News from The Mahurin Honors College

Bobbi Coffee (MHC ’24; they/them), first-generation scholar from Louisville, Kentucky, majoring in Literature, with a minor in Creative Writing, is about to embark on a journey to the University of East Anglia in Norwich, United Kingdom. Their goal is made possible by the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship which broadens the student population that studies or interns abroad by supporting undergraduates who might not otherwise participate due to financial constraints.

Of the 22 students selected for this award in the Fall 2023 cycle, 100% are Pell Grant-eligible students, 68% are students of color, 55% are first-generation college students, 9% are students with disabilities, and 9% are enrolled at one of WKU’s regional campuses. The 22 WKU recipients in this application cycle earned scholarships totaling $77,500 with an average award amount of $3,500.

Bobbi’s journey toward receiving the Gilman scholarship was a mixture of life, COVID impacts, and an overwhelming passion to experience the unknown. Although they originally planned to complete an abroad experience in Fall 2021 at Harlaxton College (also in the United Kingdom), the COVID pandemic delayed Bobbi’s plans, and as the pandemic continued, they lost their motivation to revisit this goal.

However, Bobbi noted that with support and encouragement from Lindsey Houchin, Assistant Director of the Office of Scholar Development (OSD) they found their motivation, stating “[with] Lindsay by my side and like her, constantly sending me emails to look at this study abroad or that study abroad, like I can't, I have to get back into it. There's no way I'm just gonna end my college career not studying abroad.”

With Lindsey’s and OSD’s support, Bobbi began the Gilman application process with renewed energy, which as they stated, was certainly needed as the Gilman application process requires several essays where applicants must convey through personal stories their experiences of resilience, adaptability, and curiosity and how such experiences can help them navigate their international destinations.

For Bobbi, their experiences in the foster care system, allowed them to showcase their perseverance and to show various examples of “interacting with different cultures, different types of personalities, just within America, or just within the state of Kentucky, I can still apply the things I've learned from this into the real world and how I would succeed studying abroad while being within a completely different culture with little to no support.”

Despite feeling supported throughout the application process, Bobbi was still hesitant to wholly believe they would be accepted because the Gilman is a nationally competitive scholarship and hearing the phrase “nationally competitive” led them to second-guess their confidence and competitiveness as an applicant. However, Bobbi noted that they had matured a lot from their first attempt to realize their study abroad goal, adding that “I saw my potential” after submitting the application and that they had a clearer idea of the kind of program and experience they wanted to have.

While Bobbi’s initial plan was to attend Harlaxton College in the UK, the delay led them to reconsider the type of experience they wanted in their study abroad, and rather than a WKU-led program as Harlaxton is, they wanted to push their experience and to engage with a variety of different students and cultures, which led them to select an exchange program with the University of East Anglia.

Bobbi’s desire to place themselves in unfamiliar spaces and to adapt was kindled by their literature major and creative writing experiences with WKU’s publication The Talisman because one must develop empathy and understanding for how characters are interacting with their environment and the meaning they make from those interactions. Bobbi explained that “you're asked to put yourself in that situation. And you're asked to kind of like imagine like, what, what would you do in that situation? What would you think? And what, what about yourself makes you think the way you do it, makes you think about what kind of opinion you see?

Bobbi plans to complete their WKU degree while at East Anglia University in Fall 2024 and as they reflected on their time as a Hilltopper and as a MHC scholar, they observed that their biggest growth as a student has been connecting and listening to the stories of others and actively seeking out novel stories and experiences, explaining, “so in the beginning, where I was so afraid to just like ask ‘hey, you know, what's going on around campus? What do you guys… what are people doing nowadays?’ And so now I'm taking pictures of random fliers throughout academic halls, I'm talking to people that I wouldn't have talked to.”

Bobbi credits this personal development to their work as a writer with The Talisman and on the support they received from The Beacon Project, which provides assistance to youth in the foster care system, including transitions to collegiate study. As Bobbi prepares to realize their study abroad dream and to graduate, they have a recommendation for others who may be hesitant to pursue a study abroad opportunity, stating that international experiences can help “develop the ability to be even more sensitive to different cultures, even more sensitive to different experiences. And also just to be more open minded.”

As Bobbi has begun researching their exchange program, making class selections, and reading on the history on the region of Norwich and the United Kingdom as a whole, they noted that the preparation has motivated them to “inquire into various different aspects. And so I think that's how it [the abroad experience] will kind of transfer into life after school, maybe just take a step back from the situation and kind of learn, tak[e] in everything, rather than coming to a conclusion about based on what you already think, what you think you already know, right?”

We are excited to see Bobbi reach their dream and look forward to hearing from them when they return. We are also thankful to our colleagues in the Office of Scholar Development (OSD) for providing immeasurable support so that our scholars can climb higher.