|
|
Columns::October 22, 2001
Centenarian study gets $7.5 million from aging institute
Crossing the boundaries of knowledge
Small groups, big results
Lilly, Senior Teaching Fellows announced
Regents announce three finalists for chancellor’s position
Home away from home
Campus Closeup
Kudos
Retirees
Noche Latina
Campus News
 |
| Funds generated by the Partners Program made the Lamar Dodd School of Art’s program in Cortona more affordable for students. |
Partnering up
Gifts to UGA’s Partners Program supported 30 educational opportunities last year
By Allyson Mann
tiny@uga.edu
Drew Conrad was accepted to UGA’s study-abroad program in Cortona, Italy, last spring, but he had a problem--how to pay
 |
| Art students (from left) Robbie Beers, Bridget Conn and Drew Conrad attended Cortona with help from the Partners Program. |
for it. The senior art major was “scrounging for money left and right” when he learned that his trip would be supported by the School of Art, which had received a grant from the President’s Venture Fund. Conrad and 19 other students were awarded funds that eased the financial burden of the trip, allowing them to spend the month of May studying printmaking and learning about Italian culture.
“It was the experience of a lifetime,” Conrad says. “You don’t get a chance like that every day.”
Conrad’s trip is one of many projects supported by the Venture Fund, which provides unrestricted funds--funds not earmarked for a specific unit or program--to support worthy educational opportunities that arise during the academic year. Awarded by President Adams, grants from the fund support one-time activities that aren’t budgeted because they’re not annual events.
Money for the Venture Fund comes from gifts to the Partners Program, established in 1999 in recognition of the need for both restricted and unrestricted gifts. Membership requires an annual gift of $2,500 given fully unrestricted or divided to provide $1,000 in unrestricted money and $1,500 to a designated academic area, program or affiliated unit. Faculty and staff may join with annual gifts totaling $1,500, of which at least $500 must be unrestricted.
Raghubir Sharma, professor of physiology and pharmacology at the College of Veterinary Medicine, is one of 342 who donated last year. Sharma, who designated the majority of his donation for the veterinary medicine alumni association, said he could think of many uses for the unrestricted portion.
“I like that President Adams has discretionary funds to use for travel, public relations and other purposes,” he says. “It’s a good cause. Anything helping the university is also helping me.”
The Arco Chamber Orchestra recently received funding for a performance at Carnegie Hall that is planned for April 1. Led by Levon Ambartsumian, founder of the orchestra and Franklin Professor of Music at UGA, Arco--“bow” in Italian--includes students, faculty and guest artists. Taking 18 musicians to New York will be expensive, and the group was searching for additional support, Ambartsumian says.
“Help from this fund is very, very important to us,” he says. “We are very grateful to President Adams, and we are excited to represent UGA at one of the most prestigious stages in the world.”
Last year, Adams awarded grants totaling more than $131,000 to over 30 programs. In addition to helping Conrad make the trip to Cortona, the Venture Fund allowed the department of drama and theatre to take The Bridegroom of Blowing Rock to the American College Theatre Festival, expanded the Romance language department’s “UGA en España” program, and aided the Center for the Study of Global Issues in starting a new study-abroad program in Kyoto, Japan.
“The flexibility of the fund is what makes it particularly valuable on a campus with such diverse needs,” says Meg Amstutz, assistant to the president. “It enables students, faculty, staff and the university community to enjoy opportunities they wouldn’t have otherwise.” |
|
|
|
|
