The University of Colorado at Boulder ranks sixth nationally in numbers of Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarships awarded to CU students who have been enrolled in study abroad programs this academic year.
For the 2007-08 academic year, CU-Boulder has 10 Gilman Scholarship recipients, up from three recipients in 2006-07.
The Gilman International Scholarship provides awards of up to $5,000 to students involved in study abroad who are in approved programs and who are recipients of a federal Pell Grant at a two-year or four-year college or university.
In addition to being a Pell grant recipient in an approved program, students must study abroad for at least four weeks in one country. The Gilman International Scholarship Program offers grants for U.S. citizen undergraduate students of limited financial means to pursue academic studies abroad with the objective of better preparing U.S. students to assume significant roles in an increasingly global economy and interdependent world.
The Gilman Scholarship program also broadens the student population that studies abroad by supporting undergraduates who might not otherwise participate due to financial constraints.
Schools with the highest number of Gilman Scholarship awards for 2007-08 include:
New York University 19 awards
University of California, Los Angeles 19 awards
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign 14 awards
Evergreen State College, Washington 13 awards
Spelman College, Georgia 12 awards
University of Colorado at Boulder 10 awards
In 2007-08, more than 820 Gilman Scholarships are being awarded for study abroad. Award amounts vary depending on the length of study and student need, with the average award totaling $4,000.
Students who apply for and receive the Gilman Scholarship to study abroad also are 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. Twenty-five Critical Need Language Supplements are being offered to Gilman Scholarship recipients during the 2007-08 academic year.
Critical Need Languages include Arabic, Chinese, Turkic, Persian, Indic, Korean and Russian.
The congressionally funded program is sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State and is administered by the Institute of International Education of the Southern Regional Center in Houston.
Other top awarded universities included the University of Arizona, University of Oklahoma, Oregon State University, University of California (Riverside, San Diego and Berkeley), Michigan State University, University of Texas, Austin, University of Wisconsin, Madison and West Virginia University.
For more information about the Gilman International Scholarship Program, visit the Web site at: www.iie.org/programs/gilman/index.html.