Gilman Web Symposium, The Multiplier Effect
2015-2016
Transcript
Welcome:
Courtney: Welcome and thank you all again on behalf of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and
Cultural Affairs and the Institute of International Education to today’s web symposium, the Multiplier Effect. Today’s
web symposium brings together Gilman campus advisors and alumni who have successfully worked together to expand
awareness of study abroad on their campus. Advisors will discuss the impact of working with study abroad alumni to
conduct outreach on campus and the effectiveness of mobilizing study abroad alumni, especially with limited staff. We
will also hear from Gilman Alumni who will share about their experiences and how they utilized their Gilman Follow-on
Service Project as a way to create the “multiplier effect” to encourage others to study abroad on their campus or those
in their community.
Presenters:
Before we get started, I’d like to introduce our presenters. I’m Courtney Castillo and I am an Institutional Relations and
Outreach Officer at the Gilman Scholarship Program. Today I am joined by Ann Butwell, who is an Education Abroad
Advisor at Berea College, Susy Gomez, Associate Director of Study Abroad at Florida International University, and two
Gilman alumni: Michelle Hook, who studied abroad in China in 2014, and Shane Evans, who studied abroad in Jordan in
2014. I’m also joined by my colleague Randi Butler, who will be fielding questions for us during the presentation.
At any time, if you have questions, please feel free to type them into the chat box, and Randi will be on the other end to
moderate those.
Gilman Web Symposium Series:
Before we hear from our presenters today I would like to briefly introduce the Gilman Scholarship Program and our web
symposium series.
This is the third year of the Gilman Scholarship Program’s web symposium series. We cover a wide range of relevant and
significant topics in education abroad, and we bring together great speakers who have a wealth of information and
knowledge to share. Our next web symposium will be in February and will focus on “Supporting Non-Traditional
Students in Study Abroad.” Look out also for our March web symposium, where will partner with MIUSA for
“International Exchange Opportunities for Students with Disabilities.”
Additionally, we make recordings and transcripts available of our web symposiums on our website, so you can check out
our previous topics and presentations.
Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs
Administered by the Institute of International Education (IIE)
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Gilman International Scholarship Program:
The Gilman International Scholarship is sponsored by the Bureau of Educational & Cultural Affairs, or ECA, in the U.S.
Department of State.
ECA leads a wide range of exchanges with the goal of increasing mutual understanding and respect between the people
of the United States and the people of other countries. They sponsor great programs, so if you haven’t already, please
look into the many programs that ECA supports.
The Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship is administered by the Institute of International Education out of IIE’s
Houston office.
Our mission is to diversify the kinds of students who study and intern abroad and the countries and regions where they
go. We look at diversity in the broadest sense. We are trying to encourage students of high financial need who are
receiving the Federal Pell Grant, students who are normally underrepresented in education abroad, to help them take
advantage of the opportunities out there to go abroad. Gilman’s encouragement of diversity includes students from
community colleges, who are underrepresented in education abroad, but it also includes students from diverse ethnic
backgrounds, students attending a minority serving institution, students with disabilities, first generation college
students, students studying underrepresented majors in study abroad such as the STEM fields, among other things. In
light of our mission here at the Gilman Scholarship Program, we are bringing you today a web symposium about
resources on using alumni, study abroad alumni, and how you can encourage more participation in education abroad on
your campus.
The Multiplier Effect through Follow-on Service Project:
A little bit about the multiplier effect with the Gilman Scholarship Program – all applicants are required to (in their
application) create a follow-on service project proposal in which they plan out how, upon their return within six months,
will promote study abroad as well as the Gilman Scholarship on campus. To date, the Gilman Scholarship Program has
over 20,000 alumni. Our multiplier effect we say is about 30 individuals are influenced per follow-on service project. This
is on average, there may be more, definitely in many cases there is a lot more, but we go with those numbers. There are
over 600,000 individuals that have been exposed to the opportunities of studying and interning abroad just through our
Gilman Scholarship Program alumni. We wanted to bring together our experts in the field to share more about how they
work with students on their campus to encourage study abroad as well as alumni of the Gilman Scholarship itself to talk
about their process and what they have done.
Ann Butwell, Berea College:
I would like to introduce our first presenter, Ann Butwell. She is the Education Abroad Advisor at Berea College.
