Gilman Scholarship Essay and Writing Tips

The Gilman scholarship essay is one of the most important aspect of gain this wonderful financial aid to study abroad free in any high institution of your choice.

An applicant for the United States citizens scholarship must be ready to write this important essays. The Gilman scholarship essay is of two types. There are the statement of purpose essay and the Gilman community impact essay.

So writing these essays has being problem for some people or applicants but we are going to tackle that here by helping you to understand what the essays mean and how to go about writing them.

Before we go on in the discussion of the essays, we have to visit this important aspect of Gilman Scholarship.

Contents

Gilman Scholarship Eligibility

  • Applicants Must be U.S. Citizen, receiving a Federal Pell Grant at time of application or during the term of program.
  • In the process of applying to, or accepted for, a credit-bearing study abroad or internship program or a virtual
  • international program of at least 3 weeks long (21 days). Multiple location programs are eligible.
  • Cannot be studying/interning in a county that is a level 3 or 4 on the U.S. Department of State Travel Advisory System

Now let us see what the essays mean for the sponsors of this scholarship program in the United States.

Gilman Scholarship Essay

1. Gilman Scholarship Statement of Purpose Essay

The first is a statement of purpose where you have the chance to explain why you need the scholarship and how it will impact you. This is where you get to let your personality shine so the scholarship committee gets to know you as a person.

Also in this aspect of essay you need to let them have the following information about yourself and goals.

  • Help them know what impact will this study abroad program and receiving the Gilman Scholarship have on your academic and professional goals now and in the future.
  • How will this study abroad program impact any future academic goals, such as graduate school, professional goals you may have
  • Also what impact will your choice of country have on your experience abroad,
  • What initially inspired you to want to study abroad in this particular country or learn this language?
  • What factors led to your choice of country of study?
  • Why do you need to study in your country and not in another one?
  • What impact will your choice of program have on your experience abroad?
  • Are there unique components, such as home-stays or service components, which will shape your experience abroad?

So answering those questions is very important in writing your Gilman statement of purpose essay.

You can also find out when writing your Gilman statement of purpose essay

What impact will this study abroad program and receiving the Gilman Scholarship have on you personally? What examples of knowledge, skills, experiences will you acquire when given the scholarship.

2. The Gilman Scholarship Community impact Essay

The second essay is a follow-on service proposal. As a Gilman Scholar, you are given the opportunity to give back to the community, promote study abroad and the Gilman Scholarship, and make an impact on others who may be in situations similar to you.

This essay might be divided into two, the Building Mutual Understanding Essay and the Follow-on Service Project Proposal all of “3000 word limit”.

When writing

  • make a case for how you will serve as an effective citizen diplomat abroad.
  • When you are overseas, how will you contribute to the mission of building mutual understanding between the people of your home community and the people of your host community.

You can answer the following questions too

  • How will you represent and share what it means to be an American during your program?
  • How will you seek opportunities to become more culturally engaged and have meaningful interactions with people and cultures different from your own?

For the Follow-on Service Project Proposal

  • How will your project will help promote studying abroad and the Gilman scholarship to your peers or community.

Essay writing guidelines

  • Gilman scholarship Statement of Purpose Essay can only be 7,000 characters (including spaces), about 1.5 pages, single-spaced.
  • Community Impact Essays (Building Mutual Understanding Essay and Follow-on Service Project Proposal (max of 3,000 characters, including spaces, each).
  • No bold/italicizing/underlining.
  • Students should compose the essays in Word first and then copy paste into application.
  • Online certifications from KU Study Abroad Program Coordinator and Financial Aid Advisor (listed as Michele Arellano).
  • Obtain unofficial transcripts early to make sure they are received by application deadlines

Gilman Scholarship Essays Writing Tips

You might have writen many essays but when writng writing a scholarship essay, much care must be taken.

In previous post made by Scholarship Infor Desk team, we poin out guidelines for Writing Scholarship Essays. You can read it to get more information but let us look at some tips here.

1. Research

In this your scholarship you are to study in another country with different language, culture, political system and environment to that of the United States. So research about those things and how it will benefit you and your academic life.

2. Time

Make sure you take this essay writing as important as it should be. Start you essay on time to help you write the important aspect of it.

Don’t be in a hurry to write to avoid errors and this will always happen if you give yourself much time. You can start your Gilman scholarship essay writing about two months to submission.

3. Tell Your Story

When writing your essay, don’t just tell be show why you need the scholarship and what make you qualified for it.

The committee in charge of reviewing the essays has many work to do so you are advised to sell yourself to them by telling them convincing story about yourself and while this scholarship will benefit you academically and professionally.

Note, don’t focus mainly on pressures you will get but what you can benefit others too.

4. Personal service Project

As you know, the main aim of the service project is to promote the Gilman Scholarship. If you propose a service project that is important to you, that passion will be a lot easier to convey in your essay and you will enjoy your time following up on your proposal.

The service project you should choose should be the one that you can carry out easily and that you love doing. This will make it easier for you to discus and practicalize it.

5. Project you service project

The Gilman Scholarship follow- on essay project is one of the factors that determines your selection for winning the scholarship since it shows hiw you can promote the Gilman Scholarship.

So while writing, you can state the names of people you plan to work with, dates and other specifics, it shows you’ve actually planned out what you are going to do.

Another opportunity for you to project yourself to the reviewer is to be creative by showing hiw you can use any of your talent or skill to promote the Gilman Scholarship.

6. Call for readers

Most times we try to be in isolation to others but at this point it won’t be advisable. Let people into your quest.

When you are done with writing your Gilman scholarship essay, give it to friends, family members or teachers who are good in essay writing to help you review then and point out where they think you should work on.

7. Proofread and Edit

When you must have writen to a certain point or done with your Gilman scholarship essays writing, you should read it over and over again to see what you have writen.

When reading, it is advisable to read it out loud and listen to hours, this will help you to determine if what you wrote sounds good or not.

8. Look for Grammatical Errors

As your are reviewing your essay, look out for those grammatical errors and correct them. Other mistakes you found out must be corrected before you submit your essay.

The Don’ts

  • Don’t write to impress the Scholarship selection committees since they have seen and heard it all. Let your credentials and awards speak for themselves.
  • Don’t write in clichés by asking yourself if each and every sentence in your draft reflects some thought, fact, reflection or
    experience of your own.
  • Also Don’t re-write your resume in prose since the selection committees are looking for the person behind the credentials.
  • Don’t be too general or abstract to distance your reader by using vague references or abstractions in your essay.
  • Don’t get too frustrated! Distilling your life into a compelling, informative one-page personal statement is a challenging
    task.

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