Gilman Scholarship Information Session

Courtney Santos Author

09/10/2024 Added

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Description

In this video, recorded in September2024, Global Experiences Coordinator Renae Ninneman, Undergraduate Research & Fellowships Director Courtney Santos, and Graduate Assistant Ioanna Kipourou describe the process of applying for a Gilman Scholarship for undergraduate study abroad. Learn about eligibility, how to apply, strategies for writing strong application materials, and how to access advising resources at UNL. We look forward to supporting you!

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[00:00:00.000]Hi, everybody. My name is Renee. I work in the Global Experiences Office, and we're going to record this meeting and share it with other students who aren't able to make it today.
[00:00:11.440]So just so you're aware, we are recording. Feel free to pop a question in the chat or unmute yourself. It's a small group, so it can be pretty casual.
[00:00:23.260]But I'm joined with some staff from the Undergraduate Research and Fellowship Office. Do you two want to quickly introduce yourselves?
[00:00:33.200]Yep. Hi, everyone. I'm Courtney Santos, and I'm a fellowships advisor with Undergraduate Research and Fellowships. So glad you are here. And then, Kali, would you like to go next?
[00:00:48.200]Yeah, of course. Hey there, everybody. I'm Kali Patterson.
[00:00:52.780]I'm the project coordinator
[00:00:53.240]with our Office of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships,
[00:00:56.660]and I mainly coordinate UCARE.
[00:00:58.720]And our colleague, Ioanna Kipourou, will also be joining us on this call when she's able to get
[00:01:06.300]logged in. And so go ahead and take it away, Renee.
[00:01:10.980]Okay. I think you've got the slides there.
[00:01:14.540]Okay. Wonderful. All right. So,
[00:01:23.220]we're going to talk a little bit of basics of the Gilman to get started. So it is administered by
[00:01:28.520]the United States Department of State. So that's a major government institution, right? And their
[00:01:35.060]job is ultimately a lot of diplomacy and building relationships around the world. So when you think
[00:01:46.660]about the Gilman Scholarship, understanding that this is through the Department of State is really
[00:01:53.200]why they're asking you the questions that they're asking you, right? So the funder is the Department
[00:01:58.120]of State. So for eligibility, you need to be a U.S. citizen, and you have to be eligible to receive
[00:02:03.920]Pell Grant funding. You have to earn credit at your home institution, which can mean either UNL
[00:02:10.880]credit or credit that then will transfer back to UNL, like through one of our affiliate organizations.
[00:02:17.100]But you have to earn some sort of credit towards your degree. And then you have to transfer
[00:02:23.180]travel to a country that is on the State Department travel advisory list of level one or
[00:02:30.300]two, or on the list of eligible level three locations. I'm not sure what those are. It's probably a very
[00:02:37.320]small list. But this just speaks to how safe is that country? Is there unrest? Countries like
[00:02:46.540]Iran, North Korea, people always want to joke like, well, I could go to those countries. Nah,
[00:02:53.160]actually not going to happen. There are some countries that are not safe for
[00:02:58.620]U.S. citizens to travel to or just it's not safe for people to travel to in general.
[00:03:04.860]So there are those countries you are not allowed to travel to with the U.S. Department of State.
[00:03:10.720]And for that matter, UNL also requires students to go to countries that are level one or two on
[00:03:17.300]the State Department travel advisory list. If you're not sure what your country
[00:03:23.140]is, you can just Google it. This is how I do it. I just do State Department travel advisory
[00:03:28.960]country name, and then it will take you to the website and it will tell you all the security
[00:03:34.840]situations in that country to be aware of, and then also what level it is. And so that's a good
[00:03:41.920]thing to check. It's also really useful information if you're going to be traveling to that country
[00:03:45.840]down the road to be aware of some of the things that are happening. So you can look that up. So
[00:03:53.120]four main requirements. Awards may be up to $5,000 for summer programs or $8,000 for a critical
[00:04:02.880]need language. The average is around $2,500. So you may get anywhere in between $2,500 and $8,000.
