Record number of Montana State students earn Gilman scholarships to study abroad

BOZEMAN - Travel opportunities were few and far between for Abigail Pilskalns, who grew up in Bigfork as one of 13 children and dreamed of becoming a physician for Spanish-speaking communities.

When it came time for college at 17, she directed her focus toward supporting herself financially to pursue a degree in cell biology and neuroscience and undergraduate research at Montana State University, still with the goal of reducing barriers to healthcare through language. Studying abroad in college, however, felt unachievable, Pilskalns said.

That is, until she received a Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship this year. Pilskalns is one of 2,100 students across the nation - and one of six Bobcats - to become a Gilman Scholar this spring, marking the largest number of recipients from MSU in a single application cycle. They were selected from a nationwide applicant pool of more than 12,000 students, an all-time high in the Gilman program's 25-year history, and will receive $2,000 to $6,000 for their international experiences, said Stacey Neve, study abroad director in MSU's Office of International Programs.

"Being in a foreign country and being pretty far removed from everything that is familiar teaches you so much about what you are capable of and what you can adapt to," Neve said. "I see students when they're getting ready to study abroad and when they come back, and often they are totally different people. They've grown so much."

Pilskalns will use her scholarship to take classes in Spain or Chile in spring 2027, following a semester abroad in Colombia. She earned additional funding from the Gilman program, totaling $6,000, for taking courses abroad in science, technology, engineering or math. She hopes to learn different countries' perspectives on medicine and community.

"That kind of lived experience has always shaped me more than anything I could learn in a classroom alone," said Pilskalns, who plans to attend medical school after graduating from MSU in 2028. "Going abroad feels like honoring everything my parents sacrificed to give me that encouragement."

Also studying abroad in the fall is Coral Mercer, a senior from Eagle River, Alaska, who is studying conservation biology and ecology and soil science. She will visit Ås, Norway, during the fall semester and work with professors from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences on studies relating to microbial ecology or biogeochemical cycling, how nutrients move through the environment and living things to support Earth's natural processes. Mercer was the only MSU student to receive the Gilman program's $5,000 John S. McCain International Scholarship for Military Families, awarded to dependents of military members - her father served in the Air Force.

Three Gilman Scholars returned June 6 from a faculty-led trip to several of Kenya's game reserves, Lake Nakuru National Park and Mount Kenya. The four students and their classmates observed how Kenyan organizations manage and protect wildlife, as well as the change in species diversity between elevational gradients on Mount Kenya, said Lydia Shepherd, a senior studying environmental sciences and soil science. Shepherd is originally from Perkasie, Pennsylvania, and moved to Missoula in 2022.

She said she was grateful for the Office of International Programs and the Writing Center, whose staff used knowledge of past MSU recipients' applications - of which there are 40 since 2012 - to help this year's Gilman Scholars work on their essay questions. Students who submitted their final essays for feedback were eligible to receive MSU's Global Ambassador Scholarship, totaling $3,000.

Kylie Mills spent hours refining her essays with the Writing Center in hopes of exploring human-wildlife interaction in Kenya. Mills, a junior from Woodland, California, is pursuing degrees in directed interdisciplinary studies and fish and wildlife ecology and management, as well as a degree from the Honors College.

A junior ranger program at age 9 first sparked her desire to protect vulnerable animal species and become a research ecologist for the U.S. National Park Service. At MSU, she researches the interaction between humans and cinnamon-colored black bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem funded by the Undergraduate Scholars Program.

"MSU has provided me with the opportunity to turn my personal interests into my future career by funding and supporting my professional and personal development," said Mills, who is also an MSU Presidential Scholar. "I cannot express how incredibly thankful I am."

MSU's McNair Scholars Program and her Gilman Scholarship meant she didn't have to choose between taking out loans and "missing out on the opportunity of a lifetime to study ecology in one of the most biodiverse countries in the world," she said.

Mills and Shepherd were joined on the trip by Isaac Jensen, an environmental sciences junior from Cowiche, Washington.

Dylan Clark, a cell biology and neuroscience senior from Bozeman, also traveled to Kenya this summer for an internship with International Medical Aid. He is shadowing and volunteering with professionals in Mombasa's teaching hospital throughout the month of June.

No matter the students' area of study or financial status, study abroad opportunities are available for all Bobcats, Neve said.

"Whatever a student's concern is, whether they think it's going to be too hard to do academically or too expensive, the Office of International Programs often has information that surprises them," Neve said.