Each year, Barcelona SAE awards approximately $400,000 to students in the form of automatic grants and scholarships. In June 2024, Barcelona SAE launched a new automatic grants and TODOS scholarships initiative to deliver more tailored and accessible funding to more students with demonstrated financial need.
To better understand the motivations for these changes and how they will impact Barcelona SAE college and university partners and – most importantly – students, we sat down with Kyle Keith (he/him/his), Director of TODOS and Assistant Director of University Relations to learn more.
Barcelona SAE has both grants and scholarships available for students participating in our programs. What’s the difference between the two, if any?
Great question! Grants are funds which are awarded automatically to committed Barcelona SAE program participants. No additional action is required on the part of students to receive a grant, and the criteria for selection is based on two factors: first, their home university – Are they enrolled at one of our affiliate partners? Is their home university an HBCU or MSI? etc. – and second, students' current financial aid status at their home university: Do they receive a Federal Pell Grant? Have they applied for the Gilman or Gilman-McCain Scholarship? Grants can be combined for “maximum impact” too. For example, a Pell Grant recipient from New Mexico State University, an affiliate partner and HSI, who applied for the Gilman Scholarship and is participating in our SIS + Internship program for Spring 2025 would receive $2,750 off of our billable program costs.
Unlike grants, students must apply for our TODOS scholarships by a set deadline, and an internal scholarship review committee works hard to holistically review the applications received for each award cycle. If selected as a TODOS scholar, recipients will then work closely with our onsite team in Barcelona during their program to further their cultural engagement, to reflect on their experiences and learning, and to create meaningful resources for future students (such as a vlog or podcast episode) considering studying or interning in Barcelona.
For our college and university partners who may have been familiar with our previous iterations of grants and scholarships, what – in your view – are the most noteworthy changes made in this most recent update?
Without a doubt, the creation of our new Pell Promise and our Gilman/Gilman-McCain grants excites me the most. As an organization anchored in TODOS commitment, I think these two grants are an excellent example of how seriously we take issues of access and equity, and how we use data and trends from our college and university partners to make decisions. For instance, 1 in 3 undergraduate students receive a Federal Pell Grant nationwide. Based on data from the U.S. Department of Education, we know that for many of our partners this number is much higher. As an organization and as international educators as a whole, we need to be responding to this reality for a significant population of students, families, and partners in meaningful, measurable ways. Actions always speak louder, and the creation of our Pell Promise grant seeks to do just that.
The Gilman/Gilman-McCain Grant is another example of “walking the walk.” For over 20 years, the Gilman Scholarship Program has arguably done more for increasing access to education abroad than any other organization. The application process is highly involved, with students and their advisors taking a lot of time, energy, and effort to craft essays and develop their follow-on service projects. At Barcelona SAE, we want to recognize the immense accomplishment of applying for Gilman or Gilman-McCain, which is where our grant differs from other programs: Students need to simply provide evidence to us that they have applied, not that they ultimately received a Gilman or Gilman-McCain Scholarship to receive this grant. Knowing that students who apply for the Gilman Scholarship must also be Pell recipients, this is effectively a “two for one” scenario for eligible students as they will receive our Pell Promise grant and will, hopefully, be provided with an extra incentive to apply for and – fingers crossed – ultimately receive a prestigious Gilman Scholarship through this grant.
You mentioned data and measuring impact. Do you already have a sense of this since these changes were launched with the Fall 2024 cohort of students?
Our Fall 2024 students come from 15 unique institutions; ranging from private liberal arts colleges to research-intensive HBCUs. At some campuses where our students are enrolled, 16% of students receive Pell; at others it is more than half of the student body. This is obviously just one measure of diversity, but it’s important nonetheless for Barcelona SAE to have a sense of the various realities of our students and partners.
Roughly 14% of our Fall 2024 students reported receiving a Pell and, as a result, received our inaugural round of Pell Promise and Gilman/Gilman-McCain grants; totalling $13,500 in additional aid awarded to students in comparison to last fall. For me, this has added more “fuel to the fire” so-to-speak. Yes, it’s incredible to award more intentional funding to more deserving students, and – at the same time – we have more work to do. We want our student body in Barcelona to be representative of the growing diversity of U.S. campuses, and we are working creatively each day to achieve that goal.
In regards to our TODOS scholarships, we experienced more applications in Fall 2024 than we ever have – more than double the applicants we had for Spring 2024 – which made our review and selection processes more competitive. Fortunately, these recent changes also respond to this exciting growth with a greater number of awards and higher award amounts..
You have been candid about your own experiences as a financial aid and scholarship recipient. How did this inform some of Barcelona SAE’s grant and scholarship revisions?
I’ll say “yes, and…” for this one. Yes, my own journey with college access and success as a first-generation college student from rural North Carolina absolutely influences the way I approach international education and the work I do at Barcelona SAE. Without a Federal Pell Grant as part of my financial aid package, I would not have been able to attend college. Without the persistent shoulder taps of a study abroad advisor, I would not have applied for much less received the Gilman Scholarship to study in Costa Rica and Nicaragua as an undergraduate. Without these types of intentional interventions in place for students and families like mine, wow, I likely wouldn’t be where I am now.
And, at the same time, I know that from almost a decade of experience advising students for study abroad programs and from the available data, that my story is far from unique: education abroad remains financially out-of-reach for too many students and families. When I visit campuses and speak to students, I find myself constantly talking about scholarships and funding and trying to pay-it-forward: nudging students to say: “You qualify for this, you should apply” or “Do you know your financial aid advisor? You should make an appointment with them after the study abroad fair” etc.
What advice would you give to a study abroad advisor when it comes to advising students for whom program costs and finances are a barrier?
Each advisor knows their campus and their unique student culture better than I could, but in general I would say: Get comfortable talking about costs and scholarships with every student. When I first started as a new advisor, I would often feel anxious to talk about program costs in an advising appointment – unsure of students’ circumstances, how they’d react, etc. – and try to breeze through that part of the appointment. I realized that my own insecurities as a cost-conscious student who always felt like I was having to “out myself” as not having the same financial resources as some of my peers were coming into the play and that, instead of feeling anxious or uncertain about this dimension of student advising, I could use my own experiences as a way to better advise all students. I’d also encourage “hyper transparency” when it comes to non-billable costs. As an advisor, I always appreciated Barcelona SAE’s budget sheets which outlined anticipated in-country expenses like local transportation and meals, and the weekly cultural agendas which highlighted free and/or low-cost activities taking place throughout the city each week. I am the “OG Frugal Frankie” for sure!
Have more questions about Barcelona SAE’s grants and scholarships?