[00:04:11.300]The critical need language is a really special criteria, though. It's certain languages that
[00:04:17.640]the United States deems important for national security. So it's languages like,
[00:04:23.100]Urdu, I think, like Japanese, Arabic, Mandarin. There's a big list of them,
[00:04:33.920]like Azerbaijani or something like that. There's some really very uncommon languages that are on
[00:04:39.080]there, but those languages are important to the United States government and our interests around
[00:04:44.760]the world. And so they are trying to motivate students to study for that. So that's what the
[00:04:53.080]not all languages, and that's something you can check as well. Next slide.
[00:04:57.640]So what if the travel advisory for my study abroad location changes? That is certainly
[00:05:05.760]possible. It could be because conflicts can change all the time around the world. So
[00:05:13.080]with Israel, Ukraine, where there's conflicts right now, those are two countries that people,
[00:05:19.580]students could have traveled to in the past. And then in Russia,
[00:05:23.060]as well, we did send students to Russia. And so now you can't travel to those countries, right?
[00:05:31.320]China, nobody used to be able to travel to China for a long time, primarily because of COVID and
[00:05:36.420]the country's reaction to COVID. But now there are programs that are opening up in China and it's,
[00:05:42.000]I don't know, UNL is still iffy about sending students to China. So I'm not going to promise
[00:05:47.060]that. But you can, it does indicate that travel advisory levels can change.
[00:05:53.040]And that can determine where you go. So you can change to another program
[00:05:58.580]and another location, or you can decline the Gilman scholarship if the travel advisory for
[00:06:03.740]your location changes. So usually the Gilman is willing to work with you. If you've already
[00:06:08.720]won the Gilman, they are interested in your story and why you're going abroad. And so
[00:06:14.760]they're usually generally willing to work with you. Next slide. So these are the cycles
[00:06:23.020]so the Gilman has two cycles every year. So October and March. So you can see that the
[00:06:27.840]next cycle coming up is October 10. And it's for those who those applicants whose programs
[00:06:34.600]start between December 2024 and October 2025. So it's really any program that starts in
[00:06:40.720]the next year, which was really, really great. So that's the current cycle. So if you are
[00:06:47.060]even considering going abroad in summer, especially or fall 2025.
[00:06:53.000]You this is the time for you to apply because if you win the scholarship, you'll find out
[00:06:58.680]sometime in December and you will have that money to plan on. You will know that you have
[00:07:03.240]that money and you can plan financially how to accomplish your study abroad program.
[00:07:09.920]I really am a huge fan and I really advocate for students to plan ahead when they're using
[00:07:17.520]the Gilman. If you're going abroad for J term or spring 2025.
[00:07:22.980]It's certainly possible to use the Gilman but you have a much narrower time frame.
[00:07:27.680]So if you get if you find out and you do not get the Gilman in December,
[00:07:32.660]most of the time you're not going to be able to withdraw from that study abroad program without
[00:07:36.400]financial penalties. So planning ahead at least a year, or at most a year because that's as far
[00:07:43.420]as the Gilman will allow you to plan ahead. That is really the sweet spot, right planning ahead
[00:07:49.800]that far. So otherwise, it can get a little dicey.
[00:07:52.960]If you're getting close to your withdrawal deadlines. So thinking ahead again, the next
[00:07:58.660]cycle, the upcoming cycle, March 6. So that will be for applicants whose programs start between May
[00:08:04.600]25 and April 26. So again, you can plan ahead really far. And if you don't get the Gilman in
[00:08:13.120]this cycle, you can apply again in March. So keep that in mind that if you apply early,
[00:08:20.980]that also gives you space to
[00:08:22.940]apply a second time and make an even better essay. Next slide.
[00:08:27.720]So this is kind of the application process. First, you want to pick an education abroad
[00:08:39.040]program. And so this is a really, really important step. And that's because so much
[00:08:45.980]of a high quality essay fully depends on you making an argument that this is
[00:08:52.920]the program for me. This is what I'm studying. These are my career goals. And you tie them all
[00:08:58.640]together. So if your career goal is to work in Spanish language business fields, it's not going
[00:09:09.740]to make sense for you to study in France, right? Because that does not tie your academics, your
[00:09:15.840]career goals to your program selection. So you want to make sure that your program selection
[00:09:22.900]makes a ton of sense and that you're able to write about your program selection, the program
[00:09:27.960]you're going on, your academic goals, and your career goals all at the same time and make an
[00:09:34.480]argument that you should get money for this because this makes so much sense and look how
[00:09:40.580]much this is going to help me in my future and how I'm going to like use this money to the
[00:09:48.080]advantage to benefit my career, right? So you want to pick the right program. That is an
[00:09:52.880]really important step. So if you're like, I don't know what program I want to go on. I don't know
[00:09:58.040]what the best program for me is, then you can meet with a global experience coordinator. So that's
[00:10:03.860]me. I'm a global experience coordinator and I work primarily with the College of Arts and Sciences.
