As a global studies and environmental studies major, I have been told on several occasions in each discipline to “Think Global, Act Local.” To take action in my own community so as to benefit the global community at large. Whereas I fully support local initiatives to take care of the environment in the places that we live, it is also fundamentally important to understand perspectives and challenges from beyond your own backyard. As a student at University of California Santa Barbara, there are struggles and initiatives all around to improve the quality of the environment. Be it increasing the recycling rates, restoring watersheds to native vegetation to improve the quality of water that reaches the ocean, educating the youth on the importance of conservation, using low energy appliances, the list is endless. But Santa Barbara is a very environmentally conscious community (with relatively significant resources, in comparison to the US and abroad) and it still faces many environmental challenges. Certainly the problems faced in the United States and Santa Barbara are not necessarily encountered as priorities elsewhere. An experience living abroad makes one “think global” much more literally, but once abroad, viewing the world from a local perspective will assist in understanding the cultural, economic and technical boundaries that contribute to many local challenges, such as environmental degradation. Thus one must not take for granted that it is also important to “Think Local.”
Living and studying abroad will doubtlessly alter one’s perspective, and is often an invaluable experience to developing worldviews. But it may also be an economic stress on many families, which is why it is important for students interested in studying abroad to research and pursue potential scholarship and financial aid options. The Benjamin A.Gilman International Scholarship is available to many low-income college and university students that are United States citizens. If you are a university student interested in studying abroad- which in my personal opinion I highly recommend- it is definitely worth applying for if you
qualify. Any sincere interest studying abroad should not be hindered by one’s economic situation until all financial aid and scholarship options are exhausted. So please, if you are a college or university student interested in studying abroad, check out the Gilman Scholarship
website and “Go Global.”
