Three Elmhurst U. students win Gilman Scholarships to intern, study abroad
Three Elmhurst University students have been awarded the highly competitive Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship, enabling them to intern and study abroad this summer and fall.
Matthew Cortina, a graphic design major from Libertyville, Illinois, is interning at a marketing firm in Sydney, Australia, this summer. He is Elmhurst’s first student to use his Gilman Scholarship to help fund an internship experience.
Anna Lakey, of Winslow, Maine, and Jackelyn Lopez Barrera, of Hillside, Illinois, are both nursing majors and will spend the upcoming fall term studying in Dublin, Ireland, in a program designed specifically for Elmhurst nursing students.
The Gilman Scholarship is the U.S. State Department’s flagship undergraduate study abroad scholarship. It provides funding to students of limited financial means so that they can study or intern overseas, enabling them to gain new skills and perspectives that are needed “to support U.S. economic and national security interests.”
They also will bring back experiences that will shape their professional and other goals.
Cortina, a rising senior, learned about the internship program at a campus Study Away Fair and was drawn by the opportunity to discover a new community and “explore what the creatives are doing in Australia.” Recently married and attending Elmhurst as a full-time student, Cortina said winning a Gilman Scholarship enabled him to take the trip. “It's just really awesome to not have that financial burden and be able to do this,” he said.
Starting in early September, Lakey and Lopez Barrera, both rising seniors, will attend Elmhurst’s international nursing program at the University College Dublin’s School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems.
Before enrolling at Elmhurst, Lopez Barrera served in the Army for more than three years to help pay her way through college. In the military, she took a combat lifesaving course as part of her training. In Ireland, she’s most looking forward to gaining another perspective on nursing and health care.
As a transfer student, Lakey initially was conflicted about whether to join the Ireland program and miss out on spending the Fall Term of her senior year on campus with her friends.
“But the more that I learned about the program and the chance to travel to other countries, especially at such like a low price because of the scholarship, I knew it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I couldn't pass up,” she said.
By increasing access to such opportunities, Elmhurst University fosters growth-minded paths for development in the students, giving them timeless knowledge and skills to thrive as adaptive leaders.
After receiving a record 10,000 applications from students from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, the State Department awarded the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship to 3,500 American undergraduate students this past spring, enabling them to study abroad in more than 170 countries.