GREENVILLE, Pa.-- Three Thiel College students are making their first international trips after they were selected for the Vira I. Heinz Scholarship for Women in Global Leadership.
The scholarship is awarded to women with at least a 3.0 GPA who have never traveled outside the United States or Canada. Recipients for this year’s scholarship include:
“Thiel College is privileged to be one of 14 schools invited to participate in this program,” said Coordinator and Professor of Sociology Cynthia Sutton, Ph.D. “This program allows students who have not had an international experience outside of Canada the financial support to undertake a minimum 28-day course of study in another country. Our previous recipients have studied or had internships in locations as diverse as Ireland, Spain, Austria, France, Australia, Thailand, Costa Rica, and India. While the international experience is often seen as the centerpiece of this program, the travel is only one part of a comprehensive program that includes a pre-departure retreat to help students prepare, a post-travel retreat to help recipients unpack what they gained from the trip, and a Community Engagement component where the recipients work together to bring a common aspect of their individual experiences to the larger campus community.”
Thiel’s student recipients of the Vira I. Heinz Women in Global Leadership scholarship certainly get to experience the trip of a lifetime due to the generosity of this program, but they also return to campus equipped with ways to positively impact the College and the community, Sutton said.