She Applied on the Last Day. Months Later, She Was in Brazil.

On May 18, Jerniah Slater arrived in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Slater, a first-generation student at North Carolina Central University (NCCU), had never traveled internationally before.

"I know people who went to Europe, Italy and Spain," said Slater, a junior majoring in kinesiology. "I wanted somewhere different. I also wanted to experience Afro-Brazilian culture."

To study in Brazil, Slater first needed money. On the advice of James Ham, NCCU director of the office of international affairs, Salter applied for a Gilman Scholarship, a competitive scholarship which is funded by the U.S. Department of State.

"I applied for Gilman on the last day," Slater said. "I was typing essays in the car."

This spring, the Gilman Scholarship notified Slater of a $2,500 award. She was also awarded $1,700 from the Council on International Education Exchange (CIEE).

In Sao Paulo, the most populous city in Brazil, she took classes in anthropology and Portuguese.

"(The class in Portuguese) was pretty fast paced," she said. "After a while I got the hang of it."

And that was a good thing.

"Language was one of the biggest challenges," Slater said. "(Brazilians) didn't really speak English."

With students from other parts of the United States, she traveled to Ilhabela, an island off the southeast coast of Brazil.

"We went to the top of a mountain where we could see the entire island," Slater said. "We hiked around the island and saw different types of fruit, crabs, bugs and waterfalls."

The group also toured museums, visited large markets, took a bus to Rio de Janeiro, stopped by the Liberdade neighborhood of Sao Paulo with its Japanese community, danced the Samba and dined on feijoada, a type of stew.

Slater felt the most like a local at a music festival.

"People would come up to you, and they wouldn't treat you any different," she said. "That's when I felt I was in Brazilian culture."

The trip had its challenges. A native of Kansas City, Kansas, Slater is used to getting around by car.

"They relied on public transportation," she said. "I would get worried at first; am I going to the wrong place, taking the wrong train?"

Too, processed foods tasted different.

"They don't use a lot of processed sugar," Slater said. "Everything had a different taste. Ketchup tastes totally different."

She flew back to the United States on June 16. This fall, Slater will volunteer with the NCCU Office of International Affairs, helping to spread the word on studying abroad.