The small room in Irvine Hall was filled with members of the development team brainstorming for the 2014 Tropical Disease Research Program in Ecuador.
Program Director Mario Grijalva quickly wrote on a white board as students suggested ideas for the upcoming trip and how to attract students.
Studying abroad is expensive — the research program in Ecuador, depending on the longevity of the stay, ranges from about $1,500 to almost $4,000.
“It can be difficult to go abroad; you have to work on the finances,” said Catherine Marshall, director of the Center for International Studies and Office of Education Abroad. “We’ll assist students with that as much as we can by pointing out the scholarships and brainstorming on how to make things work.”
With these high prices on program directors’ minds, they know they have to advertise their programs well to sell them to the students.
During the Tropical Disease Research Program in Ecuador brainstorming session, Grijalva, who has been the director since 2000, stated that the program was not only for biology majors but also catered to many different fields.
“The program started as a response to the need of conducting meaningful biomedical field research,” Grijalva said. “Over the years the program has grown substantially, to the point that we have been having around 35 students attending every year, not only from Ohio University but also at least 10 different universities around the USA and from other European and Latin American countries, Australia and New Zealand.”
OU offers money to undergraduate and graduate students studying abroad, including need-based travel grants, merit scholarships, diversity travel awards and endowed scholarships from OU alum who have decided to give money in order to support students abroad.
The awards range in competitiveness. The Gilman Scholarship Program, for example, is a national competitive award that could be given to about 15 or 20 OU students, Marshall said.
“There are a bunch of funding opportunities out there for students,” Marshall said. “I can’t guarantee that at any given time a student will definitely find funding, but there are a lot of opportunities and if a student starts looking and makes sure they meet the deadlines, it certainly helps the odds.”
cs951612@ohiou.edu
@claireismatic
