Elizabethtown College junior Laura Carr was recently awarded the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship. Carr, a Spanish Education major plans to study abroad in Granada, Spain for the Spring 2021 semester while also completing an education internship.
Laura is the fifteenth Elizabethtown College student to earn the prestigious scholarship and the second Etown recipient to study abroad in Spain. Elizabethtown College’s Gilman recipients have studied abroad in 10 different countries: The Gambia, Germany, Greece, Iceland, India, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
“The opportunity I have to study abroad is a new adventure for me. This will be the first time I am out of the United States and it will be the first time I have ever traveled,” said Carr. “As I hope to be a future educator, this is a fascinating opportunity to have the chance to work first-hand in a foreign school. I will be able to observe what teaching techniques Spanish educators use in their classroom and how the students react to those styles. I anticipate working alongside local students that will teach me an abundance of information as I also plan on assisting them to attain their own personal goals for that course. I believe everyone, but especially children have a lot of knowledge to instill in me throughout this time. I am also working toward an ESL certification so this will give valuable experiences of what an ESL teacher would do every day.”
The Gilman Scholarship Program reviewed over 7,000 applicants for the March 2020 Deadline, and more than 2,500 outstanding students were offered awards to participate in credit-bearing study and intern abroad programs.
Laura originally planned to study abroad for the entire 2020-21 academic. Unfortunately, COVID-19 has canceled her fall 2020 program. Fortunately, the Gilman Scholarship is allowing awardees to transfer their scholarship to a future term. Laura now plans on arriving in Granada in January 2021 for the spring semester.
The Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship
The U.S. Department of State’s Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program enables students of limited financial means (i.e. Federal Pell Grant recipients) to study or intern abroad, providing them with skills critical to our national security and economic prosperity. The Institute of International Education has administered the program since its inception in 2001. You can learn more about the program here.