Giving to the Department
The Department is fortunate to have alumni and friends who continue to share our professional and personal lives. La Gaceta Internacional, published annually, offers an update on faculty, staff, student, and alumni news. Our undergraduate academic advisor, Sioux Hill, organizes a special May commencement reception for graduates and their families and friends, and we annually honor excellence in teaching with the AI Teaching Award. We also proudly continue traditions such as the Merle E. Simmons Outstanding Alumni Award lecture and the AIs' mentoring award for faculty.
Both undergraduate and graduate students have benefited from the generosity of those who wanted to "pass it forward" to future generations--many of our students have received funding for travel to professional conferences and study abroad, and fellowships that allow them to focus on their research. The funds for these awards and fellowships, which allow us to attract the very best and brightest graduate students in the country, are the result of gifts made to the department, some dating back decades and others more recent, donated in memory of faculty such as Merle E. Simmons and Dan Quilter and of two undergraduate students, Ashley Crouse and Rachel Di Pietro-James. These donor-defined awards have enabled our department to promote the professional growth of dozens, if not hundreds, of students through the years. The Spring 2008 issue of the IUF magazine, Matching the Promise, has a story on Donald Riskind, the alumnus that just created a fellowship in Spanish.
As we look towards the future, we would also welcome additional general-fund donations. This type of donation would give us the flexibility to develop new awards, such as an "Outstanding Senior Award" or, perhaps, separate awards in Spanish and in Portuguese, in linguistics and literature, or even for specific classes, such as The Craft of Translation or our advanced culture courses. We believe in the importance of celebrating the achievements of our best students and of helping as many of them as possible pursue their study of Spanish and/or Portuguese. We would also love to be able to lead efforts to create new faculty positions by means of endowed chairs. General-fund donations are administered by the IU Foundation on behalf of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese.
If you have any questions or are thinking about making a donation, please feel free to contact us directly, or you may prefer to contact the Development Office in the College of Arts and Sciences. David Ellies and the staff in Development can offer information on programs such as the Matching the Promise campaign. We welcome your comments and suggestions as we look towards the future.
With best wishes,
Josep M. Sobrer
Interim Chair (through Fall 2008)
Catherine Larson
Incoming Chair (Spring 2009)