A Berea alum, Ann has worked in her position there for more than four years. Her experience includes six years at
Augsburg College’s Center for International Education and Experience (in both Minneapolis & San Salvador). Before that,
she dedicated herself to Latin-America-focused human rights public education NGOS in Washington, DC: WOLA, LAWG &
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Administered by the Institute of International Education (IIE)
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EPICA. Ann has served on Berea College’s Residence Life Team for four years as well. She holds an MA in Latin American
Studies and a BA in Spanish. She is definitely an expert in the field. Welcome Ann!
Ann: Thank you Courtney. It is a pleasure to be here. I am really excited to talk about Berea. The Gilman Scholarship has
helped infuse Berea’s campus. I would like to tell you a little bit about the background so you have some context for
understanding Berea College. We are a small liberal arts college in Kentucky. We have about 1,600 students. We were
founded for interracial education in 1855 to educate blacks and whites together. No tuition is charged to students.
Students have to be low-income to enter and they work in order to supplement the money that would have come in
tuition. It is a really interesting place. We have strong support for education abroad at Berea. Some of that support is
manifested in the way we are organized. I am the lone education abroad advisor at Berea, but we have a lot of support
institutionally. We have in the same office with me an International Student Advisor as well as our boss who is the
International Education Director for Berea College who works with faculty and programming that is campus wide.
Education Abroad at Berea:
Education abroad at Berea is extremely popular. We were really happy to notice that 40 percent of the last class that
graduated had studied abroad. Part of that is the institutional support that I talked about earlier. We have a lot of
endowed scholarships. Part of the interest from the endowment at Berea goes to supporting students to study abroad.
A student who is studying abroad might get anywhere from $800 to $10,000 from Berea monies in order to study
abroad. They are all very excited about this and it makes study abroad possible, but it is often not enough. Scholarships
like the Gilman make it a reality for students. We also have other things that make it possible for students to study
abroad at Berea. Our faculty led summer courses are extremely reasonably priced and we have tuition exchanges with
seven universities which means no tuition for Berea students and we also have some zero interest loans that are
available for students who are studying abroad for an entire semester.
Utilizing Study Abroad Alum’ Passion to Spread the Word:
One way that we use study abroad alum’s passion to spread the word about study abroad at Berea College is that we,
like the Gilman, require every student who studies abroad to do a follow-on project. We do allow them to be creative
about what that project is and they have a second chance to modify the shape it is going to take after they come back
from studying abroad. Many times they will have new ideas about what they want to do and we let them change their
plan. We do a debriefing session. For smaller groups of semester students, 29 students will fit in my house. I will bring
them over for dinner, give them a warm welcome back, ask them how they plan on sharing their experience abroad and
give them some ideas about how they can do that including the follow-on projects, but not limited to that. We also talk
about post-Berea abroad opportunities like the Fulbright and things like that.
Counseling Students on Project:
When I am counseling students on their follow-on project, I always tell them that it should be something that they either
feel super comfortable with so that they will have fun doing it or something that they are actively trying to challenge
themselves with. Someone who feels really comfortable with public speaking – great – they can do a public speaking
engagement. Or someone who is working on being comfortable speaking publically – I would also encourage them to do
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something that is more public like that. I also tell students to do something that they have fun with that they are really
passionate, excited, and enthusiastic about – something that gives them a lot of energy so that that energy will be
transferred to the student they are reaching. I also ask them to do something that is feasible.
At our campus, remember that we have this work study program for every student, so a lot of students have
connections and skills that they have built up on different departments on campus. Someone might have a program they
can plug into because they know the person who teaches a certain class who needs someone to speak on a certain topic
on a certain day. Or someone might have a skill to make a video because they work in our videography department. I
have tried to encourage them to use the resources that they have here on campus. We have had some really creative
original projects based on the skills that people have learned. For example, we have a student who made and preformed
a one act play about human rights in Chile. We have a student who created a book for the admissions office so that
when students are in the waiting room waiting to meet with an admissions officer, they can look at her book about her
study abroad exchange in Japan, and it is a beautiful book and it really brings a lot of attention! We have had students
who presented on being black in Asia for our intercultural center. We just have people who are thinking really creatively
about what they might do. It doesn’t have to be super-original either. We have programs that students can plug into if
they don’t want to be so original.
They can plug in to existing…:
They can plug into already existing programs. For example, our office has a program called “TGIF.” This stands for “Think
Globally, It’s Friday.” That is a program where people come for lunch and the lunch is always served from the region the
student is speaking on. We alternate actually between internationals talking about their own countries and domestic
students (or internationals) talking about where they have studied abroad. At these lunches, there is always a slide
show, but it can be more creative too. We have had drumming lessons, we have had dances, we’ve had panels. It has
been a really good program and it draws an audience. It started out with a height of maybe 70-100 because it is really
good food. We can staff this because we have student workers in our office who can prepare the recipes that the
students bring back with them or research on their own.
