Two University of Vermont students have been awarded prestigious Benjamin A. Gilman Scholarships. The Gilman is a nationally competitive award given to accomplished students with financial need who wish to study abroad, and it seeks to support students as they prepare themselves to become active and engaged citizens in an increasingly globalized world.

Mickayla Royer '17, a neuroscience major and psychological science minor from the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, received an award. Royer will spend the spring of studying at the University of Ghana in Accra. Ciara Ertle '17, a double English and Asian studies major from Essex Junction, Vermont, received an award to study at Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo during the spring semester. One other student has been named an alternate.

The two UVM students received a total of $8,500 in study abroad scholarship money from the Gilman awards for the spring 2016 semester.

The Gilman Scholarship Program aims to diversify the kinds of students who study abroad and the countries and regions where they go. The program provides awards that allow U.S. undergraduate students who receive federal Pell Grant funding at a two-year or four-year college or university to participate in study abroad programs worldwide. Award recipients are chosen through a very competitive application process.

Since 2005, when the university put a centralized fellowship outreach and support program in place, more than 100 UVM students have won or been finalistsĀ in the country's most prestigious and competitive competitions, including the Fulbright, Rhodes, Goldwater, Marshall, Udall, Truman, Madison, Gilman and Boren Overseas scholarships.

PUBLISHED

12-17-2015
University Communications