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CAS students win prestigious international scholarship
[07.15.2010]

TAMPA, Fla. -- Two USF College of Arts and Sciences students have won the prestigious Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship, a grant for U.S. citizen undergraduate students to pursue academic studies abroad. The selection rate for this scholarship in the last nine years has been as low as 11 percent, making this a very competitive scholarship.

Sam Van Ginhoven and Vadrika Etienne each will receive $5,000 to enhance their educational experience by participating in an academic program overseas.

Van Ginhoven is a senior majoring in international studies and said he has wanted to study in Japan so he can become fluent in Japanese.

“This experience will boost my future goals in Japanese language as an interpreter, English teacher and/or embassy worker with U.S. or Japanese government,” Van Ginhoven said.

Etienne, a senior majoring in communication, will travel to the Dominican Republic to study Spanish and Caribbean culture. She is using this opportunity to begin working toward her goal of becoming a professor in sociology and/or anthropology with the Caribbean as her area of focus, she said.

“I am conducting research for my undergraduate thesis on the children of immigrants, focusing on Haitian Americans,” Etienne said. “This research has stimulated my interest to do graduate work with second-generation populations from the Caribbean.”

-USF-

Filed under:Arts and Sciences Communication Government and International Affairs Student Success School of Social Sciences 
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Author: Michele Dye
Contact: mdye@usf.edu