Damicah Burtin, a junior international business and Spanish major is a recent recipient of the Benjamin A. Gilman Scholarship. Burtin will spend Spring 2022 in Mexico City, Mexico.
"Winning the Gilman is a huge accomplishment for me," said Burtin. "This scholarship will help me financially because without it, I probably wouldn’t have been able to study abroad. I can rest easy now knowing that I have everything paid for."
A requirement of the scholarship is that students create a “follow-on service project” that is completed upon the conclusion of their study abroad. For Burtin's project, he plans "on making a blog-like video of my experience during my time abroad. I’ll show clips of my host family, university, friends and people I meet there, and different parts of the city while narrating. This video would serve as a visual guide or a 'what to expect' video for students who are thinking of studying abroad. I know when I was first beginning my study abroad research, I would’ve loved something like this."
The Gilman Scholarship is a nationally competitive program that assists students with study abroad expenses. The program aims to diversify the students who study and intern abroad and the countries and regions where they go. The scholarship is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Nearly 60 NWU students have received the Gilman Scholarship since the program began in 2001.