The Honors International Scholars Program (HISP) supports Honors students engaging in overseas opportunities by providing scholarships with an average range of $2,500 to $5,000. HISP funding can be used for traditional university-sponsored study abroad programs, university-to-university exchanges, language institutes, internships, and research and public service projects.

HISP awards are merit-based, taking into account GPA (minimum 3.5), quality of essays, and fit of the program to the student’s academic and professional goals. The amount of each award depends upon program costs, financial need, and funds available. Applicants must be in their second or third year of college at the time of application (based upon date of enrollment, not credit hours).

Factors to consider
• The most competitive region is Western Europe; awards for Western Europe typically go to top-performing students traveling abroad for the first time, demonstrating significant financial need, or with particularly compelling reasons to complete the proposed program.
• If you receive UGA’s Experiential Learning Scholarship to fund the same trip, your award amount may be reduced.
• You can only receive HISP funding one time.

Travel restrictions
Travel to areas with State Department Travel Advisory levels of 3 (“reconsider travel”) and 4 (“do not travel”) cannot be funded through HISP. COVID-related restrictions should also be carefully considered, as many countries are currently (as of fall 2020) prohibiting entry by tourists and other non-essential travelers. State Department travel advisories and links to the latest COVID notices are available at https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories.html/.

Travel in 2021
For 2021 travel, HISP applications will be divided into two cycles. This application is to support travel during spring semester of 2021 (with a start date of late December 2020 through April 2021). There will be another application due in January 2021 to support travel during Maymester, summer, and fall of 2021.

Application deadline
The application deadline for spring 2021 is Monday, November 2 at 12 p.m. Decisions for spring 2021 will be issued by mid-December 2020.

The Honors International Scholars Program is made possible through the generous support of the Malon Courts Scholarship Fund, the Malon Courts Scholarship Trust Fund, the Arroll Honors Scholarship Fund, the Buck Honors Support Fund, the Carmical Honors Fund, the Cathy and Bert Clark Honors International Fund, the Charles Gowen Honors Fund, the Hicks Honors Support Fund, the Langston Honors Fund, the Lanier International Study Fund, the Parents Society Honors Program Support Fund, the Neal and Libby Quirk Fund, the Monika Schaaf Riely Honors Program International Study Abroad Program, the Shelton Honors Support Fund, the Turner Honors Fund, Walkenspaw Honors Support Fund, Wild Honors Scholarship, and the Willson International Scholars Fund.

For more information, contact Maria de Rocher, Assistant Director of Honors and Programming, at derocher@uga.edu.

Download the current Honors International Scholars Application.