Humboldt High School graduate Nisha Ingle was recently awarded one of only six prestigious Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarships from Kansas State University.
The award totals $5,000, and will allow Ingle to travel to Germany next summer to pursue cultural experiences and receive intense immersive language training.
She’ll first travel to Berlin to receive an in-depth tour spanning two weeks, and then attend the Herder Institute in Leipzig for in-class activities — all while continuing to explore.
It’s also common to learn a skill like baking or cooking in the native language as part of the study abroad program, Ingle said, which develops both one’s language and cultural knowledge and etiquette.
Small wonder she’s “super-excited for next summer.”
“I’ve never been outside of the U.S.,” Ingle said, “which is one of the reasons I’m really, really stoked.”
“It’s going to be an entirely new, eye-opening experience.”
SOMETHING noteworthy about Ingle receiving the Gilman Scholarship is that she’s the only student from a rural area to do so this year.
She’s certainly happy about that fact, though, and pointed out how studying abroad is an opportunity most students from rural areas don’t get.
This is largely due to perceptions about time and cost, Ingle said, which is unfortunate because traveling during college is much more attainable and affordable than people realize.
Along with being from a rural area, Ingle said that other key demographics she fit into made a difference in relation to winning the award.
These include being female and from a single-parent home, along with being a first-generation college student.
“There are a lot of things that could have held me back from college or studying abroad,” she said, but she wasn’t about to let those things stop her.
Of course, Ingle also had to write multiple essays, have good grades and other achievements to be considered as well.
She further explained how the Gilman award is “a scholarship that promotes community-building by studying abroad,” and the community she hopes to contribute to is Houston, Texas, the site of her and her friend’s proposed business.
INGLE is currently pursuing a double-major in hospitality management and German, with the goal of one day opening a restaurant.
