Eleven Fordham undergraduates will be embarking on educational opportunities across the globe, thanks to a State Department scholarship that helps students of limited financial means study abroad.
The Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship is a congressionally funded, merit-based scholarship created to equip American students with “the skills critical to our national security and economic prosperity” through exposure to other languages and cultures. It is only available to students who receive Pell Grants, a form of federal financial aid for undergraduates who demonstrate financial need.
For the second consecutive year, Fordham has produced 11 Gilman scholars—a milestone first achieved last year. Recipients will be traveling to five different countries: the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, and Singapore.
“This is especially exciting, because it not only shows how excellent our students are, but is also one indicator of the many ways that we support all of our students to take advantage of the most high-impact opportunities,” said Lorna Ronald, director of the Office of Fellowship Advising. “Study abroad is transformative. As students engage in new cultures, they learn more about themselves and start to see themselves as the leaders that our world needs.”
Seizing Opportunities as a First-Gen Student
One of this year’s Gilman recipients is Yharelis Ribic, a sophomore in the CSTEP program, which helps students from minority groups or economically disadvantaged backgrounds prepare for careers in STEM and other fields. She’ll be heading to London next year.
Ribic is studying computer science, a discipline she said she fell in love with during an AP class she took in high school, growing up in the Bronx. She remembers when she learned she got the Gilman scholarship: “I was really excited,” she said. “Everyone was congratulating me. Sometimes it’s hard to congratulate yourself, so it felt really great.”
Ribic said the opportunity is especially meaningful to her as a first-generation college student.
“ Just getting into college is already really big for my family. So I want to take advantage of all the opportunities college has,” she said. “And I think studying abroad is a really big thing that not a lot of people do, especially first gen.”
Ribic will go to London in spring 2026, where she’ll be taking core classes and communications classes at Fordham London. She’ll also take a computer science class at University of Westminster, and she hopes to take a course in social media marketing and web analytics there as well.
Volunteering with Jesuit Organizations Abroad
A second Gilman scholar, junior Jennifer Dominguez, is also headed to Fordham London, but for the Fall 2026 semester. The psychology major is part of the Higher Education Opportunity Program, a state program that helps academically gifted students from low-income families access college.
This will be Dominguez’s second time in London, after traveling there with Fordham’s Global Outreach program last year. During that trip, she was inspired by the workers she met from the Jesuit Refugee Service and London Jesuit Centre, and she says she’s especially looking forward to getting involved with these organizations when she returns.
“ I’ve been volunteering through my parish ever since I was little,” said Dominguez. “My parents, even though we might not have a lavish house or anything, it was always very community centered, and they were always saying, do what you can to help. It might not be giving a million dollars, but at least you’re making the world a little nicer.”
Fordham’s 2025 Gilman Scholars
In addition to Dominguez and Ribic, Fordham produced nine other Gilman scholars in 2025. Here is the list of this year’s scholars and their destinations:
- Mia Allio, FCRH ’26, United Kingdom
- Abigail Davis, FCRH ’26, United Kingdom
- Talaya Carter, PCS ’26, Italy
- Alicia Garcia, GABELLI ’27, United Kingdom
- Hannah Huang, GABELLI ’27, Singapore
- Natasha Lamouria, FCRH ’26, France
- Leila Omeragic, FCRH ’27, Spain
- Marianela Rivas, FCRH ’28, Spain
- Mackenzie Saenz De Viteri, FCLC ’27, United Kingdom
