Winona State University has been recognized by the U.S. Department of State for producing four Gilman Scholarship recipients this Spring 2025 cycle.
The four WSU recipients of the Gilman Scholarship include summer faculty-led participants Jenna Eichman on the Escape to England: Poets, Priests, and Prisons program; and Taya Peterson on the Old Meets New: Timeless Japan program, both in May 2025; as well as upcoming year-long exchange program participants Jonathan Ambriz, to ChungAng University in South Korea and Emil Johannson, to Toyo University in Japan.
The U.S. Department of State has awarded the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship to 3,500 American undergraduate students from all 50 states and the District of Columbia in spring 2025 to study abroad in over 170 countries. Over 70 percent of selected Gilman Scholars are from rural areas and small towns across the United States, and 55 percent are first-generation college students. Gilman Scholars are U.S. undergraduate students with high financial need as federal Pell Grant recipients. The Gilman Program received a record high of 17,000 applications across the 2024-2025 academic year.
This group of Gilman Scholars from Winona State University will represent the United States overseas and will return to communities across the United States with the global networks and foreign language skills needed to support U.S. economic and national security interests.
The governments of France, Germany, through the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), New Zealand, and Wales, as well as the Luso-American Development Foundation (FLAD) in Portugal and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States (TECRO), provided additional scholarships to Gilman scholars to study in these locations.
Established by the U.S. Congress, the Gilman Scholarship is an initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and is aided in its implementation by the Institute of International Education. The next application cycle will be launched in August 2025. To learn more about the Gilman Scholarship, visit gilmanscholarship.org.
For more information on the Gilman Scholarship and application process, Winona State University students may contact the Study Abroad Scholarship Coordinator, Renee Stowell at rstowell@winona.edu.
