Gilman Grant to help boost career development among study-abroad participants

By Chuck Gordon

Wingate University has received a $10,000 Gilman Pioneering Institution Grant to help students get the most out of study abroad.

The grant, secured by Dr. Moira Rogers, director of international programs, Dr. Karen Friel, dean of the Levine College of Health Sciences, and Dr. Mary Jordan, director of career services, helps Pell Grant-eligible students before, during and after their study-abroad experience. It provides four primary benefits:

• Pre-departure career bootcamps and virtual panels with alumni and employers.
• Re-entry workshops focused on resume and LinkedIn development.
• Professional micro-grants of up to $200 for interview attire and application fees.
• A paid peer-mentorship program.

Wingate is one of 10 higher-education institutions, out of 130 applicants, to receive one of the inaugural grants. The Pioneering Institutions program was launched by the U.S. Department of State's Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarships through the Institute of International Education and in partnership with the Forum on Education Abroad.

Wingate's application for the grant stated that the University wanted to create a "high-impact career-integration pilot for Pell-eligible study-abroad students in the health sciences." At Wingate, 44 percent of students are eligible to receive a Pell Grant, but only 18 percent of students who participate in study abroad are Pell-eligible.

Rogers says that the long-term goal is to increase Pell-eligible study-abroad participation to 44 percent and improve post-graduation placement rates among Pell-eligible students by 10 percentage points.

The grant is designed to help Wingate students connect their study-abroad experiences to their eventual careers.

"The point of the grant is to help students articulate what they do in study abroad," Rogers says. "How do you prepare and how do you make the most of the experience, and how do you articulate the value once you're back. That's exciting to me."

Wingate has offered study abroad for nearly 50 years, having started the W'International program in the late 1970s when the institution was Wingate College. At the time, Wingate offered one experience: a 10-day trip to London. Over time, the program grew to include destinations around the world.

Rogers came to Wingate in August of 2025, and under her guidance the program is shifting to a more career-oriented focus that yield a greater number of credit hours for the students. This May, there are two traditional 10-day seminars (to the Netherlands and to Switzerland), in addition to three-week health-sciences-focused experiences in Oaxaca, Mexico, and Cusco, Peru.

In future years, Rogers foresees faculty members taking students to lower-cost areas for extended trips that involve more in-depth and hands-on study. For instance, one course in the works involves Wingate business students helping local companies in Costa Rica with their digital marketing plans.

"That's part of the thing: to make it more reciprocal," Rogers says. "Working abroad, students get to see how the business responds to the needs of the country, even the survival needs of a small company - how they run a business, what they need to succeed, what is different, and what the value is they bring.

"We are asking them to use, in (Provost Laura Hunt's) terms, 'the place as text.' Go in and engage with people, do things with the local people, learn from the local people, learn with the local people."

April 16, 2026