Forest Hills Resident Laura Mata Wins Highly Competitive Study Abroad Scholarship

Boston College rising junior and Forest Hills resident Laura Mata has been awarded a Fund for Education Abroad (FEA) Scholarship to support her upcoming study abroad semester in Ecuador. Matais one of only 21 students nationwide to receive a FEA scholarship, drawn from a pool of almost 900 applicants representing nearly 400 US colleges and universities. She is the first-ever Boston College student to win a FEA scholarship.

Mata, the daughter of Jenny Smiljanic of Forest Hills, is a 2012 graduate of Townsend Harris High School.

Mata, who is enrolled in the University’s Connell School of Nursing (CSON), plans to travel in August to Universidad San Francisco de Quito where she will take courses and complete her community health clinical rotation in a variety of urban and rural clinics.

Mata is a member of CSON’s leadership development program, Keys to Inclusive Leadership in Nursing. She is an intern at Rosie’s Place, a shelter for women in Boston, where she works alongside advocates, such as lawyers and social workers, who help clients. At age 12, Mata immigrated with her family to United States from her native Costa Rica. Her fluency in Spanish has already proven to be an asset in her nursing rotation in a Boston hospital.

“The nursing faculty has really encouraged me. I’m really grateful to everyone who helped me. I didn’t do this on my own,” said Mata.

“I chose Ecuador [as my study abroad site] because I wanted to see how health care is there and what the differences are and what I can do to fight social injustice. The lack of health care is really a problem,” she added.

The FEA Scholarship requires recipients to maintain a blog documenting their experience and to complete two give-back service projects, one in their host country and one in the US when they return.

Through the program in Ecuador, Mata will be doing community service in clinics two days a week. She also hopes to do community service at an orphanage. When she returns to Boston, she wants to work with an organization that does outreach to at-risk youths, particularly immigrants and first-generation Americans. She also wants to reach out to freshmen in the nursing program to advise them on planning their curriculum to accommodate the acquisition of second language skills or travel abroad.

After graduation, Mata foresees working abroad in a developing country and pursuing a career as a psychiatric nurse for children.

Based in Washington DC, the FEA is committed to increasing opportunities for American students to participate in high-quality, rigorous education abroad programs, particularly those students who are under-represented in such programs, such as minorities, first-generation college students, science and technology majors, and those choosing to study in non-traditional countries.

Mata earned FEA’s Boston Area Study Abroad Association Scholarship, presented to deserving student who attends a university or college located in New England. This scholarship is made possible through the support of the Boston Area Study Abroad Association (BASAA). For more information visit www.fundforeducationabroad.org.