Over the past 25 years, UNC Greensboro has produced an impressive 278 Gilman Scholars, the most of any North Carolina university, distinguishing it amongst a select group of high-performing institutions nationwide. The UNCG Gilman Program has directed more than $800,000 to students who are Pell Grant recipients with demonstrated financial need.
Beyond those impressive stats, the true impact of the Gilman Scholarship is best understood by the students who are transformed because of their study abroad experiences. UNCG students have studied in 44 countries through the program.
“I don’t think people from my culture or people that look like me often dream beyond their daily experience or study abroad,” says Gilman Scholar Irakoze Mierye. “Nelson Mandela said, ‘Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.’ I believe everyone should have access to opportunities to learn.”
Profound Perspective
Mireye, a senior social work major in the School of Health and Human Sciences, exemplifies how study abroad can transform both academic and personal trajectories. She’s the oldest of nine children in a Burundian family. She immigrated to the United States at age 10 after growing up in a refugee camp in Tanzania. Now, she is a first-generation college student who has taken advantage of her time at UNCG.
“Being here at UNCG has been really a living testimony and a transformation journey,” Mireye says. “When I could look at my life back in Africa in the refugee camp, sometimes I couldn’t go to school because I didn’t have the uniform or my parents didn’t have the money to pay for the fees or the semester. Now, I have had opportunities that make me realize education should be a right, not a privilege.”
During a faculty-led program in Barcelona, Spain, Mireye studied global health and social work, gaining firsthand experience with international healthcare systems and diverse populations.
“The experience strengthened my cross-cultural communication skills, adaptability, and global awareness,” she says. “I want to become an international social worker. Living and learning alongside professionals from different backgrounds challenged my perspectives and made me realize I need to have more cultural humility for different ways of life. I really had to get out of my comfort zone.”
Fluency in Culture
Similarly, Shelyna Moyer, an education and languages, literatures, and cultures major, found her perspective expanded through a semester abroad in Montevideo, Uruguay. Traveling outside the United States for the first time, she immersed herself in the local culture, lived with a host family, and significantly improved her Spanish proficiency.
“Before I went, I could barely understand anything in Spanish,” she says. “I am now fluent.”
Her experience also shaped her career aspirations, inspiring her to pursue teaching and potentially graduate studies in linguistics.
“I want to come into the classroom with fluent Spanish and the perspective to help my students know that the cultures of Spanish-speaking countries is very different, but there are also a lot of similarities as well,” she says.
Moyer became a part of her community there, creating close ties with her host family and fully immersing herself in the culture.
“Studying abroad is a way to open your mind and see how our humanity connects us, though we live in different ways,” Moyer says. “I had never been out of the country before the Gilman Scholarship and now, I can’t wait to go back and possibly live in another country.”
Just Go
Through the Gilman Scholarship, UNCG continues to open doors for students, fostering global awareness, personal growth, and academic success. Mireye and Moyer both credit the Global Engagement Office with helping them apply and receive the Gilman Scholarships.
“It’s thanks to the Global Engagement Office that I even knew about the scholarship,” Moyer says, “They helped us workshop our application essays, and I know it made my essay stand out because I had their tips in my head when I went to write it.”
“The Gilman Scholarship is competitive,” Mireye says. “It truly is the reason I was able to experience living abroad, studying there, eating there and learning how to live on my own in a different city and country.”
Both scholars recommend that other UNCG students apply to take advantage of the opportunity to study abroad. Access to international education can transform lives, and UNCG is committed to helping their students access and experience study abroad.
About the Gilman International Scholarship Program
The Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program provides scholarships to American undergraduates with high financial need to study or intern abroad for academic credit. Established by Congress in 2001 and administered by the Institute of International Education on behalf of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the program has supported students from more than 1,400 institutions nationwide.
Written by Alice Manning Touchette
Photography courtesy of Shelyna Moyer and Irakoze Mireye
