Interactive multimedia major Chance Gayles ’20 was awarded the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship. The $4,500 award will support his study of Japanese language and culture at Kansai Gaidai University in Hirakata, Osaka, Japan in fall 2019.
In addition to his interactive multimedia major, Gayles has a minor in Japanese. He’s been studying Japanese at TCNJ for two years, but he felt his coursework wasn’t enough.
“I felt that something was missing from my learning experience,” he says. “I realized that my education wouldn’t be complete unless I studied there.”
At Kansai Gaidai University, Gayles will immerse himself in Japanese culture.
“I hope to gain a better understanding and perspective of the country, culture, and how Japanese people think in their day-to-day lives. I also hope to make some interesting friends, and gain skills that I can put towards my career goals while I’m there,” he says.
In the long term, Gayles hopes to pursue a career in interactive multimedia. He is drawn to character design, story telling, and character costume design, and says that Japanese street style and entertainment media have influenced him.
“I can’t help but to draw inspiration from Japanese artists in my field while developing my taste for aesthetic choices for projects,” he says.
This will be Gayles’s first time studying abroad and his first time traveling outside of the United States.
The U.S. Department of State’s Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship is a grant program that enables students of limited financial means to study or intern abroad, thereby gaining skills critical to our national security and economic prosperity. The Institute of International Education has administered the program since its inception in 2001.
For more information on the Gilman Scholarship, visit TCNJ’s Center for Global Engagement.
— Sarah Voorhees ’20