Six ASU students will study abroad in China, Costa Rica, Italy or Spain this summer after receiving a national scholarship that funds study abroad sessions for Federal Pell Grant recipients.
The Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program provides funds for these students to study abroad, an opportunity that many Pell Grant recipients do not have. The grants are need-based.
Incoming global studies senior Angelica Wagner received $2,500 to study abroad in Spain this summer.
She said the scholarship application process was grueling, but she was grateful to have the money for studying abroad. Her scholarship will cover all of her program and provide some spending money.
“I'm very grateful to have received this award because without it, I don't know how I would have been able to afford this trip,” Wagner said. “I probably would've tried to get the limit raised on my credit card then maxed it out or maybe tried selling plasma.”
Wagner will take one language class and an elective. She signed up to take an elective class on Spanish civilization and culture. She hopes to place into the equivalent of SPA 412, a requirement for her Spanish minor.
“I strongly believe that you will never be fluent in a language until you've immersed yourself in it,” she said. “Unfortunately, as great as my ASU Spanish classes have been, that's just not possible in a classroom setting.”
Incoming genetics junior Zachary Marin will travel to China on June 4 with a $4,500 scholarship from the Gilman program.
Marin, a participant in ASU’s Chinese Language Flagship Program, which is designed for students with other majors to become proficient in Chinese relating to their careers, has studied Chinese at ASU for the past two summers. This will be his first trip to Asia.
While there, Marin will take accelerated Chinese classes through the Associated Colleges in China, a group of American universities housed at China’s Minzu University that provide Chinese instruction to international students.
Additionally, he and the other students are expected to speak only Chinese for the two and a half months they spend there.
“People have told me it’s incredibly difficult while you’re there, but you come back with amazing language skills,” he said.
He hopes to take classical Chinese, a traditional style that he described as nearly an entirely different language than the modern dialects.
Marin hadn’t planned to study Chinese, but became interested when he sat next to the Chinese Language Flagship Program’s director at a dinner before his freshman year. He joined the Flagship program and will earn a minor through it.
After spending four years in the course, including spending part of his senior year in China, Morin will be fluent in Chinese, including the specialized terminology that comes with his genetics studies.
“The language itself has exceeded all of my expectations,” he said. “I can’t imagine how the culture will be once I’m immersed in it.”
Psychology major Jason Baxter will also travel to China with the program. Global health major Elizabeth Hunt is traveling to Costa Rica, film and media production senior Dillon Vaughn to Italy, and sociology major Dylan Muller to Spain.
“For me, the scholarship has provided the chance to travel to a part of the world that I've always dreamed of visiting, all while learning more about my passion: filmmaking,” Vaughn said. “Without Gilman, I never would have had the funds to participate in this program.”
Reach the reporter at julia.shumway@asu.edu or follow @JMShumway on Twitter.
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