This scholarship supports undergraduate students for study abroad in Africa in summer.
Ms. Betty J Tilman Founder of the Good Neighbor Project Committee (GNPC in partnership with the POISE Foundation) strongly believes that “Service Is the Rent We Pay for Our Space on Earth”. She has traveled to more than 40 countries around the world and is passionate about our collective responsibility to use our personal resources to honor the legacies of those whose contributions have opened doors for others.
For 28 years Ms. Betty J. Tilman worked at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania where she assisted thousands of International Students on both the undergraduate and graduate level as they negotiated learning and adjusting to life in the United States. She is a Founding Member of the African Heritage Classroom Committee at the University of Pittsburgh and with Jackie Mullins, she assisted in the founding of the Homer S. Brown Association for African-American Law students at Pitt and Duquesne Universities. She has also served as Vice Chair of the Pittsburgh Presbytery, Elder and Chair of the Community of Reconciliation and for many years was Chair of the Racial and Social Justice Committee for the Pittsburgh Presbytery. For more than 30 years she served on the boards of the Pittsburgh NAACP and the African American Music Institute and was an avid fundraiser for both organizations.
Ms. Tilman believed that we have Unlimited Opportunity to Educate, Share and Inspire even our Youngest Citizens as they dream, develop and expand their vision so that “They Too Believe that We All Have a Responsibility to Create a Compassionate World of Equanimity that Works for All! ”
Ms. Tilman was well known for her activism not only in the Pittsburgh Community but also for her contributions to lives of many thousands of people in various parts of the World. Before it was popular and at personal risk, she worked tirelessly for civil rights in the United States, and actively raised funds for Nelson Mandela and the Free South Africa Movement Against Apartheid. She has been and is a mentor and friend to people of many cultures, religions and socioeconomic backgrounds.
Ms. Betty J. Tilman was a Heritage Lifetime Member of the NAACP and over the years has received numerous awards for her activism including the Pittsburgh YWCA Women in Social Justice Award, the Maharishi Award for Community Service and the Venezuelan Grande Mariscale Award.
Applicable Region:
Africa
Funding for:
Undergraduate
Next Available for:
Summer 2026
Award Amount Up To:
$4,000
Contact
Nationality Rooms and
Intercultural Exchange Programs
1209 Cathedral of Learning
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
412-624-6000
General Inquiries: nationalityrooms@pitt.edu
