever come to get here or to study abroad at this point? And so it's your way to tell your story. And remember, when you're telling this story, you have to make it authentic, obviously, but This is the only way that the people are who will read all these essays and make the selection, the selection committee, this is the only way they get to know you in the 7,000 characters. So it's important that you tell a good story. Tell who you are, why. Keeping in mind that you are competing with students with similar backgrounds. So what makes you a little different and why this program. And the more you can tie that all together, the better off you are. So I highly recommend that you start thinking about it now, and also that you start working perhaps with the writing center staff, so you can really craft good solid essays is not something you want to wait and do at the last minute. So Essay number two is a max of 3,000 characters. And here you can tell this is almost the mission statement, that we saw earlier of the educational Bureau of the Department of State. So they want to know, how are you going to build mutual understanding? What does it mean to be a US citizen while abroad? How are you going to be culturally engaged with the people that you meet abroad? And how are you going to seek out to have meaningful interactions with them? How are you going to come out of? So that's usually one that students really have to pause and reflect upon for a moment and think about that. And some of that would be knowing what opportunities you may have through your very specific study abroad program. For example, you may know that as part of your study abroad program, you're going to have the opportunity to hear from a foreign instructor, or you know that your program is going to go into a homeless shelter or something abroad and you're going to volunteer for a day, or you're going it's part of that program, something specific, or maybe you're going to be shadowing doctors on your program. So you're going to be interacting with them, the local doctor or nurse on a daily basis. So how How are you going to have meaningful interactions with them, not just in the clinical sense as well, but to learn about them more as a person. And then SA three, and this is one is a max of 3,000 characters. And this is important too. Not only does Gilman want you to have an impact on people abroad and vice versa on you as well, your time abroad should have an impact on you. But they also want you to when you come back to get back and to spread the word about the Gilman scholarship. So they want you to create a follow on service project. And so They want you to know how you get back by inspiring others to study abroad. And you need to have a very specific timeline. And if you come to the next presentation that I give that's scheduled for later this month, about tips and tricks, we'll go into the different things you can think about for all these essays. But they want to know who you're going to be talking to. Maybe it's your old high school class. Maybe it's some campus organization that you're a part of at UD, but you only have you must complete this project within six months of you returning from your study abroad program if you're awarded a Gilman scholarship. Essay four, optional ones, the critical need language Award essay. So they want to make sure that it is a critical need language. And Why are you studying it? What are your motivations for this, et cetera? It's pretty straightforward. Same with the Stem. It's an extra essay, and is this part of your study abroad program and how does it all relate? Why are you interested in doing this field and studying that? So the selection criteria that the committee is looking for, they're looking for how the program and destination really fits? What impact is this going to have on your academic and your career to directory? So not just now, but in the future. And then your impact upon the community, how that follow up service project is going to make a difference, how feasible is it, how well organized. Are you prepared for this experience academically. And when they say academic preparedness, they don't mean necessarily. You don't have to have the highest GPA in the world. What they want to know is that you're ready for these courses. They don't want to be reading Oh, I want to go to London, and I've never taken an English class before, but I'm going to do great in my English classes, okay? So they want to see that, no, I am going to I'm a chemical engineer, and I am going to take two classes in in chemical engineering abroad, and this is just part of, like, all my prior training, or I've been studying Spanish, like all my life. And here's my opportunity to finally become fluent when I spend a whole semester abroad in Spain. So that's what they mean by academic preparedness. And obviously, commitment to proficiency in a critical need language or in Stem research. So I've been studying Portuguese or Chinese, and I want to I'm going to use it when I return. This is my goal because I want this type of career, what it may be, or like I said, I'm going to be doing research. In my particular field abroad, se research, for example. Maybe I'm going to help Professor X with research on in his lab for whatever the project may be. So very important. Here are the deadlines and creeping up. So one thing to keep in mind is the deadline. The other thing to keep in mind, that's very important is when your study abroad program that you are applying to starts. You don't have to already be accepted to a study abroad program to apply for the Gilman. Okay. But you need to know which particular study abroad program you are applying to and want to be accepted to. So that said, you can apply for this round, this October round of Gilman. If your study abroad program starts from December 2024 through October 2025, So pretty much our entire cycle that's available right now. So if you already know or you have already been accepted to, you're applying to Winter 2025 program, you're good. If you're interested in our summer 2025 programs, which are listed, and you're going to apply to one of those, you can apply for this round, obviously, spring of 2025 programs, that's also possible. And even if you're thinking about let's see, fall of 2025, even though they're not yes, we have those listed on our website as well. So we pretty much have everything there. So if you go and look, you can see the specific programs. And like I said, you're welcome to apply for Gilman, even before you know you're officially accepted to a particular program. That's actually a good thing to do if you can do that that way. And hopefully then be accepted and be able to accept the Gilman Award. So the applications already open. It's been open since mid late August. The application deadline is October 10 at 11:59 P.M. Pacific Time. Please don't wait till then. But that's the ultimate deadline. And then you see as an advisor, I have until October 18 to certify your award. Now, if it all seems too soon or you're thinking about 26 W programs or something like that, you will need to wait and apply for the March 2025 deadline. That will be March 6, and those study abroad programs would range from May 2025 to April 2026, so to give you a sense. And that application won't be open until mid January, and you see those dates there. But for now, hopefully, most of you have the October 10 deadline in mind, and that's again October 10. At 11:59 P.M. Pacific Time. But like I said, don't wait until the last moment. And we'll get into not so much tips today, but it's really important. U Why Gilman. It might lead to a future job, but it's just a great overall experience. So there's a lot of skills that you'll learn on a study abroad. Gilman has a very helpful website, lots of tools and tips and tricks, videos and things that you can watch, but you can also follow them on Instagram, all the platforms, they're on all the platforms. They have videos on YouTube. With tips and tricks about applying, and you can see what other students have done for service projects, for example, so you can get great ideas. Now, if at any time you run into a problem when you're filling out the application, like tech something or you have a question, you can contact them directly. You can e mail them or you can call them, and they will help you out with any questions that you have. I'm here to help you out at the center for global programs and services. Like I said, use the resource of the writing center. If you have any questions about, well, where to find the different programs or what the differences may be, that's where our office comes in, and we can help you with that. So again, I'll be very happy to certify as many Gilman applications as we can get each round of Gilman. So let me back he up here so you can see the contact information for Gilman, but also for C GPS. And like I said, I see some people have put things in the chat, so let me see. Good question. No. The scholarship is tied to your specific study abroad program. So you would have to use it for that specific study abroad program. So it has to be tied to that program. That's what it's covering. They wouldn't release the funds until you're going until you prove that you're accepted to that particular program. And somebody asked if they have grandparents living in the country they want to visit, and you want to visit them and strengthen your relationship with them. I would say, yes, that's worth mentioning, but probably I would kind of twist that a little bit and say that's nice because it's nice. You kind of already have an advantage about knowing about the country because your grandparents already live there. You might then twist that to say that that opens up, then you get like to meet their neighbors, too. So it's not just family so that you have more of a tie to the local community, because you want to, you know, why are you going to that particular country, is that still tied to all of your academic and professional goals as well, not just personal relationships. Okay, are there any other questions, concerns? I hope you found this useful. Alright. That's it. Thank you for joining me. Thank you. Like I said, you're welcome. Good night.
Gilman Scholarship Overview Meeting
From Marie Gleason September 05, 2024
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