McDaniel junior awarded Gilman Scholarship to study abroad through virtual French immersion program

McDaniel College junior Khadijatou Diop hopes to become a more versatile French teacher after earning a $5,000 Gilman Scholarship to study abroad through the virtual French immersion program at Université Laval in Canada.

Diop, a French major with a minor in Secondary Education from Columbia, Md., was one of 2,386 undergraduate students from across the nation selected to participate in the prestigious United States Department of State’s Benjamin A. Gilman Scholarship Program. Diop is among a total of 11 McDaniel students who have ever been awarded Gilman Scholarships and have studied in Budapest, Hungary; Amman, Jordan; Beijing, China; San Jose, Costa Rica; Dijon, France; and Oaxaca, Mexico.

Although Diop was originally chosen to participate in Summer 2020, she was able to defer her scholarship funding to 2021 due to COVID-19.

Diop said she is excited to learn more about the format of the French language and how French culture influences the language this summer.

“I plan to study the French language in depth and learn more about French culture over the summer, so that I can become a more well-rounded French teacher,” Diop added.

At McDaniel, Diop is actively involved as president of the Muslim Student Association and serves as a member of the Asian Community Coalition, a student organization at McDaniel that promotes awareness of Asian cultures.

Born in Senegal and brought to the United States when she was 8 months old, she is also part of McDaniel’s Global Bridge Program for U.S.-based students who were born or grew up abroad or are bicultural or binational.

In the future, Diop hopes to teach French for four years at a Title I school and then go on to teach English abroad in either Dubai or South Korea. She also aspires to join the AmeriCorps service program.

The Gilman International Scholarship Program, sponsored by the State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, provides grants to U.S. citizen undergraduate students of limited financial means to enable them to study abroad. The program aims to diversify the group of students who study abroad and their destinations, as well as prepares students to assume significant roles in an increasingly global economy and independent world.