We have other programs like, “Beyond the Bubble,” we have peer advisors who are student laborers who work at night
and can have programs here in our office which we call, “Beyond the Bubble” where a student can talk to a smaller
audience and a more intimate crew about something that might not draw as much attention, but might be equally
important. We also have things like our Asian Studies series. We have a strong Asian studies department and they are
super active about having their students speak. It could be a publication. We have had students write in our school
newspaper and our town paper. There is a creative writing journal that students have published in after they have
returned. There is the alumni magazine. Of course we also have our social media and webpage that we can publish
things on for students. We have a new radio station that has a video component. Students are excited to submit articles
to. It could be a performance. We have students who do special dances at the regularly scheduled dance performances
of their dance group. Maybe they learned a dance abroad and taught the whole group and they will either in the
program liner notes or verbally talked about what they learned and where the dance came from – same with choir
performances or bands. We have also had some art projects that have been very interesting. Students have presented
artwork they have done abroad and these are already performances that are set in place. The same with presentations,
there’s a lot of labor department meetings that are regularly scheduled. Every week, every labor department has a
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meeting and the student workers can present at those what their experience has been abroad – especially language
major meetings or STEM meetings, nursing. We have had presentations at nursing department meetings and education
department meetings. Presentations are regular fare for residence halls as well. RAs, or just students who live in halls
can sign up to give a presentation in their residence halls. I especially encourage this for our male residence halls
because I know our men are underrepresented in study abroad.
Finally, people can plug into things like NAFSA. We have a student who is studying abroad right now and her Gilman
Follow-on Project was to speak at a NAFSA conference about what it was like being visually impaired and studying
abroad. She partnered with someone from Gilman and someone from ISA (who she studied abroad with) as well as staff
here from Berea. Finally, labor positions I have already talked about a little bit, but we do have the peer advisor position
from our office and the education abroad assistant position. Working in those positions would count as the student’s
Follow-on Project, but students can also volunteer for our education abroad fair, our events. They can volunteer to make
posters or bulletin boards or brochures. We really try to incorporate them from our office so they can plug into things
that are easy for them to do.
The Gilman helps us promote Education Abroad:
The Gilman has helped us promote education abroad in so many ways. Every time we get a Gilman recipient, we
publicize that on our social media and on our webpage. It has just brought so many results. I can’t tell you how many
students have come to me this year and instead of saying, “Hey, can you help me figure out what scholarships are
available to study abroad?” they will come and say, “Can you help me apply for Gilman?” I consider that an extreme
success on the part of students and the publicity that we have given. That also gives us a platform for essay writing tip
sessions, because that is helpful for anyone who is applying for any scholarship to anything, but especially to study
abroad. When we publicize those sessions, which are often led by-the-way by Gilman alumni, we are given the chance to
publicize that study abroad is possible, so that is wonderful too.
Because there is this six-month deadline for Follow-on Projects from the Gilman, it gives us a chance to nag students
about doing their follow-on projects when that deadline is approaching. We don’t require that they do their projects
during the six-month window because it helps us to have a few programs in January and early February since we have a
February 15th deadline. We do use that deadline to help remind us to cajole students. We are a great match for the
Gilman Scholarship because our campus is super diverse. We are heavily first-generation and 98% of our students
(excluding our international students) are Pell eligible. When we have an event, the audience is automatically 98%
Gilman eligible which makes it really easy. The Gilman has given so much hope to students who just feel they can’t
bridge the gap between the money that they might be getting from school scholarships and the money that their
families would be able to afford. Some of our students are actually sending money home with the money they earn from
their labor position instead of the other way around so the cost of education abroad would seem impossible for them
without having the Gilman out there as a possibility.
Also, I just want to give a plug for serving on a selection panel for the Gilman. After I served on one in Houston, our
numbers went up dramatically. You can see from the chart in the next slide how that went. It really made our numbers
soar and it looks like I need to go back and serve on another panel soon because our numbers dropped a little bit last
year, but it is not for lack of enthusiasm. I really recommend it. There is nothing like reading dozens of Gilman essays to
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Gilman Web Symposium, The Multiplier Effect
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help you realize what makes a good Gilman essay and it also gives me credibility with students when I can say that I have
served on a panel and I have read these essays and I know if they insert the details they have just told me about their
life, their essay will be much improved. Thank you all so much for providing the Gilman Scholarship and making all of this
possible.
