Comm Studies Student Heads to Italy on Gilman Scholarship
When communication studies junior Jonathan Morrell flies to Italy this summer for a month-long study abroad program, it won’t be the first time he has visited the European country—but since he was an active-duty Marine the last time he was there in 2018, he expects this experience to be very different.
“Then, it was a more controlled experience. I feel good knowing that I have the maturity level to go over there now,” he said, noting he and other students in the program will attend classes during the week but have weekends to explore on their own.
His visit to Bologna, Italy, wouldn’t be possibly without the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship from the U.S. Department of State, which Morrell and seven other University of Tennessee, Knoxville, students were awarded this year.
Morrell said application for the scholarship was a time-intensive process and he almost quit. He initially found the scholarship while scrolling through various funding opportunities available at UT; because he’s a Pell Grant recipient, he was also eligible for the Gilman scholarship. Students applying for that scholarship attended workshops, which Morrell said was a huge time commitment.
“I almost backed out of it but one of the guys with the program said to stick with it because he said I had a shot at getting it. So, I stuck with it and was one of the lucky ones who got it,” he said.
The June-to-July trip will earn Morrell his remaining foreign language credits, as he’s already taken the first two Italian courses required. He’s really enjoyed those courses, taught by Lecturer Chiara Mariani, and is looking forward to learning more of the language while immersed in the culture and country where it originated.
As a military veteran, Morrell knows he’s not the typical college student. He graduated from high school in Knoxville and instead of following in the footsteps of many of his family members, he enlisted versus applying to attend UT. He jokingly calls himself the “long-lost Morrell” who showed up late to become a Volunteer, but now that he is one, he’s relishing the experience.
“I never had the college experience before, so coming here made me feel like I was making up for lost time…Being halfway through it, I feel at one with the campus and the people here,” he said.
Morrell knows exactly what he wants to do when he graduates: become a producer. He became a communication studies major because he thinks the courses will give him practical skills that he can apply in the movie or television production industry.
Whether it is interpersonal communication or public speaking, Morrell said the communication studies courses he’s taken so far are building blocks he will someday use in his dream job.
“This all comes back to being a producer; I like being the guy that makes stuff happen or finding the people who make a project work—or just finding the right people for the job to produce a top-notch show,” he said.
Learning how to communicate well with others will help him in the intense environment of film or television production, he said. The job requires a good amount of confidence as well as an ability to mediate between all the people who collaborate to create an end product. While it sounds simple, Morrell said he’s just learning how to best talk to people. Part of that includes taking not just the one public speaking course all UT students are required to take, but at least two. Despite being imbued with a decent amount of confidence, even Morrell found public speaking daunting initially.
“It helps when the professor is on your side; you’re already doing something that’s super nerve-wracking and can be potentially uncomfortable but when they’re on your side, it makes it a lot more manageable. There are really good professors and resources that allow students to get the help they need for their speeches and also to build the confidence they need,” he said, noting he had Senior Lecturer Cathy Cuevas for his CMST 210 Public Speaking course, and this semester is taking CMST 240 Business and Professional Speaking from Lecturer Macy Pearson.
Not one to rest on academics alone, Morrell has discovered plenty of opportunities across campus to help bolster his knowledge. While he’s dabbled in the UTK Creative Writing Club and the Cinema Club at UTK, the organization he’s a crew member for the Survivor UTK Club. This club is just what it sounds like: a UT rendition of the television series that pits participants against each other in various challenges to come out on top as the “survivor.”
All of this campus involvement has truly made Morrell feel like a Vol. Growing up in Knoxville and surrounded by orange and white, he said one was either a UT superfan or indifferent, and he was the latter. But after graduating high school in 2016 and enlisting for four years, he was feeling homesick. When he returned home, he gave himself a year off to plan his next steps.
“That was a really big moment for me, after the military and taking a year off and wondering what I was going to do with my life, and I decided to pull the trigger and go to UT. I got the package with the music box, and it felt uniquely my own, my own unique experience that I was going through, it felt good,” he said.
While some veterans can have difficulty in transitioning to civilian life, Morrell said his transition was fairly seamless. Nonetheless, he’s appreciative of UT’s Veterans Success Center, which has been a resource for him since the moment he was accepted. From ensuring his tuition was covered through his veteran benefits to providing a space with academic and social resources, he’s glad the center is there when he needs it.
“If you’re a veteran and you’re coming to UT, you’re definitely going to be intercepted by the Veterans Success Center and all the resources they have. They have been in my corner since day one at UT,” he said.
In fact, it seems like every time Morrell wants to take on something new, he finds a way to do that through UT—like this study abroad trip. His college experience, while a bit delayed, has been everything he hoped for and more.
“I may be a little older than most of the undergraduate body, but I am enjoying every minute of it here,” he said.
Photos are courtesy of the Daily Beacon
Comm Studies Student Heads to Italy on Gilman Scholarship written by Hillary Tune and originally published on the College of Communication & Information site.