Intro

Hello, my name is Santiago Cardona and I am a junior in the Hospitality and Tourism Management major at Florida International University. Recently, I made the decision that I wanted to study abroad in a place that I had only dreamed of visiting. After deciding this, the next step was to begin collecting the money in order to make such a trip possible.

To some, studying abroad may be an opportunity to travel to some part of the world that you would otherwise never visit, but it is so much more than that. The main purpose of studying abroad would be to broaden one’s mentality, academics, future goals, and personality through studying. This is not a possible concept to some people simply because they do not have the funds for it. This was the case with me, and this is why I applied to the Gilman Scholarship. I knew that if I won this scholarship, it would help me in reaching my goals of becoming the best hospitality and tourism manager I can be. This goal should not be jeopardized just because I have financial obstacles that prevent me from reaching it.

After getting notice that I had won the scholarship, I made it a project to let other students know that with the help of scholarships, they can complete their goals of studying abroad no matter what. Hopefully, I can capture how much fun and enlightening studying abroad can be, which in turn will convince students of all financial situations that these experiences are possible. I will be dedicating this project solely to experiencing the Chinese culture through food. So feel free to explore the website and see China how I am seeing it.