Each summer, semester, and academic year, students from colleges and universities all across the US aspire to study abroad and immerse themselves in another culture. For many students, it's a wish unfulfilled. Summer is for working, for helping out the family, for unpaid internships, or for summer courses in core subjects. In other words: it may be a respite from the academic year, but it's not necessarily a vacation.
Today, there is a pressing need to provide all young students with the opportunity to broaden their horizons and become truly global citizens. However, almost 90 percent of American students miss out on the chance to study abroad before graduating from college. In other words, less than 10 percent of students study abroad!
Even fewer students from traditionally underrepresented communities within study abroad such as first-generation college students, students of minority backgrounds, students with disabilities, low-income students, and returning veterans are able to pursue these life-changing opportunities.
We want to support these underrepresented students who are unable to afford, or who do not think they are able to take "time off" to access opportunities to embark upon critical cultural experiences in an immersive overseas environment; an environment that nurtures and breeds the so-called "global competency" set of skills demanded by today's employers in the US and abroad.
With your support, we hope to make our immersive study abroad programs and the unique experiences they provide more accessible for the talented, but underrepresented, students through the American Councils Diversity Scholarship.
Your generosity (and vision) will help make study abroad a reality for all students and will prepare the next generation of diverse leaders in the US
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Among our first Diversity Scholarship recipients is Leon, who will be studying Russian language overseas this summer in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
Leon, A Future Doctor
"Coming from an immigrant family, I have learned that communication is much more than putting words together in an acceptable order. My career goal is to become a doctor, but my goal as a human is to provide aid to those who need it most, when they need it the most. Working in the healthcare field, it quickly becomes apparent that the most important part of treating a patient is effectively communicating with them."