A Broad Side - Getting the Green

Set the scene

You are from a low income family and they could barely send you to college. No! you are having to pay your own way, on student loans, a job, and federal grants. Now you want to study abroad, but alas you deem it impossible for you because you can barely afford school as is.

Feel like this? I sure did. I was working full time, a full time student, very limited support from family (sometimes getting me food or fixing my ancient car) and most of the time I didn't actually know if my bills were getting paid. How could I afford to study abroad?

First I want to tell you about this amazing thing call the federal Pell grant (assuming you do not have it already) which if you fall under a certain income bracket you can receive to help pay for college. If not for this grant I could not afford to go. If you have never heard of this I recommend going to your financial aid office and inquiring about how you can get it. Don't worry I'll wait.

So have you gotten it? Not that hard was it? Now for students that are poor enough that they need to use this grant, you are probably still thinking "how can I afford to study abroad?" Do not worry I'm about to get to that too. For those eligible to receive the Pell grant there is a scholarship you are also now eligible to receive. The Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship. Here is their site btw http://www.iie.org/Programs/Gilman-Scholarship-Program

This scholarship can be really competitive so be aware that you will need to be compelling when you apply but know that it is well worth it. Normal applicants who receive the scholarship can receive up to $5,000, while those who are studying a critical language in its native country can receive up to $8,000. Critical languages according to their site include: Arabic, Azerbaijani, Bangla, Chinese, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Punjabi, Russian, Swahili, Turkish, and Urdu. I would assume that because they use the word "include" that there may be more. Now before I received the scholarship and was still in the application stage I did see a chart that said about 50% of people who apply for East-Asian countries get the scholarship and since I was also studying Japanese in Japan and it is a critical language I'm thinking that may have given me a decent chance of getting it but do not let this discourage you. Even if you aren't studying a language and are wanting to go to England please try and apply. If you do not try the only one missing out on a life changing experience is you. Also even if you are applying in a critical language the odds of getting the full $8,000 is actually quite low. In the year I studied abroad 2015-2016 over 2,800 scholarships of up to $5,000 were given out, only 70 people received $8,000 and I was not one.

You may now be wondering "who can get this scholarship?" well they tell you that on their site too. http://www.iie.org/en/Programs/Gilman-Scholarship-Program/About-the-Program/Eligibility#Eligibility You need to be a U.S. citizen, an undergraduate at an accredited university, receive that awesome Pell grant I mentioned above, have already applied to your study abroad program, and not be studying in a country that is under a travel warning issued by the U.S. The last requirement is that you cannot have already received this scholarship, but I'll just assume you haven't yet.

I see that look. Now you are thinking that there must be a big catch. Why else would they just give us poor people such a nice scholarship? What do they want from us? Get this! They want us to be better people. On the about the program page it says "The Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program offers grants for U.S. citizen undergraduate students of limited financial means to pursue academic studies or credit-bearing, career-oriented internships abroad. Such international exchange is intended to better prepare U.S. students to assume significant roles in an increasingly global economy and interdependent world." 素敵だね。What do they want in return? They want you to encourage others to study abroad and if they can't afford it spread the word about their scholarship.

Pumped yet? Okay now wait a sec I'm not finished.  When you apply you will have to write a paper about why you should get the scholarship and another about what you will do when you get back to help encourage study abroad. This second one was a little hard for me. Gilman allows  you to decide how you want to encourage it as part of your follow-on-service-project. You can do just about anything here. Many people write blogs, make videos, help out at their local study abroad fair and many others. There are many things you can do and the more mediums you can think of the more helpful you will be to others that want to study abroad. I have personally found word of mouth to be more successful in getting people to apply, but that doesn’t mean it is the only way. The only limiter is your imagination.

Enough about Gilman. Although an impressive scholarship what if you are concerned it is not enough. Well there is something that may have never crossed your mind. Most other countries have scholarships and grants that you are eligible to get as well. Something else to remember is that a lot of other countries feel that college should not be this expensive thing for people to go to, and some even let you go for free. Therefore there are often some really good scholarships you can obtain while abroad that will help out a lot. I personally received the JASSO, while in Japan, and if it was not for both the Gilman and JASSO I would not have had the funds to study abroad. I also got more from JASSO than from Gilman. Surprising no one though, the cost of living in Tokyo is really high so if I had only gotten one I would have been underfunded. There are also many more scholarships you can apply for, that do not necessarily give large amounts but when combined you could easily have more than enough. So search for them and apply.

Get out there and explore