Susy Gomez, Florida International University:
Courtney: Thank you so much Ann for sharing with us! Now I would like to introduce our second presenter, Susy Gomez.
Susy Gomez is the Associate Director at the Office of Study Abroad at Florida International University (FIU) in Miami,
Florida. Susy works with FIU faculty members throughout the study abroad program development and proposal process,
as well as with students going on FIU Study Abroad programs and internships abroad. She also serves as the primary
contact for students participating in the International Student Exchange program through FIU’s partner institutions. As
the Fulbright Program Advisor, Susy offers guidance and support to FIU students applying to the Fulbright US Student
Program. She is a dedicated Gilman advisor. She is dedicated to student success and access and has served on the
Gilman National Review Panel and as a Gilman Selection Panelist. Susy holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a
Master of Science in Education, both from the University of Miami. In addition to a few years in the field of counseling,
she has years of experience in higher education, particularly with international students. Welcome Susy, we are so
excited to hear about what you all are doing at FIU.
Susy: Thank you so much Courtney and thank you all so much for joining us. I am very excited to be a part of this web
symposium series. Our office and FIU as a whole are very appreciative of the support that Gilman has offered to our
students throughout the years and I hope this webinar can help all of you utilize some of those techniques that we have
used and that Ann has used at Berea and hopefully we can get more of our U.S. students abroad.
I wanted to give a little bit of background about FIU. We are a very large public research university. We actually have a
very high research Carnegie designation and we are a Hispanic-serving institution. A lot of our students are Hispanic,
they are minorities, and we really consider FIU to be the community’s university. We are made up of a lot of students
that are local and a lot of commuter students who are really part of this community. We really want to see their
community built up. We rank first in the nation in awarding Bachelors and Masters degrees to Hispanics. As you can see,
we have a very large student population. We have about 55,000 students. We have been growing pretty steadily and we
hope to continue growing as well. Most of our students are undergraduates. We do have quite a few non-traditional
students. As you can see, about 60% of our students are full-time and about 40% are part-time. We have a lot of
students who work full-time, work several jobs and family obligations – different things like that. They still manage to
come to school and get their degrees and make better lives for themselves.
A lot of our students are financial aid recipients and many of them are the first in their family to earn a degree. We like
to have a lot of support available to our students and that is partly why we are so appreciative to Gilman. Our students
receive federal aid and state aid, many of them are Pell eligible so we try to give them information about these
additional opportunities that are available to them.
Study Abroad at FIU:
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A little bit about my own role in the office of study abroad – I am very fortunate to be part of a collaborative team who
are all very passionate about study abroad and student success. My own role, as Courtney said earlier, is working
primarily with incoming exchange students, but I also work very closely with our outgoing students. I work with our
faculty directors together with the director of our office. We work with our faculty directors in developing study abroad
programs and managing those programs during the time that the students and the faculty are abroad.
Pretty much all of us in the office work together to do a lot of outreach and get the word out about study abroad
whether it be about different programs that are available, how to handle the academic side of things, and definitely
about scholarships. That is definitely a question we get asked very often by our students who may not see study abroad
as something attainable. That’s really what we are here to let them know – that absolutely you can definitely study
abroad. There are so many opportunities and options available to you. All of us here at the study abroad office at FIU,
we work together. We are really passionate about having our students active. Most of our programs fall into the faculty
led programs or exchange programs. We have about 50 exchange programs all around the world. We send our students
and receive students from those partners. As you can see, last year we sent just about 900 students. This number has
been rising steadily and we are definitely working on increasing it.
We actually joined Generation Study Abroad and we are hoping to double our numbers by 2020. All of us in the office
are working very hard to make that happen. We are fortunate, like Ann at Berea, because we have a lot of institutional
support in making that happen. As you can see, most of our students participate in short-term faculty-led programs. It
really is just a reality of our population. As I said before, most of our students are non-traditional, they work full-time, or
they have family obligations – children or things like that, so it is just a lot more feasible for them to participate in shortterm programs. Many of them have never even left Miami, so it is a great opportunity for everything to be planned for
them by their faculty director and for them to just plug into a program.
The Gilman Program at FIU: Historical Data:
FIU has actually had great success with Gilman. Here is some of our data, we have had 131 Gilman awardees. We have
had almost $500,000 awarded that has helped our students study abroad. These are students who would not go abroad
otherwise. When we give our information sessions to our students that the national average is about one in three
students that apply for Gilman for a semester program are awarded, but in our case approximately 50% of our semester
applicants are awarded, that’s due to the dedication of our staff and some really amazing students that we have here at
FIU. We have been very fortunate in that regard.
