Four CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI) students are traveling to different corners of the world to study during the 2022-23 academic year, thanks to the U.S. Department of State’s Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program.   

This Fall, Art major Alejandra Torres, 20, is studying photography and traditional dance in Monterrey, Mexico while Performing Arts/Theater History double major Rae McQueen, 25, is off to the United Kingdom to study film.   

In Spring of 2023, Biology major Joanna Carmelita Patagan, 19, will travel to South Korea to study biology and the Korean language and Business major/Spanish minor Itzel Tena Ortiz, 19, is off to immerse herself in the culture of Granada, Spain while studying business.   

The Gilman Scholarship is targeted at students who might not otherwise get the opportunity to study in another country. Along with showing financial need, the application requirements include an essay describing why the student would like to study abroad.   

“A fair number of our students get the Gilman because they have such powerful stories to tell and these incredible life experiences,” said CSUCI Study Abroad Coordinator Courtney Gross. “They have compelling reasons to want to study abroad and it comes across in their essays.”  

Born in Salinas, California and raised in Porterville, Ortiz is the first in her family to attend college. Her parents both worked in the farm fields after immigrating to the U.S. from Mexico when they were 17.   

“My parents took me with them in the summers to work in the fields,” Ortiz said. “I saw what that meant and what money meant. I saw how they struggled. They were literally wasting away their bodies to put a roof over our heads and provide food for us. I worked mostly picking oranges. You carried big ladders and there’s a lot of thorns. It gets to be 100 or 105 during summers.”  

Now that she’s older, Ortiz describes her life as one of “privilege” she said, because her parents worked hard to establish a pathway to a better life for Ortiz and her three siblings.  

While studying at the University of Granada, Ortiz plans to sharpen her Spanish skills and take advantage of the Business internships the university offers. After she graduates, so hopes to go into international affairs.  

Torres began her classes at Tecnologico de Monterrey in August and has fallen in love with the city.  

“The city is so colorful and there is always something to do,” she said. “The school has a lot of activities. I haven’t had a day of rest since I arrived. I’ve been going to El Centro with its outdoor shops and all the color and movement. Somebody is always doing art or playing music on the cobblestone streets.”  

It’s been a visual feast for someone like Torres, who has long admired Latino filmmakers like Guillermo del Toro and Alfonso Cuarón, hoping to one day work in cinematography. She is spending this semester studying photography, public speaking and cumbia, a form of folk dance that originated in Colombia.  

As a self-declared Anglophile, McQueen is thrilled to be headed to the University of Bristol in the spring to focus on multicultural and cross-cultural education through film.   

“I was into Dr. Who and all the British TV shows, and I have always really loved Shakespeare,” McQueen said. “Britain’s got a really interesting history for me as my father is from a country colonized by the British—Jamaica. It’s kind of like a need to see this colonial power where the sun never set on their empire because they had something in every time zone. It’s a cultural curiosity.”  

McQueen plans to visit iconic destinations such as Jane Austen’s house, but “as one of those weird kids who got into serial killers,” Whitechapel of Jack the Ripper infamy, is also on the list.  

When she attends Konkuk University in Seoul, South Korea this spring, Patagan plans to take three biology courses and classes to help her better understand the Korean language and culture.   

“I want to make sure I’m not disrespecting anything in the country there,” she said. “Plus, I’ve always been into dance, like K-Pop. In Konkuk, I can get my graduation requirements, understand the culture and see why dance has become such a thing.”  

Born in the Philippines, Patagan arrived in the U.S. when she was seven. She has always been drawn to science, but when the time came to enter college, she majored in Business, because she was worried about how she would be able to manage lab equipment with her right hand.  

“I have a birth defect and that’s why I was iffy going into Biology,” she said. “I wasn’t comfortable. I was scared, basically, but finally decided I can’t let that affect me and I just had to go for it.”  

She was glad she did. Patagan was able to get accommodations for her disability and is now thriving in biology, with plans to go into forensic science.   

Former Gilman scholar Maribel Pantoja, 20, studied in South Korea in Spring 2022. Pantoja is a Spanish major/Asian Pacific Studies minor with plans to become a courtroom interpreter.  

She loved South Korea and plans to take her sister to see the country, but she believes that, no matter where the 2022/23 Gilman scholars travel, the experience will enrich them as students and as people.  

“It’s a good experience to go out your personal bubble and explore,” she said.