Sources: Jessica Ice, weiler2@k-state.edu;
and James Hohenbary, 785-532-6904, jimlth@k-state.edu
News release prepared by: Andy Badeker, 785-532-6415, abadeker@k-state.edu
Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2007
K-STATE'S GILMAN SCHOLAR PLANS LATIN AMERICA TRIP
MANHATTAN -- Kansas State University's sole recipient of a fall 2007 Gilman International Scholarship will use her $3,000 award to finance a three-country program of study.
Jessica Ice, a junior in anthropology, Kansas City, Kan., leaves Aug. 27 for Guanajuato, Mexico, where she'll spend five weeks studying Spanish. From there she'll proceed to Lima, Peru, and Buenos Aires, Argentina.
"It's basically Spanish language instruction," she said, "and then, at the same time, I'll study the cultures of these countries. I'll ease into classes taught entirely in Spanish by the time I get to Argentina."
The plan of the program, organized by International Studies Abroad in Austin, Texas, is for its participants to be fluent in conversational Spanish by the end of the semester, Ice said.
The Gilman International Scholarship Program provides awards of up to $5,000 for undergraduates who are receiving federal Pell grant funding to participate in study abroad programs worldwide. The U.S. State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs sponsors the award. More than 400 were given out for study this fall.
Ice has visited Juarez and Puerto Penasco in Mexico, but this will be her first experience studying abroad. She's already taken three semesters of Spanish, two of them at New Mexico State, where she took part in a national student exchange in 2006-07.
The three-country aspect of her upcoming trip attracted her. "Going to one place didn't seem like enough," she said. In addition to the variations on Spanish, Ice said she looks forward to learning something of the countries' other indigenous languages.
Ice is a 2005 graduate of Shawnee Mission North High School.