[00:10:08.600]Every college has a coordinator assigned to them. And so the benefit of that is that we can
[00:10:15.720]help students pick a program that fits with their degree. So I work with a lot of language
[00:10:22.860]students, right? Because the College of Arts and Sciences has all the language studies. I work with
[00:10:28.340]a lot of psychology students, a lot of political science students, a lot of global studies students.
[00:10:34.920]And so I really have a good feel for what those are. If you want to do like a journalism course,
[00:10:41.560]that's not me. Or business, I don't know as much about those programs. You're going to want to go to
[00:10:47.160]Sabrina who works with Fine and Performing Arts or you want to talk to Ashley who works in business.
[00:10:52.840]So they're going to have a much better grasp on what those programs are, the best programs for
[00:10:58.080]that particular degree. There's some really cool, some really incredible programs out there that
[00:11:04.280]might just be a really good fit for you academically and financially and all that kind
[00:11:12.000]of stuff. So Global Experiences Coordinators, we can help you select that program if you're not
[00:11:16.640]really sure how. We can also generate something called an estimated budget and a cost of attendance
[00:11:22.820]adjustment form. So the estimated budget will show you the cost for your program and we try to
[00:11:29.400]show you the entire cost of your program, both the billable amount, which is the amount that you'll
[00:11:34.520]be charged through MIRAD for your program, and also the non-billable stuff. That's your out-of-pocket
[00:11:40.620]expenses like flights and day-to-day living expenses. So we will create a budget for you
[00:11:47.220]that shows you all of that. And then after we create that budget, we adjust your cost of attendance
[00:11:52.800]along with Husker Hub. We work with Husker Hub to, because usually when you study abroad,
[00:11:58.260]your cost of attendance is higher than usual. And it's important that we adjust your attendance so
[00:12:03.920]you can get financial aid and scholarships up to the amount that we tell Husker Hub that you can
[00:12:11.200]get it, right? So you can get funding for your billable and your non-billable costs.
[00:12:16.520]And especially for Gilman students, you can, that's sometimes a big chunk of money. They
[00:12:22.780]can get you a long ways in your cost of attendance and your budget. So especially
[00:12:30.140]if you start stacking scholarships and if you, if maybe you're a William H. Thompson or Buffett
[00:12:36.380]scholar, then you can stack that. And then you get some scholarships from our office.
[00:12:41.260]So it can really start to make a big difference when you stack the scholarships. So we create
[00:12:48.280]that cost of attendance adjustment form, and that's the ticket that will get you into C.
[00:12:52.760]Husker Hub. And you sit down and you can make a really good, accurate plan for how to finance and
[00:12:58.860]how to pay for your program. So step three, make sure you complete the official Gilman application
[00:13:05.960]and submit by the deadline on October 10th. So there's a lot of essays, and we're going to talk
[00:13:11.660]about those in a minute. But make sure that your essays have been looked at by somebody, either me
[00:13:17.380]or somebody in my office or somebody in the undergraduate research office.
[00:13:22.740]We can give you really good feedback on how to make a strong essay, and that's important so that
[00:13:30.160]you can win that money. So make sure you get that all done by the deadline on October 10th.
[00:13:35.760]And then what happens after you submit it is that there's two certifications that need to happen.
[00:13:42.400]One is the Global Experiences Office will certify your application,
[00:13:46.740]and then the Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid will also certify your application. And
[00:13:52.720]that happens the week after that you apply. Now it's our job to go in and we're like, yep,
[00:13:58.220]this student, this is accurate. Yep, this student, this is accurate, and so on and so forth.
