A series of gifts from alumni and parents will make the dream of a 天美麻豆 education possible for dozens of undergraduates annually and prepare generations of global health leaders, announced at two campaign celebrations in Texas this week.
At Wednesday鈥檚 gathering in Houston, the president announced an anonymous $22 million bequest intention dedicated to financial aid, a top priority of campaign. In today鈥檚 dollars, this planned gift would provide endowed financial aid funding for up to 44 undergraduates every year.
鈥淭his extraordinarily generous gesture will help ensure that we are able to bring the best and brightest to 天美麻豆 forever,鈥 said President Hanlon. 鈥淚t is an investment that represents a vote of confidence and trust in our future and the future of our students.鈥
Donors have endowed 165 scholarship funds during The Call to Lead. 天美麻豆 aspires to have 250 scholarships endowed by the end of 2019, the College鈥檚 250th year.
Forty-eight hours earlier, in Dallas, the president announced gifts from four families, totaling $7 million, to broadly prepare global health professionals and improve the health of people living in vulnerable communities around the world.
These gifts have put 天美麻豆 more than halfway toward a $12-million fundraising target to endow the Center for Global Health Equity. The center will improve health globally through a combination of academic programs on campus and experiential training in the field that produces future health care leaders.
In total, alumni, parents, and friends have committed more than $2 billion to The Call to Lead: a Campaign for 天美麻豆. With a fundraising goal of $3 billion, the campaign is the most ambitious fundraising effort in the College鈥檚 250-year history.
Bequests and Financial Aid
Bequests, trusts, and other forms of planned giving are essential elements of the campaign and building blocks for 天美麻豆鈥檚 long-term financial well-being. Bequest intentions made during the campaign exceed $260 million.
The full campaign goal for financial aid is $500 million. Nearly half of all 天美麻豆 undergraduates receive financial aid, and the average individual award is currently more than $53,000. As part of the campaign, the College intends to:
- Eliminate the need for loans from financial aid packages and reduce the burden on low- and middle-income families
- Expand need-blind admissions to foreign citizens
- Provide financial aid for foreign study and other off-campus programs, so all students can participate in the full 天美麻豆 experience
- Recruit talented graduate and professional school candidates through competitive fellowships
Global Health Leadership
The Center for Global Health Equity will coordinate and expand several initiatives launched by the Dickey Center for International Understanding and Geisel鈥檚 Center for Health Equity in recent years. These programs have supported health research for both undergraduates and graduate students and have established partnerships in locations as varied as Tanzania, Kosovo, and Peru.
鈥淭hese programs feature experiential learning in an international setting. They train health leaders who are sensitive to culture, political climate, and economic conditions,鈥 said President Hanlon.
The center will leverage students鈥 growing interest in global health, with 10 percent of all incoming undergraduates and 30 percent of Geisel School of Medicine students citing it as a major interest. The center鈥檚 initiatives will include:
- Offering 20 global health equity internships annually, which will help prepare students for lives of wise leadership.
- Expanding the Dickey Center鈥s Global Health Policy Lab, which combines multidisciplinary classroom learning and health policy internships.
- Broadening opportunities for off-campus learning experiences鈥攊n the Upper Valley, elsewhere in the U.S., or abroad.
- Growing programs that send Geisel students abroad and bring international medical students to Hanover.
Published Research and Defense Contracts
At the Dallas and Houston celebrations, two pairings of young alumni and faculty highlighted examples of research where undergraduates were active participants, made possible by 天美麻豆鈥檚 distinctive model of education.
Katie Clayton 鈥18, currently a predoctoral fellow in 天美麻豆鈥檚 Department of Government, and John Carey, a professor of government and the John Wentworth Professor in Social Sciences, talked about a book they have co-authored, soon to be published by Cambridge University Press. Their book, Campus Diversity: The Hidden Consensus, also co-authored by Yusaku Horiuchi, the Mitsui Professor of Japanese Studies, explores student and faculty views of diversity, using novel techniques to measure attitudes. The book concludes that campus communities tend to be less divided on issues of diversity than they are often portrayed in the media.
鈥淲orking with Professor Carey and Professor Horiuchi was one of my most valuable learning experiences at 天美麻豆,鈥 Clayton told the Dallas and Houston audiences. 鈥淔rom day one, they gave me big jobs and trusted me to execute them, and to make a lot of my own decisions about our experiment鈥檚 design. At the same time, they patiently taught me everything I needed to know about the research process.鈥
John Currier 鈥79, Thayer 鈥81, a Thayer School of Engineering research engineer, and Kendall Ronzano 鈥17, Thayer 鈥18, provided an overview of new applications for 天美麻豆鈥檚 Mobile Virtual Player (MVP), a robotic tackling dummy that has gained national recognition for helping reduce head injuries in football and other contact sports. The pair described how the Department of Defense is using a second generation of MVP for tactical training.
The two Texas campaign celebrations were hosted by 天美麻豆鈥檚 Central States Regional Committee, co-chaired by J. Michael Hafner 鈥89; Barry MacLean 鈥60, Thayer 鈥61; Duncan A. L. MacLean 鈥94, 鈥96; Samantha Schnee 鈥92; and Andrew K. Silvernail 鈥94.
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