Taylor Pilling

A stepping stone to the world

It’s no wonder Taylor Pilling felt UVic was just the right size. Her home town of Okotoks, Alberta has roughly the same population as the UVic campus. But by the end of her first year majoring in Hispanic Studies, Taylor was ready for more.

“Hearing about my teachers’ travel and work experiences lit a spark in me,” she says. “I’d already stepped out of the bubble I grew up in. At UVic I discovered how a language degree was the next step into the wider world.” 

The gift of an immersive experience

Taylor’s professors encouraged her to pursue a program of study in Ecuador, but it was beyond Taylor’s capacity at the time. Though scholarships reduce Taylor’s tuition fees, she covers her rent, food and other living costs through student loans. She found out there would be a similar opportunity in Alcalá, Spain the following year, and started saving a little each month to make it possible.

Thankfully, she would have some help in this area. When the time came to sign up, her professor, Rosa Stewart, told her about the support available to help students access intensive immersive experiences like this. Taylor applied for funding, knowing it would make a huge difference to her trip.

Opening her email one day, she read that she’d received the Elias Mandel Prize for Study Abroad.

“The note on the screen read ‘would you like to accept this award?’ and I clicked on the ‘yes’ button about 10 times!” she remembers. “Knowing that someone believed in me gave me confidence to grasp this opportunity with both hands and not look back.”

Grasping opportunity

The award’s namesake, Elias Mandel, loved travel and learning, so it’s fitting that his bequest helps students like Taylor focus on getting the most out of study abroad programs.

“Because the award financed my trip, I was able to say yes to so many other opportunities while I was there,” she says. The program gave Taylor an incomparable immersion in language and culture that helped her improve her fluency and create unforgettable memories. It also had a lasting impact on her world view and future career aspirations. Her next goal is to complete a co-op placement in Chile, only 10,000 kilometres from her home in Okotoks.