The Gilman Program at FIU: Involvement:
We have had a lot of involvement from our office, I have served on a Gilman selection panel and our program
coordinator is going to serve very soon as well. He works very closely with our Gilman applicants, so he hopes to do that
soon. I have also served on the National Review Panel for Gilman which has been an amazing experience for me. Both of
these things have really helped me to get a better understanding which is just what Ann said. It’s so different when you
actually have the opportunity to sit there and see what other students are writing and what Gilman is really looking for.
It just makes you that much better of an advisor when you are talking to students about applying in the future.
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We promote Gilman all over the place. We do host information sessions. We actually just had a planning meeting earlier
today where we planned out all our information sessions for the next semester. We have several information sessions
about Gilman every month. We talk to students about how to apply, how to write their essays, and give them as many
resources as we can. When we advise students, something that we talk to them about automatically (whether it be a
formal advising session or just someone who walks in the front door and asks about study abroad) Gilman is always one
of the primary pieces of information that we give to them.
As I said before, many of our students participate in faculty-led programs, and our faculty are big proponents of Gilman
as well. We have had a few faculty members change their programs to make them Gilman friendly. For example, if their
program spends 26 days in a country, they will make sure to make the effort to make it 28 days in that country just so
that their students can apply for Gilman. We do provide our students with essay review resources. We have a very good
center for writing excellence on campus so we make sure that our students take their essays to them for polishing. We
talk to our students in the process as well. We want to hear about those exciting stories that make them unique and we
want to make sure that they tell their story in their Gilman application so that is definitely very important on our end.
Study Abroad Alumni:
We do promote Gilman also through social media and we really want to tell the story of study abroad. As a matter of
fact, our students who apply for the international exchange program, if they are Gilman eligible, we make them apply. It
is a requirement for our exchange program that they apply for Gilman. We do have a lot of events and we love that our
Gilman alumni particularly plug into those events. It helps us spread the word about studying abroad. We have a
welcome back reception every year. We bring back our students and we have a very fancy reception. We have food for
them, we have student speakers, and always at least one of those students is a Gilman alumni who can talk about their
experience and how Gilman made that a reality for them.
We do a re-entry workshop where we talk about what they can do next, how to go abroad again, Peace Corps, Fulbright,
all sorts of things that they can plug into. We have a study abroad club that also has a buddy program so that our
students can serve as buddies to the international exchange students that come to FIU from abroad, and we try to do a
really good job of connecting our students. If a student has gone abroad to a certain country, and next year another
student is going to that same university in that same country, we try to connect them as much as possible so that they
are able to learn, “Hey, someone from FIU, just like me, who maybe had a family here, who maybe worked here, was
able to do this, then so can I.” So that’s something that’s really important on our end.
We have our Gilman alumni participate in as much as we possibly can. We found that one of the most successful ways of
doing that is something called “Week of Welcome.” So at the beginning of every semester there is a university wide
event called Week of Welcome and there are all sorts of activities to help these students integrate into the university.
We find that students are always looking for things to plug into during that time. So we have an open house, we have
cookies, and we open our conference room and have students come on in and ask any questions they want about
studying abroad. Having our Gilman alumni participate in that is really helpful because when you start thinking of
studying abroad, at least our students here at FIU, one of the first things they think about is cost. If cost is a barrier they
may not consider it any further. So if someone is sitting there telling you exactly how they went abroad, how they
applied for this scholarship, and how it became a reality for them, it really makes all the difference.
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We have study abroad fairs every semester. Like I mentioned, we do have Gilman specific information sessions. We try
to have our Gilman alumni participate in those as much as possible for the same reasons. If they can do it, then anyone
else can do it as well.
Gilman Alumni and the Multiplier Effect at FIU:
We do have a lot of outreach in general within the university. We participate in open houses, different fairs, and
information sessions. Those student speakers are at the heart of all of those events. We try to publicize students’
success with Gilman as much as possible. We do have a student newspaper who has featured several articles about our
students studying abroad, particularly on the Gilman. That’s something that goes out to the entire university
community. Our students are interviewed and we’ve had successes. We even made copies of those articles, and we
keep them here in our office for students who may be interested in the future. We created a promotional video a couple
of years ago for our office. One of our Gilman alumni participated in that video. He went to China, and he was very much
a nontraditional student with his own family. He went to China for a month, and he was able to talk about how amazing
it was to have Gilman make that opportunity a reality for him.
