Jedediah Pancoast, a junior international business major at Indiana University of Pennsylvania from Indiana County, has been selected for a prestigious Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship.
The scholarship will enable Pancoast to study at Nagoya Gakuin University, Nagoya, Japan for the spring 2019 term.
Son of Lori Ann Pancoast, formerly of Indiana County and now of Youngstown, he is a 2013 graduate of Blairsville High School. A member of the U.S. Army National Guard, Pancoast has an OPIC Language Certificate in Japanese. He is a dean's list student, a member of the American-Korean International Association and the Japanese Student Association. Pancoast also has a degree in electrical technology from Pennsylvania College of Technology.
“I've wanted to go to Asia since I've been a child,” Pancoast said. “Geographically, it's very beautiful, the cities are a great mix of old and new and I really like the culture. I've always wanted to travel somewhere that is very different than America.”
The Gilman Scholarship is awarded by the U.S. Department of State and instituted by the Institute of International Education. It enables undergraduate students who receive Federal Pell Grant funding at two- or four-year colleges to study or intern abroad in a variety of disciplines at a university of their choosing.
Pancoast has completed two years of Japanese language study here at IUP and also is studying Korean on his own.
“I knew about IUP because I grew up in the area. The Eberly College has a good reputation and IUP has a strong international community, both important factors in my choice to come to IUP,” he said.
Pancoast was selected from a pool of candidates from colleges and universities across the country based on their academic performance and a competitive application. More than 3,400 applications were received for the scholarship. The Gilman Program is designed to allow more American undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds to study and intern abroad in more diverse locations, increasing their global career readiness and contributing to national security and economic prosperity.