Senior Ciarán Flake ’18 received the prestigious Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship to study abroad for the fall 2017 semester. Ciarán will be attending the University of Oxford in Oxford, England.

This marks the third consecutive year the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs-sponsored scholarship has been awarded to an Oglethorpe student.

Ciarán is an Eastern Philosophy and Buddhist Studies Individually Planned Major. He also recently received research funding to establish a foundational, comparative study on two surviving Buddhist sects: Tibetan Buddhism (Drepung Loseling Monastery) and Japanese Soto Zen (Atlanta Soto Zen Center). His project research is examining the philosophy of Buddhism and its influence on the West, and if this influence is an answer to a modern, global identity, and for transgender identity.