CCT Students Elisabet Diaz and Lucas Regner win the Bou Scholarship for International Students

Funding for higher education is extremely difficult to acquire and the situation gets even more challenging if you are an international student. The Bou Family Foundation grant recognizes this difficulty and aims to assist at least 3 international students with their educational expenses. There are two awards for $2,500 and one for $1,500. CCT was thrilled to have two of our own win this award this year, Elisabet Diaz and Lucas Regner. Diaz, a second-year CCT student, applied this summer and won $2,500 towards her CCT education. Below is a brief description about her application and experience:

The Bou Scholarship aims to help international students studying in the US. They based they selection process on financial need and “the applicant contribution to serve others and the professional goals following graduation,” they also ask for at least a 3.5 GPA.

In the essay I talked about the CCT program and its unique approach to the intersection between communications, technology and society. I stated that in addition to my CCT Masters, I am also pursing the Refugees and Humanitarian Emergencies Certificate, which provides a focus to my communication studies and encompasses my interests in humanitarian interventions, migration issues and human rights. I emphasized how my studies at Georgetown will help me achieve my career aspirations of pursing a career in the communications department of an organization, helping to enhance society and promoting the common good.

I outlined the research that I was doing in David Ribes‘ class Grounded Theory, about the journey that undocumented immigrants undergo in their way from Central America to the United States. I explained to them that with this research I hope to contribute not only to the academic literature on this subject, but also with organizations working with immigrants rights and their understanding of immigrants experiences and needs. Moreover, David Ribes wrote a recommendation letter for the BOU scholarship and I think that was also decisive in the selection process.

Additionally, I emphasized that I was also interested in investigating the decision-making processes of nonprofit organizations that utilize social media platforms and video sharing platforms in their communications strategies. I stated that I was going to do a summer internship for the communications department of the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) in Colombia during a ten-week period where I was hoping to contribute to the work they already do in serving refugees and displaced population in Colombia. In fact, I end up creating twelve informative mirco-videos about the rights of the displaced people in the Pacific Coast of and how they can access to them. They are in spanish, but here is one of the videos I created.

As an international student I think it is hard to find eligible scholarships here in the US, so that I was very grateful to the BOU Family Foundation initiative and this opportunity.

Congratulations again to Elisabet and Lucas on these awards!