Education Abroad & Overseas Campuses is committed to making study abroad inclusive of all students. We value and embrace a diverse community of students participating in study abroad opportunities and believe that this diversity helps to enhance our understanding of ourselves, one another, and the world around us.

The Education Abroad Inclusion Award is designed to:

• encourage participation in education abroad from students of diverse backgrounds and backgrounds traditionally underrepresented in study abroad, and 
• increase awareness of and support for diverse and traditionally underrepresented student experiences abroad.   

An identity, at its simplest, is a label we apply to ourselves and others. These labels carry expectations from society about how we should act, think, look, and more. 

We all have many personal and social identities that help us make sense of ourselves and can influence how we understand and experience the world – including for example, the opportunities and challenges we face, how we view and treat other individuals, and how others treat us.

Identities are not all fixed. They are also shaped and influenced by environmental factors that may be different abroad (such as culture, language, history, dominant belief systems, politics, law, traditions, etc.). Thus, the experience of our identities and how we perceive ourselves may well shift, be challenged, and/or expand when we are abroad.

As Education Abroad Inclusion Scholars, recipients of the award will complete a post-program reflection paper, blog, video or other creative project about the extent to which their study abroad experience shaped their understanding of themselves and their identity/ies. Inclusion Scholars will have the choice whether to publicly share their experiences and reflection work with others. 

Applicants will respond to the following prompt in the application: 

Given the interplay between your individual intersectionality of identity categories and social and societal influences, the experience of your identity and how you perceive yourself may well shift, be challenged, and/or expand when you are abroad. Write a brief response (approximately 200-300 words) considering one or more of the following questions:

• Are there any aspects of your identity that you are curious to explore or learn more about while abroad?
• Considering the identity category/categories that prompted you to apply for this scholarship, how do you think being abroad might impact, challenge or affirm that identity category / those categories?
• What about going abroad, specifically regarding your identity category/ies, is meaningful to you?
• How might your study abroad program, and what it offers, contribute to your exploration of identity? 

Eligibility:

To be eligible, applicants must: 

• be participating in one of the following study abroad programs:
  • Temple students: a Temple Education Abroad academic year, semester, or summer study abroad program, or an approved external study abroad program
  • Visiting non-Temple students: a Temple Education Abroad academic year, semester, or summer study abroad program 
• be studying abroad for the first time while in college/university 

Award amount: $2000 

$1500 will be awarded prior to the start of the program. The remaining $500 will be awarded following completion of the post-program reflection. 

How to apply: 

Complete the online application before the deadline. You will submit your response to the prompt (details above) within the online application. 

Deadlines:  

• Fall Semester: April 1 for decision by May 1 (must accept by May 15); Final reflection due by January 10

• Spring Semester: October 1 for decision by November 1 (must accept by November 15); Final reflection due by May 31

• Summer Sessions: February 1 for decision by February 15 (must accept by March 1); Final reflection due by August 10