Five Marshall students awarded Gilman Scholarships

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Five Marshall University students have won the U.S. Department of State’s Benjamin A. Gilman Scholarship to study abroad. Gilman Scholars receive up to $5,000 to apply towards their study abroad or internship program cost with additional funding available for the study of a critical language overseas.

Cynthia Collins, Chandreonia Harris, Juliana Hernandez, Leanasha Jones and Walker Tatum are among the nearly 1,500 outstanding and diverse U.S. undergraduate students across the country who were awarded the scholarship in December.

Tatum has already utilized his scholarship funds to complete an intensive 10-day winter program in Italy over Marshall’s winter break. He learned about the chemical components of art and art preservation in Florence and Rome as part of a faculty-led program taught by a Marshall chemistry professor, Dr. Rosalynn Quinones-Fernandez, through KIIS, the Kentucky Institute for International Studies.

“It was a rigorous program, but a good balance of learning and fun,” Tatum said.

Collins, Harris, and Jones will also be going abroad through KIIS programs. Collins will be going to Argentina this spring on a program led by Marshall faculty member Dr. Shawn Schulenberg. Harris and Jones will visit both Japan and Korea during their summer Japan-Korea Pop program led by Dr. Zelideth Rivas, Marshall University’s assistant provost for global education and a professor in the Department of Modern Languages.

Hernandez will be participating in a foreign language exchange program for a full academic year at Kansai Gaidai University in Japan, which made her eligible to apply for and win the Critical Need Language Award as a supplement to her Gilman Scholarship.

The Gilman program broadens the student population that studies and interns abroad by supporting undergraduates who might not otherwise participate due to financial constraints. Since 2001, more than 38,000 Gilman Scholarships have been awarded, with 60% of those scholars coming from small towns or rural communities, 70% identifying as racial or ethnic minorities and 100% demonstrating financial need.

The Gilman program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and is supported in its implementation by the Institute of International Education (IIE).

For more information about the Gilman scholarship, visit https://www.gilmanscholarship.org or contact Heather Smith, program manager of the Office of National Scholarships at Marshall, by phone at 304-696-2475 or by e-mail at ons@marshall.edu.

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