Emma Brissey has been selected as a recipient of the Gilman Scholarship, a competitive program that supports U.S. students studying abroad. Brissey, a political science and history double major, will spend a semester at Aoyama Gakuin University’s Tokyo campus in the spring of 2022.
“A lot of my goals in life revolve around going places and seeing things, but I’ve never had the opportunity to leave the country,” Brissey said. “I love learning, it’s just so exciting to me. The opportunity to study abroad seemed like killing two birds with one stone. I get to learn new things AND go abroad? All my dreams come true!”
The Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program began in 2001 and has since sent students from over 1,300 U.S. institutions to study or intern in 151 different countries. The program, funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, provides undergraduate students with the chance to learn skills critical to the future of national security and economic prosperity.
In this selection round for the prestigious scholarship, American undergraduate students from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico were represented. The honorees will be studying or interning in 96 different countries through the end of 2022.
Since her freshman year in high school, Brissey aspired to travel to East Asia, specifically Tokyo.
“I’ve always had these places in mind where I wanted to go and wanted to see,” she said. “As I got older, I started to think about culture. Specifically, where to best experience culture and where can you get a little bit out of your comfort zone. Japan seemed to fit that criteria.”
The northern California native applied to the Gilman Scholarship when she learned she was accepted to the study abroad program, and is grateful that the scholarship’s selection committee believed in her enough to help fund her experience.
Brissey also expressed gratitude to Linfield faculty and staff that helped her throughout her application experience, including her academic advisor, the International Programs Office, and various members of the English department.
“It’s been really great to have my community backing me up,” she said.
While in Tokyo, Brissey looks forward to experiencing the intersection of different cultures and people in the busy, densely populated city. She also plans to ride Tokyo’s infamous bullet train to rural areas in northern Japan and the island of Hokkaido, a popular skiing and snowboarding destination.
Brissey plans to continue her history and political science studies while abroad, with the addition of a few Japanese language courses. She will likely begin classes in early March 2022.
