UA Students Funded to Study Abroad

More than one dozen UA students have been named Gilman Scholars, earning a collective $70,000 in scholarship funds to conduct research and study abroad during the spring and summer semesters of 2010.

Destiny Chukwu will spend the spring and summer semesters in Ecuador studying the health care conditions among African and indigenous populations living there. 

Alyssa Ashley will visit South Korea during the spring to be immersed in the language while also learning economics. 

And Angelica Allen will study in Meknes, Morocco, during the spring semester.

Each is a University of Arizona student and all are recipients of the nationally competitive Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship. 

Established in 2000 as part of the International Academic Opportunity Act, the program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The program funds Pell Grant recipients for their studies abroad. 

Chiefly, the program's initiative is to improve the diversity of U.S. students studying abroad based on gender, race or ethnicity, intended study abroad location, discipline and also financial need, the program's Web site explains. 

"The program sees that there is marginalization of people of color and those students not studying abroad as much as other students," said Chukwu, an international interdisciplinary studies major who is completing coursework in public health. 

"The program is showing that it is possible; there are funds available," said Chukwu, who received a $4,000 scholarship. 

She will complete an internship with the Fund for Intercultural Education and community while abroad. Her motive will be in connecting with organizations that seek to provide health care to African and indigenous populations. 

"I will be focusing on the health system. There are predictors – age, gender and ethnicity – that affect accessibility to health care," said Chukwu, who also intends to improve her fluency in Spanish. 

Other UA recipients for the 2010 spring and summer terms include:

• Ruby Barickman, a mining engineering major, will visit Hungary during the spring with $4,500 in funding.
• Kimberly Blaylock, an Honors College student, will visit Chile during the spring to improve her fluency in Spanish. Her scholarship award is $3,500.
• Alexander Goetting, a history major, will spend the spring semester in Turkey, funded at $4,000.
• Elizabeth Gyek, an Honors College student majoring in engineering, will spend the spring studying in China with a $5,000 award.
• José Hoyos-Ballesteros, a sociology major, is going to Chile during the spring semester with funding at $4,000.
• Jonathan Jackson, an economics major in the Eller College of Management, will spend the spring in Guatemala. His funding is at $2,000.
• Edritz Javelosa, who is majoring in molecular and cellular biology, is studying in China during the spring with $4,000 in funding. She intends to pursue a position conducting research. 
• Betty Lee, a pre-business major and Honors College student, will study in China during the summer. Her funding is at $5,000. 
• Blaine Light, an Honors College student studying engineering management, will spend the summer studying in Guatemala with funding at $2,000.
• Songyang Luo, an Honors College student majoring in business management, will study in Japan during the spring with a scholarship of $4,500.
• Marni Mendelsohn, a nutritional sciences major, will be in Argentina during the spring. Her funding is $4,000.
• Tylee Mougeot, a microbiology major, will study in Turkey during the spring with $4,000 in funding.
• Ian Philabaum, an Honors College student majoring in Latin American studies with funding at $3,500 will spend the spring in Guatemala.
• Esther Sanchez-Gomez, an Honors College student studying chemistry, will be in Turkey during the spring. Her funding is at $4,000. 

Alyssa Ashley, a UA economics major, is being funded at $4,000 to study abroad in South Korea, where she will be immersed in the language, learning how the country's systems operate. 

"Too many people focus on Japan and other major areas of the world, but not many people think about Korea," Ashley said. 

"I wanted to be able to study somewhere with completely opposite economic views," she said. 

Angelica Allen, an Honors College student, was awarded a $8,000 scholarship, one of the highest dollar amounts for scholarship recipients. While in Morocco, she will immerse herself in the Arabic language. 

Allen also will complete coursework at Moulay Ismail University focusing on Western psychology and psychiatry and how such disciplines intersect with those of cultures of developing countries.

"Developmental disorders, neurological disorders and substance abuse issues plaque every nation," she said, noting that she will study the ways in which mental health facilities in Morocco operate. 

Allen, who is fluent in French, is concerned about patient care, post colonization and will be working at clinics and with professors in the northern African country. 

"It is my goal to take what I learn in Morocco and be able to apply it intelligently in places around the world where trauma happens on a day-to-day basis," she said, "and there are few facilities available for medications or culturally-sensitive therapies."