DaiMeshia Seay has won the nationally competitive Benjamin A. Gilman Scholarship, completing a very successful freshman year as a Brock Scholar in the Honors College. Meshia is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Integrated Studies, combining her interests in biology, public administration, and business to prepare for a career in health care administration following graduate school.
The Gilman Scholarship program was founded in 2000 in honor of retired New York congressman Benjamin A. Gilman to provide opportunities for undergraduates to live and learn in a different environment, a social and cultural experience to prepare students to live and work in a global society. The principle objective of the Gilman Scholarship is to expand international opportunities for undergraduate students who have financial need and who have traditionally been under-represented in study or internship programs abroad.
Meshia will return in the spring semester to implement the project she developed for her Gilman application, a series of programs to inform others about the Gilman Scholarship and the benefits of studying abroad. “My project was to not only reach out to college students with this information,” says Meshia, “but to parents, high school teachers and high school students.” She plans to host information seminars for various groups to talk about her own experience and the benefits of living and studying abroad, help students explore their options, address financial barriers and solutions, and encourage early planning.
Meshia will spend the fall semester in Australia at the University of Southern Queensland. She hopes that classes she will take, like “Indigenous Perspectives” and “Australian Stories,” as well as the time she will spend with Australian students, will help her gain a better understanding of the development of Australian culture and history.