[00:14:03.140]And then Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid also does the same thing. One thing I want to tell
[00:14:09.400]you is that they ask you to select somebody when you log in to the Gilman website, and it doesn't
[00:14:16.500]matter who you pick. Because on our end, on the advisor's end, we can change it. So if you put in
[00:14:22.700]like my coworker Ashley, and I'm actually the one who reviews and certifies your application,
[00:14:27.840]I will just change that so that everybody knows that I did that. And so I was the one who certified
[00:14:33.540]the application. So it doesn't really matter who you pick. You can pick whoever you're comfortable
[00:14:38.080]with. We'll change it on the back end if we need to. Same with offices, scholarships, and financial
[00:14:44.080]aid. So certification will happen after you submit it. Next slide.
[00:14:52.680]All right. And Renee, just to confirm, no one needs to email you to certify an application,
[00:14:58.800]right? You're going to do that automatically regardless. That is correct. We often get many
[00:15:04.040]students, as soon as they submit it, when are you going to certify my application? When are you
[00:15:08.200]going to certify my application? We promise we will certify it. I don't, I have never seen a
[00:15:15.200]student go uncertified. We will certify it. You actually don't need to tell us when you're done,
[00:15:23.020]we can see all of those applications on the back end. And then we will certify them. Even if you
[00:15:29.820]never meet with any of us, we will see your application and we will certify it. So yes,
[00:15:35.460]thank you, Courtney. Absolutely. You know, students should feel confident that when you
[00:15:40.060]push submit on the Gilman application, you are done, you no longer need to worry. Yes.
[00:15:45.020]Okay. Well, our office, Undergraduate Research and Fellowships, plays a complementary role
[00:15:52.640]in this process. So here's a link to my website. And so we focus primarily on helping students
[00:16:01.160]develop a solid application strategy for Gilman and for other fellowships too. And so we like to
[00:16:09.860]talk about the content and ideas really in the application. So Gilman has particular values,
[00:16:15.620]right? The State Department mission is to build mutual understanding with other nations and help
[00:16:22.620]students form strong, friendly relationships with students abroad. And so they have developed their
[00:16:28.540]selection criteria to reflect that value of building relationships. So what they are looking
[00:16:33.840]forward to in a Gilman applicant is they really want to see that the Gilman opportunity is going
[00:16:39.860]to be valuable to you. So they want to know what would be the impact of receiving a Gilman
[00:16:46.340]scholarship on your academic and career trajectory, right? How is it going to benefit you? They
[00:16:52.600]want to see that there's going to be evidence that you're going to form those strong relationships
[00:16:56.380]with people in the host country community and also bring those friendships back to the
[00:17:02.380]U.S., bring something important in terms of personal relationships with you. And so
[00:17:06.720]they call that, this friendship building piece, the community impact. They also
[00:17:13.140]want to see that you are academically prepared to go abroad. Certainly, they want to know
[00:17:17.580]that you are going to succeed, you are confident, you have the study skills to
[00:17:22.580]make your study abroad program a good experience for you. And then finally, they want
[00:17:27.600]to make sure that they are offering this opportunity to every different kind of American
[00:17:32.100]student, right? And so they want to see that they are sending people abroad who can represent
[00:17:37.780]the diversity of the United States in terms of your background and experiences.
[00:17:42.160]This means they really want to get to know you at a personal level through your application, which
[00:17:47.520]might be different from other scholarships that you have applied for before. So we have lots of tips on
[00:17:52.560]how you can approach the essays and produce a competitive application. My colleague Ioanna is
[00:17:58.520]going to talk about this slide. Thank you, Courtney. So as it has just been said, this is a competitive
[00:18:08.580]application process. I mean, there is no scholarship application that doesn't go through review and
[00:18:15.040]it's always competitive. So always be aware of that and plan ahead of time so that you can submit all your documentation within
[00:18:22.540]the deadline. That being said, your application document should be mentioning exactly why you're applying for this specific
[00:18:35.640]scholarship. So if you're applying for, if you're a receiver of multiple scholarships, if you're applying for multiple scholarships,
[00:18:42.540]be sure that you're planning this specific documentation for within the context, the framework of the Gilman guidelines.
