Celebrating 2026 Award Recipients
Penn Abroad celebrates the 2026 recipients of the Gilman Scholarship, Critical Language Scholarship, and the Rhodes Scholarship. Each of these programs is unique, but all offer support to undergraduate and graduate students studying abroad.
The Gilman Scholarship
The U.S. Department of State’s Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program provides merit-based scholarships to outstanding American undergraduate students with high financial need to pursue credit-bearing academic studies and career-oriented internships abroad. The Gilman Program has awarded the following Penn students with scholarships:
Spring 2026
Grace Djoko (W’27), CIEE Cape Town, South Africa
Sharon Kim (W’27), Ramon Llull University (ESADE)
Ady Carter (C’27), Yonsei University
Safiy Khan (C’27), CIEE Lisbon: Language and Culture
Alana Cyril (C’27), Ibero-American University of Mexico
Solana Forney (C’27), Goldsmiths, University of London
Fall 2026
Seth Cyr (C’28), Berlin Consortium for German Studies
Jada Collins (C’27), CASA Melbourne: The University of Melbourne
 To learn more about the Gilman Scholarship, visit gilmanscholarship.org. 
Summer 2026 Critical Language Scholarship
The Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program provides immersive summer programs for U.S. undergraduate and graduate students to learn languages of strategic importance to the United States’ national security and economic prosperity. To learn more about the Critical Language Scholarship Program, visit clscholarship.org. The recipients of the Spring 2026 Critical Language Scholarship are:
Jay Bhatia (C’29), Hindi Advanced Beginning
Miquela Berge (GSE ’26), Persian Advanced Beginning
Alison Yau (W’26), Chinese (Mandarin) Intermediate
The Rhodes Scholarship
The Rhodes Scholarship is a prestigious postgraduate award that enables outstanding students to study at the University of Oxford. Florence Onyiuke (Huntsman ’26) was named a 2026 Rhodes Scholar and plans to pursue a master’s degree in economic development with a focus on West Africa while at Oxford. In January, Onyiuke spoke with Penn Abroad about how her international experiences and research led her to the Rhodes Scholarship.
Penn Abroad encourages students interested in pursuing external scholarships like Boren, CLS, Gilman, and Rhodes to apply. To learn more about how Penn Abroad can support your application, reach out to goabroad@upenn.edu.