Two Elmhurst University students are in Australia and New Zealand this month studying international business, after receiving highly competitive Gilman Scholarships that helped to finance their trip.
Avaion Viverette ’27, of Park Forest, and Patrycja Goloszewski ’27, of Des Plaines, learned in December that they had won the scholarships. The Gilman International Scholarship Program is a U.S. Department of State program that helps students of limited financial means to study or intern abroad, enabling them to gain skills and perspectives that are needed “to support U.S. economic and national security interests.”
Viverette, Goloszewski and 19 other students left on Jan. 5 for the Global Business in Australia and New Zealand course, taught by Elmhurst business and economics faculty members Lawrence Brown and Vania Adams.
Viverette, a psychology and sociology major, views the three-week course as an invaluable way to “immerse ourselves in different cultures, and connect with other people and experiences.”
The overseas trip will be a first for Viverette, who plans to enter the field of industrial/organizational psychology after he graduates. Heavily involved in campus activities such as student government, United Scholars and the Honors Program, Viverette says those kinds of experiences—and the friends he’s made along the way—keep leading him to new opportunities, including studying abroad.
“I never considered studying abroad or applying for the Gilman Scholarship until my friends told me about it and pushed me to do it,” he says. “I’m most fulfilled when I’m meeting new people—it opens up pathways that just never would have been there otherwise.”
Goloszewski, a psychology and communication sciences and disorders major, has traveled to other countries with her family, but is looking forward to a different kind of experience with this trip.
“With study abroad, it’s not only about gaining personal skills, like independence or navigating your way around a new country or a city, but there’s also the career aspect of it,” she says. “You learn how to interact with people more professionally. And you grow skills in, for example, cultural competency, which can be applied when you’re working with potential clients in a clinic or whatever career path you decide to go down.”
As a first-generation college student, Goloszewski says her parents encouraged her to ask questions and learn as much as she could about everything she could pursue in college. Although she learned about studying abroad as a first-year student, the idea stayed in the back of her mind until she learned about the Gilman Scholarship.
“Having the Gilman, and those financial resources, definitely helped the idea come to life,” she says.
Marisa Mancini, Elmhurst University’s national fellowships and scholarships coordinator, noted that the Gilman Program received more than 7,700 applications nationwide for the Fall 2025 application cycle, a record high.
Students receiving a Federal Pell Grant are encouraged to apply for a Gilman Scholarship to help fund a study or internship program abroad. By increasing access to study abroad opportunities, Elmhurst University encourages students to develop growth-minded paths as they gain awareness and respect for different economies, cultures and societies.
The next Gilman Scholarship deadline is March 5. For more information, contact Mancini at [email protected], and visit gilmanscholarship.org.