[00:18:52.520]So program relevancy is very important. So why is this program specifically the one that interests you to promote your personal and professional development?
[00:19:04.520]And in order to make a case for that, to argue that, you also have to think about your specific situation, your niche.
[00:19:14.520]So what is it that you as a student are doing, are contributing to the community here? And what is it that you could transplant?
[00:19:22.500]And what is it that you are contributing to the other place, the other country, the other community that you will be visiting?
[00:19:28.520]So you need to first think about, and this is what we'll work on together, right?
[00:19:33.520]So we are going to work on what is it that characterizes you, what kind of features characterizes you,
[00:19:40.540]kind of characteristics do you want to place emphasis on and to explain you know why this
[00:19:47.260]scholarship fits you and your plans for the future your studies and your career and so
[00:19:54.320]by diversity what we're saying here you emphasize things that make you different we don't mean like
[00:20:00.060]diversity in general but what makes you special what makes you unique which you know we all are
[00:20:07.180]so your essays should really break down certain characteristics or certain goals that you have
[00:20:14.960]or certain features of your background or your story basically right so like you can talk about
[00:20:21.280]your community your background your family it could be a hobby or something else that you do
[00:20:27.460]on a daily basis or in your life or you want to get back to doing for example that makes you
[00:20:34.380]fit the goals
[00:20:37.100]you're in
[00:20:37.160]this program so that's what we're working we will work on together with you to understand
[00:20:44.760]who you are and you know what you want to achieve through applying for this program
[00:20:49.540]yes Courtney thank you thank you Ioanna yes and absolutely we often think about diversity as
[00:20:57.660]maybe being about family background or gender or religion language but also we can include
[00:21:05.280]more types of diversity
[00:21:06.880]you
[00:21:07.140]right and so one that students often don't think about too much is things like hobbies
[00:21:12.180]right what interests you bring what skills and talents you hold so we've had students
[00:21:17.980]write wonderful essays about their work with music or their love of cycling or other sports
[00:21:25.300]we've had students talk about wanting to visit particular cultural sites because of those
[00:21:31.260]incredible passions that they hold another that oftentimes students don't think about
[00:21:37.120]but is very relevant is that each of you probably has a different major, different minors,
[00:21:42.860]so you're bringing a lot of important knowledge with you and that is part of the diversity
[00:21:47.340]and in fact our STEM students are underrepresented in study abroad little known facts
[00:21:54.040]and so that is a way in which you can really emphasize oh I am making time in my STEM major
[00:22:01.240]to go abroad right and so really to think about how are you contributing incredible things
[00:22:07.100]with all parts of your personality and experience and that certainly includes your academic life
[00:22:13.660]but it also includes all the aspects of your personal experience
[00:22:16.880]we're going to talk a little bit about each of the essay prompts as well
[00:22:23.080]so the main essay for Gilman is the statement of purpose and so this is the one in which you
[00:22:31.680]would be trying to make the best case that you have great reasons for studying abroad
[00:22:37.080]and to explain how you're going to achieve that goal right so it's fairly straightforward prompt
[00:22:44.740]they have some sub questions here to help guide you but they want to know about your
[00:22:49.940]individual reasons for studying abroad in the academic sense certainly so how will this program
[00:22:56.320]abroad help you to achieve your future academic or professional goals
[00:23:01.400]so really what are your motivations right why did you select your
[00:23:07.060]specific program and host country and so hopefully these choices are not arbitrary but something that
[00:23:13.720]maybe you've had the chance to talk to your global experiences coordinator or even faculty in your
[00:23:19.520]major that you're close to or your peers and kind of spend some time exploring why this host country
[00:23:25.440]why do I really want to go there also showing that you are ready for this experience and so
[00:23:32.480]that would include things like being academically prepared having strong study study habits
[00:23:37.040]maybe when you experience a challenge are you the type of student who participates in a study group
[00:23:43.860]do you use library resources a lot and know how to to engage with that other types of knowledge
[00:23:52.480]or skills or experiences that you are bringing on to meet your academic challenges additional
[00:24:02.780]tips that we have for you with the statement of purpose is to think about the
