BC students earn Gilman, Critical Language scholarships
Boston College students continue to enjoy success in pursuing prestigious study-abroad opportunities, as evidenced by the University’s performance in two United States Department of State programs.
According to a State Department report issued this spring, Boston College is among the top 25 institutions producing Gilman Scholars across the program’s 25-year history. The Gilman Program provides merit-based scholarships to outstanding undergraduate students with high financial need to intern or study abroad. In the past 25 years, more than 160 BC students have been awarded the competitive scholarship, including 10 students who received Gilman awards for the 2026-2027 academic year. This places BC among the top 20 Gilman producers in the medium-sized institution category nationally, alongside the University of Notre Dame, Northwestern University, and Georgetown University.
This year’s recipients include Eleni Apazidou ’28 (Australia), Mohamed Dirar ’27 and Isalia Minnalez ’28 (United Kingdom), ReSean Dupree ’28 (Portugal), Amy Gorreja ’28 (Spain), Jayline Merida-Jaimes ’28 and Marissa VanOrmer ’28 (Japan), Kayla Ramos ’28 (Ecuador), and Dominique Williams ’28 (Singapore).
For over 20 years, the Gilman Scholarship has empowered BC students who are traditionally underrepresented in study abroad, according to Office of Global Education Associate Director of Program Development and Communications Christina Hatzipetros. “It’s wonderful that BC students feel supported in overcoming perceived barriers to adding a global experience as part of their BC undergraduate experience.”
Critical Language Scholarship recipients Luke Lu, Caroline Serenyi, and Connor O'Brien.
In addition, the State Department selected Luke Lu ’27, Connor O’Brien ’28, and Caroline Serenyi ’28 for Critical Language Scholarships, which support the equivalent of one year of language study in eight weeks during the summer, through fully funded instruction and activities that reinforce language learning and intercultural competence. Lucas Kucera ’28, Maia Choe ’28, and graduate student Jess Navarette were named as CLS alternates.
More than 4,500 American undergraduate and graduate students applied for the 2026 Critical Language Scholarships. With an acceptance rate of seven percent this year, the CLS represents one of the most selective and distinguished language programs in the nation, supporting the intensive study of languages deemed critical to the United States’ national security and economic prosperity.
Since the founding of the program in 2006, nearly 40 undergraduate and graduate BC students of different academic backgrounds have won Critical Language Scholarships, said Hatzipetros, who recently served as a national panelist with CLS.
“I could not be prouder of the three finalists, as well as our alternates. This is a great achievement for Boston College students,” she said.
The CLS recipients will spend the summer overseas in structured cultural enrichment experiences mastering one of nine critical languages: Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, or Swahili.
“I love the process of learning languages and can’t wait to be in a linguistically immersive environment,” said Lu, an International Studies and linguistics major who will study Russian at the American University of Central Asia in Kyrgyzstan. “I want to not only greatly improve my Russian abilities but also to meet new people and explore a culture that I know very little about.”
O’Brien, who spent nine months in Kyrgyzstan through the State Department’s NSLI-Y Program during a pre-BC gap year, will return to Central Asia to study Persian in Tajikistan. Having followed a period of border skirmishes between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in 2022, O’Brien felt he was missing the Tajik perspective on the conflict and was drawn to study Persian because of the Persian roots and history of Tajikistan.
“I’m looking forward to developing a richer understanding of Tajik culture and history, especially through living with a host family and having a local language partner,” said O’Brien, an International Studies and economics major with a Russian minor.
A linguistics and Islamic Civilization and Societies major, Serenyi will study Arabic in Morocco. Envisioning a career in diplomacy or peacebuilding, she is interested in Arabic because of its global relevance in politics, religion, and the arts.
“Learning Arabic will help me to meet people on their own terms and within their own culture. As a linguistics major, I’m also fascinated by the structure of the language and how people use it in different social contexts.”
With more than 190 robust study-abroad programs to choose from, Boston College students have the preparation and dedicated campus resources to succeed in competing for the national award, according to Hatzipetros.
“BC students are able to clearly articulate how their international experience will directly impact their future career and academic goals; they are reflecting on the benefits of the BC abroad experience and setting goals for themselves that clearly demonstrate that education abroad is a high-impact practice at Boston College.”