The Maes Scholarship is an exciting opportunity to travel abroad to improve your language skills and experience the cultures you have studied at 91成人短视频.
What is it?
Administered by the Language Departments at 91成人短视频, the Scholarship provides funds for one or two students to travel abroad for a cultural experience every summer.
The Scholarship does not fund formal study at language institutes or universities. It is also not intended for formal research projects. Instead, students submit a proposal for an international cultural experience of their own design with the goal of exploring language and culture in real-world settings.
Who should apply?
Students鈥攊ncluding graduating seniors鈥攚ho have taken a modern language course at Oxy, numbered 202 or higher, and received an A or A-.
In an effort to support language students who did not have an opportunity to study abroad under the auspices of an Oxy program, only students who have not previously studied abroad (semester or summer) will be considered.
Applications will be considered from students who have studied the following languages at Oxy: Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Russian, Spanish.
What should my application look like?
Applicants should submit a narrative describing the travel plan and the language and cultural objectives for the trip.
Your narrative should answer questions like:
What is your destination? Why did you choose it?
What do you hope to gain from this experience?
What is the length of your proposed travel? (10-14 days recommended)
Which specific places and sites will you visit, and when? What will you do there?
You should also include a preliminary budget that includes the estimated costs for travel, meals, lodging, and project-specific expenses for the duration of the travel.
Be sure you also upload a copy of your most recent grade report (official transcript not required).
Where and when should I send my application?
Please fill out this by March 6, 2026. Please note that incomplete applications will NOT be considered.
What else do I need to know?
Funds allow only one or two awards per year for 10-14 days of travel. Please plan and budget accordingly.
The scholarship is competitive, but don鈥檛 let that stop you from applying!
Funding for successful applications is contingent upon clearance from the International Programs Office. Find more details and samples of successful applications.
Upon return, awardees are expected to share photos and videos from their trip, as well as a short reflection on their experiences. If possible, former awardees may also be invited to speak on campus about their travels.
From Page to Place: Walking through Ireland鈥檚 Stories
By Julia Carrigan
Major: Media Arts & Culture minors: mathematics, Comparative Studies in Literature & Culture
On a windy July afternoon this Summer, I took a ferry to Dublin, Ireland, thinking of my great-great-grandmother who once crossed the other way. She fled from famine; I rushed to the joyful culmination of years of study. I鈥檝e never known so many centuries to fit into two weeks. I felt very young and very old.
Swept into the power of the long Irish literary tradition that I studied at Oxy, I began walking into the stories I鈥檇 once only read. Encounters felt plagiarized from a page. I stepped over 鈥渢he loose cellar-flap of number seventyfive,鈥 fitting my feet into Leopold Bloom鈥檚 fictional footprints. I bouldered up the wall of an abandoned castle in a town that bears my family name. I walked past the very potholes of my favorite poem by Seamus Heaney so I could sit by his grave. I saw landscapes out of Martin McDonough movies, a wacky production of The Importance of Being Earnest, a painting by Jack Yeats that looked like me. I thought a lot about Jesus (peace be upon him) and I spoke with many of him: a church caretaker who loves our American president, a Korean tourist insistent on my assent to various Christian creeds, a houseless woman who sang me a song she wrote about him.
It wasn鈥檛 all sun & roses. In fact, it was cold and rained a lot, but that didn鈥檛 seem to bother anyone. Now that I鈥檓 finally back in LA, I relish our immutable weather but feel wary of our immutable present: people here trying so hard to be new. And you can count me amongst them鈥 turning those old Irish ideas into a spangly screenplay, eating my vegan cake too.
I felt Irish. I felt American. I felt, almost embarrassingly, like an archetype of Oxy鈥檚 global citizen. But mostly I felt like a person in time; in Seamus鈥 words: 鈥渁 hurry through which known and strange things pass.鈥
Peace, Environmental Stewardship and Pura Vida Ethos in Costa Rica
By Juli谩n Villa
Majors: Diplomacy & World Affairs, Spanish Studies
With support from the Emma Maes Scholarship, I had the opportunity to explore Costa Rica鈥檚 pura vida culture, including its legacy as one of the few countries in the world without a standing army. As a Diplomacy and World Affairs major, I was especially drawn to apply my Spanish skills and learn about Costa Rica鈥檚 unique example of peace and pura vida as a form of norm entrepreneurship on the world stage. One of the most memorable parts of my trip was visiting the Museo Nacional in San Jos茅, which is housed in the former army barracks decommissioned after Costa Rica abolished its military in 1948.
Public display of a 1986 speech from President Jose Figueres Ferrer 鈥渋n commemoration of the abolition of Costa Rica鈥檚 military.鈥 Across San Jos茅, encounters with art and signage offered natural opportunities to practice Spanish in public-facing contexts.
In the Museo Nacional, the chance to walk through both fortress tunnels and gallery rooms brought the country鈥檚 historical trajectory vividly to life. For me, standing in the same building where President Jos茅 Figueres Ferrer symbolically tore down a wall of the army barracks illustrated how spaces of militarism can be transformed into places of culture, memory, and learning. I spoke with an archivist in the museum鈥檚 library 鈥 who generously gave me a translated copy of Ernest Hemingway鈥檚 The Old Man and the Sea in order to practice my Spanish-language reading 鈥 and later exchanged stories with a local man outside the museum about history and politics. In addition to applying my language skills, these conversations gave me a deeper appreciation of how Costa Rica鈥檚 normative path of peace is remembered and lived today.
In previous studies, I鈥檝e learned about the subtle yet significant distinction between negative peace, or the absence of physical conflict, and positive peace, which emphasizes the presence of conditions for societal well-being and harmony. This framework helped me understand my travels in Costa Rica: the country is defined not only by what it lacks (an army) but on what it chooses to prioritize, such as education, healthcare, and environmental protection.
The pura vida ethos also came alive through Costa Rica鈥檚 commitment to environmental stewardship. Guided forest walks with a biologist, visits with eco-reserves for wildlife conservation, and encounters with protected natural wonders like volcanoes and waterfalls all reflected how sustainability is woven into national culture. At the same time, my Spanish proficiency deepened through constant practice in markets, museums, and everyday conversations. As another takeaway, this trip gave me a new point of reference for understanding peace as a lived practice abroad, not only as an abstract policy goal. Ultimately, the Emma Maes Scholarship gave me the chance to elevate my Spanish through travelling abroad, deepen my academic studies with real-world experience, and witness firsthand how history, culture, and language can intertwine in the pursuit of peace.