[00:24:07.020]this is really your also your opportunity to introduce yourself as a person and and your goals
[00:24:13.640]so thinking about you know not just the travel opportunity but the academic goals that you hold
[00:24:22.920]which would include things like certainly completing your degree if you think you have
[00:24:28.740]a particular career goal in mind that you're preparing for or perhaps you are considering
[00:24:33.640]graduate study or professional degree programs and
[00:24:37.000]the future those would be things you might want to mention in a Gilman essay showing that you
[00:24:41.660]have particular future goals in mind and there's no preference for students who want to do graduate
[00:24:47.640]study it's entirely fine to say that you plan to go out into the workforce for some students
[00:24:55.560]the study abroad program might not be solely academic it might be about gaining work experience
[00:25:01.660]and so they do allow students to apply a Gilman scholarship to an internship program
[00:25:06.980]for internships many of the internship programs that study abroad has do not
[00:25:13.800]release to students the information about their specific placement ahead of the Gilman deadline
[00:25:20.180]so instead what you want to talk about is what your ideal would be if everything worked out
[00:25:25.420]perfectly they found the right mentor the right host organization for you it's where you would
[00:25:30.460]ideally want to work or you can talk about your strengths and how you see them fitting into a
[00:25:36.960]work environment right and so you can be a little bit more general with your description
[00:25:41.100]um they definitely want to hear about how you've overcome challenges so that could also include
[00:25:48.380]things like personal traits like if you feel you are have been very resilient now is the time to
[00:25:54.640]talk about how you know you are resilient what's the evidence right um so having things like strong
[00:26:00.700]coping strategies when you experience a problem of being willing to admit need for help and go to
[00:26:06.940]others and get it right things like that um we do want to mention that there's some things that are
[00:26:12.660]maybe not as important to mention and one would be um being aware that because the gilman is for
[00:26:18.180]financially needy students um it should not be the focus of your gilman essay because they're already
[00:26:23.660]aware um that uh receiving a scholarship would be incredibly transformative for you from the
[00:26:30.720]financial sense so you don't need to mention that that would be a waste of the page space really
[00:26:34.840]but rather to think about
[00:26:36.920]what makes you stand out in the applicant pool and that's going to again come back to things like
[00:26:41.320]the theme of diversity um the ways in which you and your major and your specific goals to go abroad
[00:26:48.660]make you stand out i'm checking the chat for questions too while i'm talking so if you do
[00:26:56.460]have questions feel free to drop them there i will keep an eye out i'm going to move on to
[00:27:01.620]the second set of essays now gilman sees these as a pair of essays there are two
[00:27:06.900]prompts so they say it's part one is building mutual understanding
[00:27:12.580]and and then and then there's a part two which is a service project so we're going to get to
[00:27:18.320]that one in a moment but overall they're looking at that evidence of community impact that ability
[00:27:24.340]to form relationships right and really at the one-to-one or small group level they want to
[00:27:31.260]see how you become close to other people and build effective relationships um
[00:27:36.880]and so first they ask you you know sort of what does it mean to you to be an American
[00:27:41.820]not just rhetoric like freedom or liberty they're looking for something that's a little more
[00:27:46.700]personal to you right and so they would love to know about what communities you can represent
[00:27:53.180]what experiences you have had so again when we talk about being underrepresented
[00:27:58.320]the Midwest Nebraska is underrepresented in study abroad our experiences here in this region
[00:28:06.860]are not very well understood abroad right we are not depicted on tv as often as people in
[00:28:12.920]my home state California are right um so thinking about you know some of the stuff
[00:28:19.580]that you actually experience every day being really special it's common to you but it's not
[00:28:25.580]common knowledge to everyone in the host country right um or ways in which you know you are
[00:28:31.800]bringing a unique story with you or even a unique approach to interacting with other
[00:28:36.840]people again through things like hobbies right sharing music and film these are ways that we
[00:28:43.280]share culture um enjoying meals together if you bake or cook those are really great skills to
[00:28:50.160]talk about sports certainly being ways in which we build effective working relationships with a team
[00:28:56.480]and pursue shared goals the arts right again all different ways of expressing culture
