Kimberly Wetzler

2022 Offered Gilman-McCain Scholarship

Hometown

Nashville, TN

Major

Wildlife

College

College of Agriculture

 

Established in 2001, the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program is committed to sending American students of limited financial means from all backgrounds to study abroad.

Kimberly Wetzler was offered the Gilman-McCain Scholarship to study abroad in Bhutan on the School for Field Studies Big Cats of the Himalayas program. Although she had to decline the scholarship due to the pandemic, her environmental sciences wildlife and wildland management major would have prepared her well for this new experience where she would have studied big cat conservation. Parts of the Himalayas are located in Bhutan and serves as a home for ten different wild cat species that Kimberly sought to study.

While in Bhutan, Kimberly intended to embrace the new experiences her study abroad provided. She wished to acquire aspects of the Dzongkha regional language of the field site as well as observe Buddhism’s interaction with Bhutanese culture.

Post-program, Kimberly planned to inspire critical thinking through presentations challenging her audience to draw connections between conservation efforts in the Himalayas and Indiana.