A few years ago we had a study abroad student who started a twitter account as part of his Follow-on Service Project.
That account has stayed with our office since, and today it’s a huge way that we distribute information not only about
study abroad but about amazing opportunities like Gilman and other opportunities that students can participate in and
take advantage of. Also a few years ago we had a couple of students that both went to different countries but did the
exact same thing. They went on our exchange program, they were awarded the Gilman for the exchange, and they were
able to secure internships with the Department of State in their respective countries. They came back very excited about
their adventures in Argentina and France. The two of them remain involved with our office today even though that was
a couple of years ago. They worked with different information sessions, particularly in international relations which was
their major. I was just in contact with one of the students that is going to teach English in Columbia next year. They are
very passionate. We find that our students are all very passionate about the work that they do and very appreciative of
the help that they get from Gilman. We really feel that our students really benefit from seeing one of their peers make
study abroad a reality. Our role is to connect them and help them to share that story.
Gilman Alumna, Michelle Hook:
Courtney: Thank you for so much great information that you had for us. Now I’d like to introduce our first Gilman
alumni. This is Michelle Hook. Michelle is currently living in Seattle, working as an architectural designer at NAC
Architecture. She studied abroad with University of Florida’s School of Architecture, East Asia program in the summer of
2014. She spent six weeks in China. Actually her program took her throughout China, completing a collaborative design
studio in Xi'an. She visited many of the densely populated and well-known cities, as well as more rural and less popular
places like the Gobi Desert and the Silk Road. Some of her best work in her architecture portfolio has come from this
studio. It was always commented on when she was speaking with potential employers post-graduation. Because of the
financial assistance that she received from the Gilman Scholarship, she was able to save even more of her money to
explore more after her program was over. She ended up in Japan and South Korea. So her first experience in China really
inspired her to continue exploring and having more international opportunities. She was able to spend the following
summer on an excursion through Europe and that has also really impacted her and her career. Welcome Michelle!
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Michelle: Thank you. So to begin, I spent six weeks in China. There were only fifteen of us that went on the study abroad
program with our professor. We joined up with some of the students from the Xi'an Institute of Architecture and
Technology for a design studio. One thing that the China program struggled with every year is meeting the minimal
student number to go on this trip. Fifteen is the minimum, and we just had that minimum. Otherwise, the trip doesn’t
happen. Going into this trip, I did study architecture for the most part and a lot of the culture as well. I spent a lot of
time in the more populated cities like Beijing, Xi'an, and Hong Kong. One of the main things we did was learn a lot about
sketching and architecture in context because this is a place that has so much ancient history and how do you begin to
build and design and be able to respond to that kind of context? This trip really gave me confidence to continue with
further travels. It also taught me a lot more than just about the architecture. We learned about the cultures, the people,
etc. China isn’t all about this dense city, but there’s so much more to it as well. It taught me about diversity as well.
Once we finally arrived back in the United States, we completed a design studio abroad with the Xi'an Institute. These
are just a couple of images from that. Like Courtney had said, this stuff that went into my portfolio was probably the
best work that I had produced. I don’t think that I would have been able to do that had I done just a design studio back
in the United States. I really think that doing this design studio abroad in China with the help of Gilman really helped set
me apart from a lot of other people.
Once we were back in the states and our project was finished, our school usually gives us a space to exhibit our work but
it’s up to us to plan it and put it together, so I took charge of that to make this my project. We created an exhibition to
showcase our travels and projects. The way that we went about this was we filtered through everyone’s photos and
everyone’s projects and came out with a bunch of layouts. We printed everything out on big sheets of paper. Then we
had a weeklong time to be able to showcase all of this in the gallery. So anyone was able to come in and out throughout
the week and see the projects presented and the different photos from the travels and even the itinerary. I remember
going to it last year and even just seeing the itinerary made me really excited for this trip.
The way that Gilman was featured was that we had an opening night and then the gallery’s open for the rest of the
week. But on opening night, we get food and all the prospective students for the next year, even students who wouldn’t
be going for another two or three years, come in to listen to our stories our itineraries, and the different projects. Of
course some of the most common questions asked are how do I pay for this? This isn’t something easy to do financially
for a lot of people. With that, we really highlighted Gilman and different ways to be able to budget and go on this trip.
