Melina Cantu of Brownsville Receives Scholarship to Study in Uruguay

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Melina Cantu

GEORGETOWN, TX (12/06/2012)(readMedia)-- Melina Cantu of Brownsville has been awarded a Benjamin Gilman International Scholarship for the spring 2013 semester. The scholarships, which are highly competitive, help U.S. undergraduate students pursue academic studies abroad.

Cantu is a sophomore communication studies and Spanish major at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas. She will use her $4,500 scholarship to study at the Universidad Cátolica del Uruguay in Montevideo, Uruguay. She will live with a host family in Montevideo and will take classes that will fulfill requirements for both her majors such as Uruguayan Culture and Literature, Visual Communication and Audio Communication.

The Gilman International Scholarship Program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and is administered by the Institute of International Education. It is intended to better prepare U.S. students to assume significant roles in an increasingly global economy and interdependent world. Students are encouraged to choose non-traditional study abroad destinations, particularly areas outside of Western Europe and Australia.

Scholarship recipients are selected on the basis of an application plus a proposal for a "follow on project" that will be completed after they return from study abroad. Cantu plans to keep a blog about her experience.

Cantu is the daughter of Cesar A. Cantu and Lizeth Ancer-Cantu. She is a 2011 graduate of St. Joseph Academy.

Southwestern University is a selective, nationally recognized undergraduate liberal arts college with an enrollment of 1,400 students. It is the oldest institution of higher learning in Texas. For more information on Southwestern, visit www.southwestern.edu.