Accent Community College Scholarship Recipients | Spring 2018

Beginning with its first community college partnerships in 1991, Accent has continued to offer affordable short-term and semester-length custom study abroad programs designed to meet the unique academic needs of the community college population. Since 1991, Accent has enabled over 8,000 students from more than 25 U.S. community colleges to study abroad.

Accent is proud to have launched the Community College Scholarship as part of our commitment pledge to IIE Generation Study Abroad, a nationwide effort to help more U.S. students gain international experience through study abroad programs. In partnership with our travel agent, FROSCH Student Travel, Accent offers multiple merit and need-based scholarships each term to community college students participating on Accent-supported programs offered through community colleges throughout the U.S.

We are pleased to announce the inaugural recipients of the Spring 2018 Accent Community College Scholarship, Juan Valeriano and Tatum Kula, both of whom are full-time students at Santa Barbara City College in Santa Barbara, California. Each student received a scholarship from Accent to support their upcoming Creative Writing, Literature, Psychology, and Italian Language semester in Rome with Santa Barbara City College. Juan and Tatum hope that the opportunity to study psychology in Italy will contribute to their career interests in psychiatry and travel nursing, respectively.

Juan Valeriano
“I was born and raised here in Santa Barbara. I enjoy going to school, playing soccer, working out at the gym and traveling to new places. I look forward to being able to travel to a far-away place such as Rome, Italy. Through education, I realized that I could pursue my passion for helping people and my love for learning. During high school, I became interested in studying the human brain, medicine, and mental health issues. This is where I decided I wanted to pursue a future career in Psychiatry. I believe studying abroad is one of the steps I should take in pursuing my higher education. Studying abroad would widen my perception of the world giving me a better understanding and different perspective in learning. I believe learning about many cultures around the world will only help me to expand and keep an open mindset in more situations.”

Tatum Kula
“My name is Tatum Kula and I am an active and full-time student at Santa Barbara City College. I am a Nursing major and if all goes well I hope to be a travel nurse one day. I was born and raised in Lake Tahoe, California and have been spoiled by its beauty all my life. Growing up I have been blessed with the best of both worlds being able to ski during the spectacular winter time and enjoy water sports and work on the lake in the summer time. I am so excited for this next journey in life that I will experience in a whole new country. I look forward to being exposed to new cultures and an overall new way of living. This is something I have looked forward to for a long time so I am thankful to have Accent’s scholarship available to help make my dreams come true!”

Throughout their time overseas, Juan and Tatum will serve as community college student ambassadors, sharing articles about their time in Rome. Be sure to follow Accentblogs to continue reading about their study abroad experiences in Italy this spring.