As far as the multiplier effect goes, I really do think because of this exhibition and our participation in the first few
meetings for the next trip, we actually doubled the numbers for the next year. There were a total of 28 students who
went in 2015 which was nearly double of what our 15 students was. In fact, they actually had to get another professor to
go on that trip. I really do think that the exhibition of our work and the different travel photos really excited a lot of the
students in going on this particular study abroad program. I really do thank Gilman in that I don’t know if I would’ve
been able to afford to go on this travel and without this travel, I don’t know if I would have had the confidence to go on
further travels. Thank you so much for that opportunity!
Courtney: Awesome! Thanks Michelle for sharing about your experience in China, your Follow-on Service Project, and
the multiplier effect that it had on your campus. That’s quite amazing!
Gilman Alumnus, Shane Evans:
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Administered by the Institute of International Education (IIE)
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I would like to now introduce you to our second alumni, and his name is Shane Evans. Shane was awarded the Gilman
Scholarship for an intensive Arabic program in Jordan for the summer of 2014. Since then, he actually started a mobile
coffee shop to share Arabic culture and work as a finance intern for Energy and Aereospace Company. He took this fall
semester off to volunteer and improve his Arabic in the Middle East. He spent the last four months in Jordan. He is
actually currently a volunteer with an NGO on the Island of Lesvos, Greece helping refugees fleeing from wars in the
Middle East through the Aegean Sea, where they gain asylum in Europe. So actually Shane is joining us all the way from
Greece this afternoon. We welcome you Shane, the floor is yours!
Shane: Thank you! So I guess I’ll start back in the summer of 2013. I decided to study Arabic and before I decided to
study Arabic, I realized I needed to study abroad if I really wanted to learn this language. So I started looking into
different programs, and I found a program in Jordan but it was really expensive. But compared to all the other programs,
I realized this was the one that I really wanted to do. So I found out about the Gilman Scholarship and talked to a couple
of other people at my university who had actually gotten the Gilman Scholarship and gave me some advice. I felt
confident after talking to them to apply for it. It was a really awesome program. It really helped us integrate into the
culture. We had a host family. It really encouraged us to join different clubs which was one of the best ways for me to
learn the language. Here on the left, this is in one of the old cities in Jordan where we would go to play Mancala, which
is an old Middle Eastern game, with some of the retired older men of the city. That’s here on the left. In the middle, this
is one of the interns in the language school that I was at. He would spend an hour or two after class just to help me
improve my vocabulary and practice the language. Here on the right is a Crossfit gym that I joined while I was in Jordan.
It really helped me make a lot of friends and really get involved in the community. I became really good friends with
people. On the weekends I would spend time with them going hiking in different canyons. It was a really awesome
experience in Jordan.
Once I got back, I really wanted to do something different. I really wanted to take my experience and show the beautiful
things about Arab culture with people in the U.S. I felt like a lot of people had a view of the Middle East that only
focused on the negative aspects of the wars that have happened there and terrorism in the U.S. A lot of people, all they
know about the Middle East is the negative things. I wanted to show them some of the beautiful things I had
experienced. So I started this coffee cart where I was able to apply my business and accounting experience as well as my
Arabic and my cultural experience through the program. So, I actually turned this into my Follow-On project. I advertised
the Gilman program by getting people to sign up at the coffee cart who were interested in studying abroad. Here is a
picture in the middle that actually made it into the “Jordan Times” which is the only English newspaper. They wrote an
article about it and they used this picture. I just felt like it was important to use what I was studying and applying that to
my Follow-On service project.
I title this as “Doing Something Meaningful.” I feel like I had such a great experience with study abroad and I was so
grateful for the Gilman that I didn’t want to come up with a project and just “get it out of the way” and move forward
with my life. I felt like, “I want to really go all out on this.” One of the things that we did that I decided with the coffee
cart was that we were going to give back to society, specifically to the Syrian crisis. We donated 10% of our sales to
UNICEF which helps children all around the world, but specifically we were donating to the Syrian children who had been
displaced. It is actually the worst crisis of displacement of our generation, since World War Two. There have been about
Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs
Administered by the Institute of International Education (IIE)
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11 million people that have been displaced and half of them are children. We were able to donate around $450 as you
can see right here.
