Samantha Palermo ’24 is spending winter term on a , improving her Spanish and visiting cathedrals, a Buddhist monastery, and historic Jewish and Islamic sites.
Palermo, a first-generation college student from Nebraska, was one of nearly 1,500 students around the country who won a Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship in December.
She is double-majoring in neuroscience and religion and says the visits to religious sites have given her “the opportunity to use the Spanish I’ve learned in class to learn more about a subject I’m passionate about—from a completely different perspective. This has been incredibly rewarding.”
, launched in 2001 and named for the late Republican congressman from New York who chaired the House Committee on International Relations, provides up to $5,000 for students who are Pell Grant recipients to encourage them to study abroad. Recipients studying critical-need languages, which range from Arabic to Urdu, can receive up to $8,000.
Although ڰ financial aid fully covers study abroad programs for eligible students, the Gilman scholarship has helped Palermo with expenses during her time in Spain.
She learned about the Gilman program from a number of people at ڰ, including the , , and the , and became interested because of the Gilman program ethos of service. The program requires students to complete a service project at the end of the time abroad.
“These projects take a variety of forms, but they all involve sharing opportunities about studying abroad and/or supporting students who hope to study abroad in the future,” Palermo says. “Community impact is incredibly important to me, so a scholarship that emphasizes paying it forward and supports a community of scholars who want to give back was immediately appealing to me.”
, director of the First Generation Office, says Palermo won a College award for most outstanding first-year student two years ago and is active in a variety of campus activities.
“The awarding of the Gilman Scholarship confirms what anyone knows who is fortunate enough to know Samantha: She is an outstanding human deeply committed to making our world a better place,” Davis says.
More information on Gilman and other fellowship opportunities is available through .