Sallee appointed to Gilman Scholarship Advisor Ambassador Program
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 17, 2024) — Since the creation of the U.S. State Department’s Benjamin A. Gilman Scholarship in 2001, 88 University of Kentucky students have received the prestigious award. Emily Sallee, assistant director of UK’s Office of Nationally Competitive Awards, thinks that number can be even higher.
Sallee was recently appointed to the Gilman Advisor Ambassador Program. The ambassadors serve to elevate the profile of the Gilman Program among critical audiences, offer higher education perspectives to the Gilman Program and provide guidance to faculty, advisors and administrators who seek to increase Gilman participation on their campuses.
Her experience with the scholarship is deep. She has been advising UK students through the Gilman Scholarship application process since 2019, and has been invited five times to review applications for the scholarship selection panels.
“My main goal in applying to be an ambassador was to educate myself on how to help more students receive the Gilman Scholarship, and be able to study abroad,” Sallee said.
The Gilman Scholarship program encourages students to study or intern abroad in all world regions, according to information from the Gilman Scholarship website. Recipients come from all U.S. states, academic fields, backgrounds and types of institutions. Nearly 60% of all Gilman scholars come from small towns or rural communities across the United States, and almost half of all Gilman scholars are the first in their family to attend college.
Students can receive an award of up to $5,000 to put toward study abroad. Sallee said that funding can be the silver bullet toward making those international opportunities happen.
“For a lot of students, if they don’t receive scholarships, they don’t study abroad,” she said. “We have promoted it through our office quite a bit over last few years, but there are still students who don’t learn about it in time, or don’t receive feedback on their applications.”
Now that she is a Gilman Ambassador, Sallee said she is hopeful that the professional development, media training and networking opportunities that come with that appointment will aid in her advising of students as they apply for the scholarship; that they are putting their best foot forward in their application narratives.
“I always try to seek out ways to learn best practices for fellowship advising and acquire information about opportunities for students,” Sallee said.
In addition to advising for the Gilman Scholarship, the Office of Nationally Competitive Awards serves as a resource for students at all levels — undergraduate and graduate — seeking high-level scholarship opportunities funded outside of UK.
Sallee said there are more than 200 scholarships listed on the Nationally Competitive Awards’ website.
“There are so many opportunities across all majors,” she said. “We have awards that fund graduate study abroad, summer research experiences, language immersion programs, and other opportunities. There are so many ways for students to pursue enrichment experiences that will help them reach their academic and professional goals.”
For more information on the Gilman scholarship, other scholarship opportunities or general questions about Nationally Competitive Awards, visit the office’s website, competitiveawards.uky.edu.
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