By Jack DiDomenic
Freshman Gabirelle White is set to take off for Ghana this spring break after becoming Dominican University’s newest recipient of the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship.
The Gilman Scholarship is an annual, merit-based scholarship awarded to outstanding college students across the U.S. The scholarship allows students to take advantage of studying abroad by relieving program costs with awards up to $5,000. Students who apply for the Gilman Scholarship must already be Pell Grant recipients with significant financial need.
According to the United States Department of State, the “Gilman Program has supported 44,000 American students to study or intern abroad in over 170 countries” since its inception in 2001. Dominican University has had students win the award previously, but White is the only one to do so in the 2025-26 academic year.
White was first made aware of the scholarship last fall by Dominican’s Director of Study Abroad Programs, Nan Metzger. Metzger, a former application reviewer for the Gilman Scholarship, offered to help White navigate the process. White recalls being in Metzger’s office almost “every day,” “editing and writing,” taking advantage of her experience.
Before White ever applied to the scholarship, however, she made her program deposit for a chance to study abroad in Ghana over spring break. The Gilman Scholarship page on the United States Department of State’s website states that all “applicants must be participating in a credit-bearing study abroad or internship program.”
Studying abroad has been a dream of White’s for many years. Travelling to Ghana will be her first time leaving the country, which she is particularly excited about. She has always been one to expand her horizons by exploring new places. When applying for colleges, White considered schools on the East Coast and in California. Unfortunately, being from Chicago, the financial incentive for moving across the country was not great.
White describes growing up in Chicagoland as a “confined” experience. “If you know the borders of your city, you know where you’re going. You’re very familiar with the same things.” White wants to study abroad more than anything to “be in an area that (she) doesn’t know and find new things.”
Professor of Philosophy and Black World Studies at Dominican, Dr. Nkuzi Nnam, will be joining the students in Ghana this spring. Nnam has travelled with Dominican to Ghana several times since the program was first introduced. He takes pride in being able to help provide a unique and eye-opening experience for young students.
Nnam believes that studying abroad is an essential component to broadening your world view. He particularly enjoys getting to see students’ perceptions of Africa change once they have seen it with their own eyes. There’s “a lot of misconception about Africa and the whole world,” Nnam says, “and when people go to Africa and come back, they want to go back again.” The African people are “rich with culture, they love their food, attire, different relics…” One of the largest preconceived notions about Africa that Nnam warns against is a lack of safety. Nnam says that Ghana is “very safe, contrary to what they think.”
The Ghana trip is an annual opportunity for Dominican students of any major, although it fulfills a multicultural requirement. Nnam encourages every student to go if they are able, for the same reasons White will be in a few weeks’ time. Learning about the world from a completely new perspective is an invaluable experience, especially for young adults in school.
Nnam mentioned that “many of them (students) are entering an airplane and flying internationally for the first time, and of course, visiting Africa for the first time.” Another reason why many students visit Ghana is to learn more about their cultural heritage. According to Nnam, “half of them (students) are usually African Americans, and it’s their land of ancestry.”
Students are entirely immersed in African culture from the moment they get off the plane. Not only will they be able to dine on incredible African cuisine, but there will also be plenty of opportunities to dive into the history of the African continent. Nnam mentions that part of why they go is “because humanity is said to have originated from Africa,” so they “go there to study the history of humankind.”
There is also the opportunity to learn about the origin of the African slave trade. Unlike many other African countries, Ghana has preserved much of the architecture from when Africans were first taken onto boats to be shipped to the New World. Students will see where Africans “had their last bath before they were put in a dungeon for months” until they had “enough people to fill up a boat and go to the Door of No Return” said Nnam.
The Door of No Return is a perfectly preserved archway that is cited as the last spot Africans passed through before leaving the continent. Visting the archway is an intense and emotional experience, but once in a lifetime.
White has been working hard to close out the first half of her second semester at Dominican before leaving for Ghana. She is excited to have such a rare opportunity to study abroad with a grant earned through hard work and a determination to explore the world. The group of Dominican students going to Ghana will fly out Friday, March 6th, and return before the end of spring break.
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