UC Santa Cruz has seen a two hundred percent increase in Gilman scholarship applications for the summer/fall cycle. There were 34 applications in the summer/fall of 2019-2020 and this year there were 72 applications for the summer/fall 2020-2021 session. This leap in interest is largely due to the advisors’ efforts to increase outreach for the Gilman Scholarship these past two years.
Study Abroad has increased the outreach for the Gilman scholarship by providing more opportunities for students to engage with advisors through things like scholarship essay reviews, advising sessions, and essay writing resource guides. They have also raised the number of information sessions, emails, review sessions.
“We are here to support students throughout the whole application process, so I hope students utilize us, advisors, as resources and know that we will do whatever we can to help them receive the award because their success is our success,” said Ashley Bayman, Study Abroad Program Coordinator and Advisor.
The winner of the award receives a Federal Pell Grant which provides need-based grants to students that they do not have to pay back. Students can apply to two Gilman scholarships, the regular Gilman scholarship, which awards students up to five thousand dollars, as well as the critical need language scholarship which can provide up to an additional three thousand dollars if a student is studying a language that the U.S Department of State identifies as a critical need language.
Funding is always going to be one of the biggest hurdles, not just for study abroad but for higher education in general,” Bayman said. “So I think the more opportunities we can provide to students to relieve that barrier the better. Students can actually take advantage of participation in high impact educational activities like study abroad.”
The Gilman Scholarship is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State in coordination with the Institute of International Education (IIE). The mission of the scholarship, like many others, is to award opportunities for students who otherwise would not be able to study abroad because of financial burdens.
More scholarship information can be found on the Study Abroad website under the affording study abroad tab. Within the scholarship database, there are featured scholarships like the Gilman as well as an extensive list of every scholarship opportunity that the Study Abroad office is currently aware of.