CIEE is excited to announce that since its inception in March 2012, the Global Access Initiative (GAIN) has awarded more than $130,000 in scholarships and grants to college and university students interested in CIEE’s Study Abroad in China programs. These scholarships and grants directly support President Barack Obama’s “100,000 Strong” initiative, which seeks to significantly increase the number and diversify the composition of American students studying abroad in China.
There is perhaps no more complex relationship between nations in the world than the one that exists between the U.S. and China. Announced in November 2009, the “100,000 Strong” initiative seeks to prepare the next generation of American experts on China who will be charged with managing the growing political, economic, and cultural ties between the two countries. The initiative also seeks to develop specific opportunities and funding sources for underrepresented students to study in China.
Through GAIN, which commits $1 million in grants and scholarships each year to help diversify the study abroad experience, CIEE is able to support this mission by providing opportunities for students who are economically challenged, from a traditionally underrepresented social or ethnic group, have a documented disability, or are in an underrepresented field of study. The average scholarship is worth $1,300, which can be put toward the costs for a summer, semester, or full year study abroad program.
Recipients are chosen based on a submitted essay about the barriers he or she needs to overcome in order to study abroad, how he or she plans to encourage students facing similar challenges to study abroad, and why studying abroad is important to students from all walks of life.
In his essay, GAIN winner Dominic Romeo—an intensive Chinese language student at the University of Notre Dame with a Native American background—explained the impact studying abroad in China will have on his future: “The CIEE GAIN scholarship will afford me the opportunity to study abroad, thereby enabling me to obtain fluency in Mandarin and become intimately acquainted with the Chinese culture in an extremely enjoyable fashion. Ultimately, this experience will pave the way for me to effectively work as a diplomat between China and the United States, with a special focus on United States-China relations.”
CIEE has administered study abroad programs in mainland China for more than 30 years, since the first CIEE Study Center opened at Peking University in 1980. Today, CIEE offers Study Centers in Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai, and Taipei with programs in advanced Chinese studies; business, language, and culture; communications, business, and political economy; and intensive Chinese language.
Established in 1947, CIEE is the leader in international education. For 65 years CIEE has helped thousands of students, professionals, and educators gain the knowledge and skills necessary to live and work in a globally independent and culturally diverse world by offering the most comprehensive, relevant, and valuable exchange programs available.
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