This year 50 undergraduate students received scholarships to study abroad in 23 different countries. The students come from all over Wisconsin and the U.S. and are highly diversified in majors and destination countries.
At the award ceremony in April two UW seniors and former study-abroad scholarship recipients, Stephanie Koczela, who studied in Nairobi, Kenya, and Ben Harguth, who studied in Budapest, Hungary, gave advice and insight on what incredible adventures the students were about to encounter.
“Being there [Nairobi] I realized that the goals you have for yourself are often shaped by experiences that you have, and I hadn’t had enough experiences to understand how I could have the impact I wanted to have.” said Koczela. “I then realized that my goals could be better met by taking a different path than I had originally intended before studying abroad.”
“You will change,” said Harguth. “You’re going to learn a lot about yourself, others, and different cultures.”
Both Koczela and Harguth expressed their gratitude for the scholarships they received to make their study-abroad experiences possible and discussed how they will apply their new perspectives in their future careers.
From Mexico to China, UW students will create mind-opening experiences for themselves and bring their international awareness back to campus, all made possible by the generous donations of UW alumni. There are currently seven study-abroad scholarships available to students through alumni donations: Study Abroad Telethon, Chuo-Kuo-Ping, Gerend, Joe Elder, Makward, Chicago Rothschild Fund and Pritzker Pucker. This year, these funds were able to award a total of $84,500.
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