Students in the College of the Liberal Arts who might not be able to afford to study abroad may be awarded that opportunity by a Penn State graduate.

The College of Liberal Arts recently received a gift of $100,000 to help students pay for study abroad programs from John Jacquemin, a Penn State graduate.

According to Penn State's informational Web site, www.live.psu.edu, Jacquemin wanted to help make studying abroad available to more students because his experience meant so much to him.

Gabriel Welsch, assistant to the dean for advancement and manager of publications and public relations, said since the money is in the form of an endowment, it will be invested. He said the money will then gain interest, and the resulting interest is the money that will be used for student travel.

The first pledge payment of the gift has already been made, and once the rest of the money is paid, then it can be used, Welsch said.

Other funds are currently available for students who wish to apply for financial aid to study abroad, Welsch said. He added that the money is awarded based on qualifiers such as grade point averages and essays. "I'm very excited about the Jacquemin gift -- it fits in wonderfully with the College of the Liberal Arts initiative to encourage more students to do meaningful and worthwhile education abroad programs," Sylvia Neely, academic director of Liberal Arts Education Abroad Programs, said. "We really hope that this will help to encourage people to go abroad."

The College of Liberal Arts encourages students to study abroad so they can gain an "international prospective on their majors," said John Keller, director of Education Abroad.

"This gift is coming in as an endowment, but they don't have all the deadlines and timelines in place yet," Keller said. "When you get an endowment, you have to define how it will be administered."

At the most recent count, liberal arts students accounted for about one-fourth of the students participating in traditional study abroad programs from Penn State.

Keller said he considers study abroad the "keystone of liberal arts experience."

"[The gift] will be a real boost to liberal arts undergraduates to help them study abroad," Keller said.