Three Cornell juniors have won Benjamin A. Gilman Scholarships for study abroad this coming spring semester.

Morgan Fleischman of the School of Hotel Administration, who is going to Beijing, Darius Niknamfard of the ILR School, who will study at the University of Sydney, and Steven Shterenberg of the College of Arts and Sciences, who will study in Prague, each received $4,000 or $4,500.

The scholarships, which are funded by the U.S. Department of Education and administered by the Institute of International Education, are awarded competitively to students with financial need who study abroad. After returning from overseas, each student is required to complete a project to promote study abroad in general and the Gilman Scholarship program in particular.

The Gilman Scholarship program is the largest U.S. government financial support of undergraduate study abroad and is open to study abroad students who are U.S. citizens receiving Pell Grants as part of their on-campus financial aid package. Every semester several Cornell students are successful in the competition.

The scholarships are intended to diversify the study abroad pool in terms of gender, ethnic identity, place of study and field of study, and encourages nontraditional study abroad destinations, especially those outside of Western Europe and Australia. They aim to support students who have been traditionally underrepresented in study abroad, including but not limited to, students with high financial need, community college students, students in such underrepresented fields as the sciences and engineering, students with diverse ethnic backgrounds and students with disabilities.

The Cornell students applied with the support of Cornell Abroad and the Office of Financial Aid.