Two Students Receive Study Abroad Scholarships

HOUGHTON, N.Y. —Houghton College students Lainey Monroe and Christy Tygert are two of 400 American undergraduate students from over 230 colleges and universities across the U.S. awarded institute of International Education (IIE) Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarships to participate in a spring 2008 study abroad program. 

Monroe will spend 12 weeks in Tanzania as part of Houghton College’s Tanzania program.  Staying in a rugged camp-like facility at Houghton’s Iringa, Tanzania 200-acre site, Monroe will experience life as most Africans themselves experience it. Extended trips away from the Iringa Houghton campus include nearby game reserves and Wahehe and Maasai tribal villages.  Monroe is a senior intercultural studies major from Greenview, Ill.

Tygert will spend the semester in Africa with Food for the Hungry’s Go ED program. Food for the Hungry is an international relief and development agency reaching out to the poor in over 26 countries. She will explore the issues of hunger, inequality, poverty, and economics while traveling to Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Kenya. Tygert is a junior intercultural studies major from Seneca, Pa.

The $5,000 scholarships are sponsored by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and administered by the IIE’s Southern Regional Center in Houston, Texas.  The Gilman International Scholarship program was established by the International Academic Opportunity Act of 2000. 

Retired Congressman Gilman, who served in the House of Representatives for 30 years and chaired the House Foreign Relations Committee, commented, “Study abroad is a special experience for every student who participates. Living and learning in a vastly different environment of another nation not only exposes our students to alternate views, but also adds an enriching social and cultural experience.  It also provides our students with the opportunity to return home with a deeper understanding of their place in the world, encouraging them to be a contributor, rather than a spectator in the international community.”