Day 3 and so the journey begins

The time has finally arrived, the moment that we have been waiting for. As I woke up the feeling of joy and excitement overwhelmed me. So many thoughts were in my head. The morning started off with a funding brief, during this brief we were able to listen to some of the funding opportunities, although this was not necessarily something that was in my lane I felt that it would be nice to observe and listen because you never know when you can hear something and relay it and it leads to others receiving some sort of assistance.

There were many briefs that took place that day, but one that stood out to me was the study abroad brief. I'm studying abroad this summer in Costa Rica, to help develop my language capability. The Gillman Scholarship was one of the topics, it's a great scholarship for those who are able to attain it. I am actually a recipient. The area that I didn't like the best was the Q&A I asked a question that  I thought was good but it didn't get answered. My question was is there ever an opportunity where someone who receives the Gillman and is not studying a critical language given extra funds. Long story short the answer is no. What was a little frustrating is that the languages on the critical language list receive extra funds. Many may not see Spanish as critical but I've seen first hand the work thats donen in South America and the importance of having fluency in Spanish. Yet I thought it was a little different than a student could want to learn a language yet have no future goals for the use of that language, and I actually want to have a global impact but because im studying Spanish I don't receive the same type of assistance.

As the day came to an end, we prepared for our visit to Capitol Hill, getting study material that will prepare us to get the most of our time.

(Writers note: The views expressed in this post are my views, in no way is the intention to misrepresent the University of Arizona).