After running the coffee card for a year, it really changed the atmosphere of learning Arabic at my university and two
girls ended up going to the Middle East and doing study abroad from my program. I ran this coffee cart for a year and I
actually decided to come back to the Middle East and I wanted to take some time off to decide what I really want to do
when I graduate before. Here are some pictures from last fall. I had a lot of opportunities in Jordan to work with the
Syrian refugees. One of my Arabic teachers actually flew me out to Kuwait for the weekend so that’s the picture up on
the top where I am wearing the traditional Arab clothes. Here on the top right is working with the refugees in Greece
and bringing them over – getting them out of the water and getting them warm. We actually move them up to a
transition camp where we have a place for them to rest and we actually set up a bus that takes them to their main camp
before they go to Athens and then on to Europe. I titled this as “Move on to Greater Things” because I actually had to
sell my coffee card when I was in Jordan. The reason was that I was supposed to be in Palestine and was actually not
allowed in so I had to stay in Jordan where everything was more expensive. I decided to sell my coffee cart and
somebody actually bought it and decided to use it as a way to help Syrian refugees who are coming to the U.S. – as a
way for them to work. When I decided to sell the coffee cart, I didn’t actually expect someone to use it for the same
similar reasons. I figured someone would buy it and use it as a breakfast cart or something, but it actually really worked
out well and I was able to have enough money to come out here to Greece and work with this NGO. This all goes back to
making the decision to study abroad and really having the confidence with the Gilman Scholarship, so I wish all of you
luck with writing your essays and I just want to give you confidence to really work hard on this so that you can really get
a rich experience at your university and afterwards. Thank you.
Question & Answer:
Courtney: Thank you so much Shane and all of our presenters, a huge thank you for the information that you’ve shared
and your expertise in the Multiplier Effect. Thank you for working with alumni to promote the Gilman Scholarship. At
this time we would like to open up the floor for questions. If you have questions for any of the presenters, please feel
free to type them in the chat box. I believe we might already have a few in. Randi, could you let us know what those
questions are?
Randi: Hi! We have a number of questions that came in. One is specifically for Ann. This advisor just wanted clarification
about whether Berea requires all students to do a Follow-On Service Project or if you were just referring to the FollowOn project that Gilman requires?
Ann: Berea actually requires that all students who have an education abroad experience do a Follow-On project. The
idea is that even though do have a large number of our students who do study abroad, there is an even larger
percentage who don’t. We tell students that it is really important that they come back and educate the campus about
what they learned.
Randi: That sounds really great. How to you follow through with making sure all the students actually complete the
project?
Ann: We could revoke their scholarship, but we have never had to do that because we have awesome students.
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Administered by the Institute of International Education (IIE)
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Gilman Web Symposium, The Multiplier Effect
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Randi: A follow-up question, do you have any push-back from students about requiring that Follow-On service project
requirement? How do you mitigate any push-back or complaints from students that that is a requirement?
Ann: I think since we are so flexible and allow them to be so creative and we talk through all the different options with
them. We really haven’t had that many issues. I guess because our students are just so wonderful and grateful to have
gotten help to go abroad and they’ve had such a good experience, it’s almost a natural reaction to want to share that
information. It really hasn’t been a big problem. People have responded really well.
Randi: That sounds like a really great approach and it sounds like it is working out really well on your campus. We also
have a comment here that they really enjoyed the testimonies from our Gilman alumni. I have a question for Michelle.
Someone is wondering whether that gallery format is something that is going to be continued in the future or if you
know?
Michelle: So what we have is a gallery that is actually part of our building and every year the university will give the
space to each of the study abroad returnees so that when they do it, they can present their stuff. It is up to the students
and the professor of those years to actually occupy it and actually put things in there. It is something that happens every
year, but it is the initiative of the students every year or semester that does it to actually put stuff into it. Yes it does
happen every year.
Randi: Thanks! I also have a question for Shane. When students would come to the coffee cart and say they were
interested in study abroad, were you handing anything out? Did you have handouts or were you just telling your
customers about opportunities that you knew of and your own experience?
Shane: So we actually had an Instagram and Facebook page that people would interact with us on, but we actually did
hand out sheets that had information on them. We had people sign-up with their emails and we would send them
information about the Gilman. We even had someone interested in having me read their essays.
Randi: Thanks Shane! I think we are going to wrap it up and I will hand it back to Courtney. Thanks everyone for your
questions!
Courtney: Thanks Randi so much! We were so glad you were able to join us today for our presentation on the Multiplier
Effect. A huge “Thank You” to Ann, Susy, Michelle, and Shane for sharing with us and for your time. If you have
questions after the conclusion of this web symposium, please feel free to reach out to us at the Gilman program. You
can reach us at gilmanadvisors@iie.org. Again, thanks for joining us today and have a great holiday.
Transcript of original web symposium recording, The Multiplier Effect – Engaging Alumni: Strategies to Connect &
Integrate. December 16, 2015.
Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs
Administered by the Institute of International Education (IIE)
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