Welcome to the Office of International Education: Finances

The first source of support for study abroad is Lyon College. Because Lyon highly values the transformative benefits of study abroad, the College makes available to eligible students one-time grants ranging in value from $1800 for short trips to $2000 for month-long courses and $3000 for programs lasting between one month and one year.

You should also be aware that most forms of federal and state financial aid can be used to pay for study abroad, provided your course of study lasts at least one month. If your study abroad lasts at least one month, fill out the expense sheet attached to the study abroad application and take it to the Office of Financial Aid to see if you qualify for additional funding. 

Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship 

The Gilman International Scholarship is a national one, with 3600 awards ranging of up to $5,000 during this academic year alone. If you are going abroad to study a less commonly studied language deemed critical to security of the U.S. (A list is available on the website.), you could be eligible for an additional $3000 award. Students planning on studying in Japan should definitely apply for a Gilman Scholarship and supplementary critical language award.

They scholarship is described on the Gilman website in these terms:

“The U.S. Department of State’s Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship is a grant program that enables students of limited financial means to study or intern abroad, thereby gaining skills critical to our national security and economic competitiveness.

The Gilman Scholarship Program is open to U.S. citizen undergraduate students who are receiving Federal Pell Grant funding at a two-year or four-year college or university to participate in study and intern abroad programs worldwide.”

Applications are normally accepted in October and March. First a notice is sent to the Office of International Education. Then an email goes out to eligible students. Interested students complete their applications and both the Office of International Education and the Office of Financial Aid certify and submit the applications online to complete the process. For general Gilman eligibility guidelines, please see here. 

Boren Scholarship

Boren Scholarships are federally-funded grants which provide up to $20,000 to U.S. undergraduate students to study abroad in areas of the world that are critical to U.S. interests and underrepresented in study abroad. These scholarships are funded by the National Security Education Program (NSEP), which focuses on geographic areas, languages, and fields of study deemed critical to U.S. national security. According to the International Institute for Education (IIE), applicants must “identify how their study abroad programs or overseas projects, as well as their future academic and career goals, will contribute to U.S. national security, broadly defined. NSEP draws on a broad definition of national security, recognizing that the scope of national security has expanded to include not only the traditional concerns of protecting and promoting American well-being, but also the challenges of global society, including sustainable development, environmental degradation, global disease and hunger, population growth and migration, and economic competitiveness.”

The 2021 application will open in mid-August on February 3, 2021 for the undergraduate Boren Scholarships. Please see the website cited above for eligibility and application information.

A student’s reluctance to study abroad is typically related to the cost. However, what most students who study abroad for at least a month don't know is that they can actually apply their current on-campus financial aid package to their study abroad trip in addition to specific study abroad scholarships. A study abroad scholarship is a monetary award for students to use toward the expenses of their program such as travel, course, credits, books and lodging. Students must apply for scholarships and some can be very competitive while others are underutilized. There are many possibilities when it comes to scholarships:

Student-specific: These are scholarships for applicants who initially qualify based on factors such as gender, race, religion, family and medical history, or many other student-specific factors. Minority scholarships are the most common awards in this category, but qualifications will vary based on the particular scholarship.

Destination-specific: These are scholarships awarded by a country to students planning to pursue a study abroad program in that particular country. They are awarded as an incentive to study in that country instead of elsewhere. Check with government-sponsored travel websites of the country where you wish to study to see what scholarships are available.

Subject-specific: Subject-specific scholarships are awarded by study abroad programs or institutions to students based on their particular major or field of study. These scholarships may require the recipients to enroll in subject-specific courses while abroad or conduct subject-specific research while abroad, but it's important to note that qualifications will vary based on each scholarship.

Scholarship Databases: There are several large searchable databases which contain listings of multiple types of scholarships for study abroad.