[00:29:03.300]and having really meaningful interactions with people
[00:29:06.820]so that's what they're looking for a very and as they really focused on
[00:29:10.960]relationships on social interaction um and who you are and what you bring to those interactions
[00:29:17.540]all right for the second part they want to hear about what you're going to bring back to the u.s
[00:29:25.020]right so after you have finished your time abroad what you would anticipate bringing back with you
[00:29:31.500]and how you could share that with other people so the gilman program very much wants to increase
[00:29:36.800]awareness of study abroad opportunities and make sure all americans have the chance to hear about
[00:29:42.780]this right so that your goal here is to design a project that could allow you to share your study
[00:29:49.180]abroad experience and ideally you would work with either your some aspect of your home community
[00:29:56.780]this could be something like your high school maybe a non-profit where you volunteer a church
[00:30:02.320]or sports group wherever you are already connected or
[00:30:06.780]it could be with UNL you are connected with us every one of you is right and so you could do
[00:30:12.240]something like share about your experience through UNL global experiences I'm sure Renee would be
[00:30:18.960]happy to help set that up and then obviously my office would be happy to help so undergraduate
[00:30:24.580]research and fellowships or you could even collaborate with your favorite instructor for a
[00:30:29.420]and say well could I maybe make a presentation in class or if you're doing a club or you're in a fraternity
[00:30:36.760]or sorority very often they're willing to host an event with you and so your project should be
[00:30:43.740]unique to you and the relationships that you already have there's not necessarily a need to
[00:30:48.280]form a new relationship but rather to think about well where am I already comfortable
[00:30:53.260]sharing information where do I already have people I could reach and so your project could
[00:31:00.200]include things like sharing photos music food right the different parts of culture of your
[00:31:06.740]country or you could sort of do something that's a little bit more like an information session
[00:31:11.260]like what we're doing today but from your own personal perspective you can also be really
[00:31:16.740]creative you could do like a whole photo exhibit with a museum if that's if that's something you
[00:31:21.000]could have the means to set up right but importantly you need to be able to explain
[00:31:26.240]why you chose a specific community and why you chose a specific project like is it drawing on
[00:31:32.080]existing skills existing relationships and then how are you going to include
[00:31:36.720]what your experience abroad has meant to you personally so definitely collaborate
[00:31:43.140]don't try to create a whole new organization we want you to use an existing organization
[00:31:48.120]to help reach an audience i'm going to pause here and just see if there's any questions in the chat
[00:31:54.580]also feel free to raise your hand okay so how do you get support for your application we talked
[00:32:03.180]about visiting global experiences what your coordinator can do to help you
[00:32:06.700]pick a study abroad experience you can also use our drop-in hours which i've got on the next slide
[00:32:14.500]and then finally wanted to bring up the unl writing center they are awesome they support
[00:32:19.140]lots of gilman applicants every year with essay feedback so if you want to talk about your writing
[00:32:25.020]they're a great place to go and they offer both in-person and virtual experience appointments
[00:32:30.600]okay renee do you want to talk for a moment about the global experiences
[00:32:36.680]part yeah so we have um you can kind of see here that we've got a bunch of
[00:32:47.220]walk-in hours drop-in hours where you can get essay feedback um and so there'll be some global
[00:32:57.160]experiences time frames that you can see this is an lph 130 where our office is and then the global
[00:33:05.560]experiences coordinator is going to be there and then we're going to be talking about the global
[00:33:06.660]that will be doing it and then um the at the bottom there some more essay drop-in with courtney
[00:33:14.500]and and yeah how do they say that name properly you wanna yeah thank you okay thank you i gotta
[00:33:23.920]i have to practice that you wanna so um you wanna and courtney will do some drop-in times too so
[00:33:30.500]we've got most days the week week and a half before the deadline where you can come in you
[00:33:36.020]can drop in and get some essay feedback and then we'll do some drop-in times too so we've got
[00:33:36.640]some essay feedback we also don't mind providing feedback via email so if you have some essay
[00:33:43.500]drafts and you want to send it to me or your coordinator you can certainly do that however
[00:33:50.260]you can get feedback on your essay do it at least one time we see students who have the most success
