The scholarship award is valued at $2,400. Tilton was one of just 172 awarded the scholarship, out of 667 applicants.

Tilton plans to use the scholarship award to travel to Australia to complete her student teaching. She plans to depart for Australia on March 11 and return on May 26. She will be completing her student teaching at Monach Elementary School in Melbourne, Victoria.

Tilton is a member of the Missouri National Educators Association, Student Missouri State Teachers Association, Council for Exceptional Children, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, World Council for Curriculum and Instruction and the Southeast Coalition for Peace and Justice.

The Benjamin A. Gilman Scholarship program enables students who have limited financial means the opportunity to participate in study abroad opportunities worldwide. The program provides awards of up to $5,000 for U.S. citizen undergraduate students at two- and four-year institutions to pursue country-based semester or academic-year long study opportunities abroad. The scholarship is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and administered by the Institute of International Education.

For information on the Fall 2003 Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship, visit www.iie.org/gilman.