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’ll also 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.”

Working at a marketing agency, “you have a mission of getting a specific goal across by using design,” he said. “There’s so much to learn, and I hope to bring a lot of that back here, too.”

Recently married and attending Elmhurst as a full-time student, Cortina said winning a Gilman Scholarship “was a big support” that enabled him to take the trip. “It’s just really awesome to not have that financial burden and be able to do this.”

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 Ireland, she’s most looking forward to gaining another perspective on nursing and health care. In the military, she took a combat life-saving course as part of her training and realized, “the way I had to work under pressure, it was chaotic but makes you think of things you never knew you could pull out of your brain.”

“In nursing school, I’m learning the proper way, the nitty-gritty of how to do everything,” she added. “So now I’m interested in getting to know how it works in a different country.”

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.

Lakey grew up traveling regularly with her family, and deeply values the experience.

“Anytime I get to go on an extended trip, I feel like I come back a different person, with new insights,” she said. She’s especially excited to spend an entire academic term overseas, something she’s never done before. “I think that makes all the difference—you can just take so much more away from it, the more time you spend in a place,” she said. “I want to fully embrace the culture.”

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.

By increasing access to such opportunities, Elmhurst University fosters growth-minded paths for development in our students, giving them timeless knowledge and skills to thrive as adaptive leaders. Students receiving a Pell Grant are highly encouraged to apply for a Gilman Scholarship to help fund a study or internship experience abroad. The next application cycle will launch in August. For more information, contact Marisa Mancini, national fellowships and scholarships coordinator, at [email protected], and visit gilmanscholarship.org.