[00:33:59.840]are the ones who come in and they meet with us sometimes multiple times to get their essay really
[00:34:06.620]powerful really strong and really well done so make sure that you are scheduling some time to
[00:34:15.640]come in and get some feedback from one of us so this will and this information will go out in an
[00:34:22.360]email today as well today or tomorrow to all Pell eligible students I'm going to send out
[00:34:27.740]another reminder so this will be included there likewise you want to and I will
[00:34:36.600]be available we're going to go over to the global experiences office so it's easy to find us as well
[00:34:41.220]on the first floor of Louise Pound and so we will primarily focus on essays so just to just to
[00:34:48.540]confirm our sessions are focused on essays for study abroad programs you would want to go to the
[00:34:53.280]global experiences coordinators for those yeah we can also provide some essay feedback but you may
[00:34:59.720]also need help with program selection or whatever all global experiences coordinators we all have
[00:35:06.580]time that you can set up an appointment with too so like I have an advising link I think it's when
[00:35:13.880]it was already put in the chat then meet the staff so you can go and you can make a deployment
[00:35:21.420]or go into student success hub and add one of us to your support team you can meet with any of us
[00:35:28.120]anytime really I mean honestly if you want to make an appointment with me next week to talk
[00:35:33.440]about Gilman I'm happy to do it it doesn't have to be
[00:35:36.560]one of these specific times but we do offer this time for all students just to come in and get
[00:35:43.560]feedback or support if you need your estimated budget one of our one of the coordinators can
[00:35:52.340]help you with that we can do essay feedback we can do any of that kind of stuff so please reach
[00:35:58.800]out to a global experiences coordinator if you need help and then court me and you want
[00:36:06.540]will focus mainly on the essays so keep that in mind I didn't want to mention one of the things
[00:36:14.300]Courtney you talked about don't write about how the money will be transformative for you
[00:36:20.120]one other thing I see a lot of students spending a lot of time like writing that they don't need
[00:36:25.560]to is how they've always dreamed of studying abroad I've always dreamed of studying abroad
[00:36:33.040]anything about how you've always dreamed
[00:36:36.520]of studying abroad is not strong writing leave it out I will oftentimes just highlight and delete
[00:36:44.440]from a student's essay you are not alone and that you've always dreamed of studying abroad
[00:36:50.500]so you've got to look for other aspects of yourself like Courtney was talking about
[00:36:55.140]that are strong and interesting not that you've always dreamed of studying abroad
[00:36:59.680]so any sort of generic content where you're talking about that just delete it it's not strong
[00:37:06.500]it's not interesting it doesn't make you stand out so what is your story what is it about you
[00:37:12.700]that makes you stand out that's what you want to focus on so and we all can help narrow that down
[00:37:18.240]right that's kind of what we can do you can ask questions I love advising Gilman students because
[00:37:23.580]you all have really phenomenal interesting stories and I love the chance to get to know some of you
[00:37:30.280]and to kind of like recognize your uniqueness
[00:37:36.480]and the really amazing characteristics you bring in the story that you have
[00:37:40.980]to share it's really fun and a joy to be able to pull that out of students and help you get
[00:37:48.300]that down on paper and so I think it can be a really sometimes the Gilman process gets challenging
[00:37:55.060]but it also can be really rewarding as you see like oh yeah I am really amazing and oh yeah
[00:38:00.420]this is a really powerful story that I have to share and yeah I can do this I can go abroad I
[00:38:06.460]can like make this program successful it can be really a powerful thing for me in my future so
[00:38:11.900]it's really fun and enjoyable for me and rewarding so I'm sure everyone else here will agree
[00:38:19.680]it's a it's really a privilege to be able to support all of you in your Gilman process so
[00:38:29.900]absolutely it's so exciting to see students discover their narratives and so helpful
[00:38:36.440]to have those discussions with advisors writing tutors even peers
[00:38:40.280]so that you can bring your best creative self to this application definitely
[00:38:45.900]well I don't see any other messages in the chat or questions if anyone wants to unmute at this
[00:38:55.180]point and just ask your question I think that's fine we can stay here for a few moments
[00:39:06.420]or you can have us too yep yeah all right thank you for being here it was great to see you
[00:39:14.420]we'll get the recording posted shortly thanks Renee it was great to see you

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Gilman Scholarship Information Session

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