A pair of scholarship awards will allow Amara Grajewski, a junior in Loyola University Chicago’s College of Arts and Sciences, to travel internationally this academic year to conduct cross-cultural research.   

Grajewski, who is double majoring in Global Studies and Philosophy, with minors in Race and Ethnicity, Religious Studies, and Women and Gender Studies, received scholarship funds as part of the U.S. Department of State’s Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program.  

She was previously accepted to Loyola’s Ricci Scholars Study Abroad Program. 

The Gilman Scholarship enables students of limited financial means to study or intern abroad, providing them with skills critical to our national security and economic prosperity. The program broadens the student population that studies and interns abroad by supporting undergraduates who might not otherwise participate due to financial constraints. The program aims to encourage students to study and intern in a diverse array of countries or areas and world regions.  

Grajewski’s will spend her the fall semester at Loyola’s John Felice Rome Center before heading to Hirakata, Japan in the spring. 

“While abroad, I will conduct research on religious women's relationships with feminine deities in Roman Catholicism, Japanese Buddhism, and Shintoism,” Grajewski stated. 

"I look forward to connecting with women around the world on a topic as deeply personal as religion and working hard to honor their stories and life experiences,” Grajewski expressed. “In addition, I'll finally get to visit my ancestral home of Sicily. The feeling of ‘connection’ colors the entirety of my excitement.” 

Reflecting on her experience as a Ricci Scholar, Grajewski commented, “I encourage current second years to apply to the Ricci Scholars Program. Even if you feel underqualified in your research experience, I promise that you're more brilliant than you think. Give it a go... the world needs your important work!” 

Furthermore, she noted, “I can now breathe a little easier knowing that whilst abroad, I will be able to focus on my research due to this financial support, and perhaps have some adventures along the way.”

About the College of Arts and Sciences

The College of Arts and Sciences is the oldest of Loyola University Chicago’s 15 schools, colleges, and institutes. More than 150 years since its founding, the College is home to 20 academic departments and 37 interdisciplinary programs and centers, more than 450 full-time faculty, and nearly 8,000 students. The 2,000+ classes that we offer each semester span an array of intellectual pursuits, ranging from the natural sciences and computational sciences to the humanities, the social sciences, and the fine and performing arts. Our students and faculty are engaged internationally at our campus in Rome, Italy, as well as at dozens of University-sponsored study abroad and research sites around the world. Home to the departments that anchor the University’s Core Curriculum, the College seeks to prepare all of Loyola’s students to think critically, to engage the world of the 21st century at ever deepening levels, and to become caring and compassionate individuals. Our faculty, staff, and students view service to others not just as one option among many, but as a constitutive dimension of their very being. In the truest sense of the Jesuit ideal, our graduates strive to be “individuals for others.”