News Archive

International Scholarships Abound; Study-Abroad Students Heading to Europe This Summer

By Keith Morelli

TAMPA (May 3, 2018) -- A record number of USF students have won Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship awards and five are business and advertising students. The award allows those five to travel this summer and study in such locales as the Czech Republic, Florence, Italy, and London.

Not included in the Gilman honorees is a first-year advertising student who won a Fund for Education Abroad award and will head also to London to study over the summer.

Here's a list of business and advertising Gilman scholars who will catch flights abroad over the next month or so:

• Maylin Cuello, a personal financial planning major, will study with the European Study Abroad Center in the Czech Republic and intern at the Marriott Hotel Prague.
• Isaac Glener, majoring in global business, will study with the USF in Florence-Business program.
• Huong Le, an accounting major and student senator, will study with the USF in Florence-Business program.
• Paula Leon, enrolled in the Zimmerman Advertising Program, will study in London.
• Samuel Steck, a finance major, will study in London.

"To take classes at a university in the UK and learn about foreign internship and career opportunities in a city with such global economic influences is an amazing opportunity," said Steck. "More importantly, it is a chance to be completely integrated into a society that is different from ours, which is something I have never had the opportunity to experience.

"Studying and living in London," he said, "will allow me to develop professionally as a USF student and better understand British culture."

Likewise, Leon is eager to touch down in London.

"This is my first time going out of the country and I'll be gone for six weeks," she said. "Because of the scholarships I received, I'll be able to stay two weeks after classes end and explore other countries like Spain, Switzerland and Germany."

Because she is part of the Zimmerman Advertising Program, she will take part in company tours and see how advertising agencies work in Europe.

"I am looking forward to this the most because I plan on one day having a career outside of America," she said. "This is such a huge blessing. I can't wait."

Huong Le just finished her freshmen year at the Muma College of Business. It's unusual for a first-year student to land such a scholarship.

"Study abroad has always been a luxury for me," she said. "Spending weeks in a different country while also taking classes seemed like I would be doubling the usual costs of taking summer classes. After my first year here at USF, however, I can say I was proven wrong. Even if the expenses are large, the amount of scholarships available at USF for study abroad are just as abundant, if not more so."

With the Gilman scholarship, Le is headed to Italy.

"Ever since I started researching for my Business Honors program thesis, I knew that this opportunity to study in Florence was invaluable," she said. "As my topic revolves around organized crime in Italy, there is no better place to further develop my thesis than in Italy itself.

"With this generous Gilman scholarship, I am able to make the most of my time abroad and I could not be more thankful for the privilege."

The 27 USF students who won Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarships for the summer of 2018 represent the most USF recipients ever, according to the USF Office of National Scholars. And, the amount this year by far eclipses the number of Gilman scholarship recipients from other Florida universities.

The University of Florida announced 17 students won scholarships; Florida State, 16 and Florida International, nine. The USF number also ranked fourth nationally behind the University of California, Berkley; the University of Texas at Austin and the University of California, Davis.

The Gilman scholarship program received more than 4,700 applications for this summer's cycle and awarded 1,201 to students from 363 different U.S. institutions. The scholarships pay for credit-bearing, study-abroad programs and career-oriented internships in countries all around the world.

Jimmy Luu, a freshman in the Zimmerman Advertising Program, is the winner of the Fund for Education Abroad Scholarship to the United Kingdom and will study over the summer in London. He is the only student from USF to win a Fund for Education Abroad award this year.

Those scholarship winners come from a variety of racial, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds and often are first-generation students. This year, the recipients were selected from a pool of over 2,300 applicants representing 517 colleges and universities from across the nation.