GILMAN SCHOLARSHIPS

The Benjamin A. Gilman Scholarship Program reduces barriers to study abroad through providing assistance to those undergraduate students who demonstrate financial need. William & Mary applications must be endorsed by the Director of Fellowships Lisa Grimes and a Financial Aid officer.

Applications for fall 2008 programs are available now on the Gilman website starting in early August and must be submitted online by April 15, 2008. Applications for spring 2009 programs will be available starting in August and must be submitted online by October 7. Candidates must meet with Lisa Grimes to discuss their applications no less than one week prior to the application deadline.

Candidates must be U.S. citizens who are undergraduates in good academic standing and must meet the following eligibility criteria:

• The applicant must be receiving a Federal Pell Grant or provide proof that he/she will be receiving a Pell Grant at the time of application or during the term of their study abroad.
• The applicant is applying to or has been accepted into a study abroad program eligible for credit by the student's accredited institution of higher education in the U.S.
• The applicant is studying abroad for at least 4 weeks in one country.  Programs going to more than one country are eligible if the student will be studying in one country for at least 4 weeks.
• The applicant is studying abroad in any country except Cuba or a country on the State Department's current Travel Warning list.
• The applicant is studying in the fall, spring, or academic year terms including winter inter-sessions.  Summer only programs are not eligible.

All recipients are required to carry out a follow-on project that promotes the Gilman Scholarship at the students' home institution or community. The follow-on project proposal, statement of purpose essay, and academic progress are criteria are closely considered during the selection process.

The Gilman scholarship aims to support a diverse range of students who have been traditionally under-represented in study abroad, including but not limited to:

• students with high financial need,
  
• students interested in studying in diverse countries, especially those outside of Western Europe and Australia,
  
• students attending community colleges,
  
• students with diverse ethnic backgrounds,
  
• students from diverse range of institutions including two-year, four-year, public, private, minority-serving etc., and
  
• students with disabilities.

The Gilman Scholarship program strongly encourages students to choose non-traditional study abroad destinations, especially those outside of Western Europe and Australia. The program encourages students to study abroad for longer periods of time though short-term programs of at least four weeks are eligible. The program also seeks to serve students from all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, DC. The program aims to encourage students in non-traditional fields of study to study abroad such as the sciences and engineering - though all disciplines are eligible.

820 scholarships of up to $5,000 will be awarded this academic year for U.S. citizen undergraduates to study abroad. Award amounts will vary depending on the length of study and student need with the average award being $4,000. Undergraduate students who are receiving federal Pell Grant funding at 2-year or 4-year colleges or universities are eligible to apply.

Students who apply for and receive the Gilman Scholarship to study abroad are now eligible to receive an additional $3,000 Critical Need Language Supplement from the Gilman Program for a total possible award of up to $8,000. 25 Critical Need Language Supplements will be offered to Gilman Scholarship recipients during the 2007-2008 academic year. Critical Need Languages include:

• Arabic (all dialects)
• Chinese (all dialects)
• Turkic (Azerbaijani, Kazakh, Kyrgz, Turkish, Turkmen, Uzbek)
• Persian (Farsi, Dari, Kurdish, Pashto, Tajiki)
• Indic (Hindi, Urdu, Nepali, Sinhala, Bengali, Punjabi, Marathi, Gujarati, Sindhi)
• Korean
• Russian

Be sure to read all the information on the Gilman website, especially the FAQ page, and set up a meeting with Peer Scholarship Advisor to discuss your application.

W&M students have been awarded Gilman Scholarships to study abroad in Costa Rica, England, France, and Jordan.