June 7, 2005

Friends Of The International Center
Celebrate 30 Years Of Supporting Students

Volunteers Work Year-round To Raise
Scholarship Funds for International Study

By Shannon Casey

The Friends of the International Center at UCSD have been providing scholarships since 1975 for students who wish to experience the personal, educational and cultural benefits of studying abroad. On June 9, Chancellor Marye Anne Fox will join the group to celebrate the Friends of the International Center’s 30th anniversary of scholarship giving, believed to be the longest-running scholarship program at UCSD, at an annual dinner and awards ceremony.

This year, the Friends will award $51,000 in international study scholarships to 38 undergraduate, graduate, and medical students.

“When selecting scholarship recipients, we look for exemplary students who have a social conscience, an appreciation for volunteerism and an adventurous spirit,” says Alma Coles, six-year president of the Friends of the International Center. “The students who study abroad very often choose to come back and join us through our volunteer operations.”

To help raise the scholarship funds, a group of more than 300 volunteers, many of whom are UCSD retired staff and faculty spouses, put in thousands of volunteer hours each year. A majority of the scholarship funds are raised directly from the Friends of the International Center Resale Shop, a campus thrift store that sells donated items. Founded in 1981, this store is staffed by volunteers who want to help raise money for international student scholarships. Additional scholarship funds are raised through Friends events such as house tours and ethnic dinners, as well as philanthropic gifts designated specifically for scholarships.

The Friends provide undergraduates with $1,000 scholarship awards, and graduate students with $2,000 awards. The scholarships help students cover the fees and expenses of travel, residence and study abroad. The scholarships also help students who often are unable to hold part-time work when studying abroad.

Ruth Newmark has chaired the Friends’ scholarship committee since its inception. She and her husband, Leonard Newmark, have been involved with the university since 1963, when Leonard became the founding chair of the Linguistics Department.

Ruth Newmark is a frequent correspondent with the scholarship recipients, who are asked to write to the Friends from abroad “I get immense personal pleasure from my contact with our scholarship recipients,” she says. “It is nice to be among young people whose futures lie ahead, and it is wonderful to know that we played a part in their lives.”

Kyla Mitsunaga, who has been corresponding with Newmark for six years, wrote that “the Friends’ scholarship and their continued friendship has given me courage to apply to graduate school.” She is now attending Harvard University to work on a master’s degree in East Asian Studies.

Danielle Schindler, a 2004 Friends scholar who just finished a rotation in a South African hospital wrote that “medical school is a financial struggle for many of us surviving on student loans. We pay for all of our residence applications and interviews (for example, this winter I visited 15 programs across the country at my own expense). For many of us with little or no financial support, adding a rotation abroad to these other costs may seem like a near impossibility. The scholarships that [the Friends] award truly make these life- and career- influencing experiences possible.”

Following an appreciation luncheon for Friends Resale Shop volunteers, Fatma Mindikoglu, a graduate student from Turkey who used her scholarship to attend an international conference on genocide, wrote: “I was very touched and honored to meet people who had to work so hard all year long for every penny of my scholarship. This fact alone, in my opinion, makes a Friends’ Scholarship a very special and prestigious one. I am proud to be a recipient.”

“We are pleased to learn that a Friends scholarship has on many occasions helped a student get further awards,” says Newmark. For example:
Joseph Hyder, who is taking a year off from his joint Ph.D./M.D program to make use of a fellowship from Johns Hopkins to conduct HIV research in Thailand, wrote: “I am certain that the support of the Friends, making my [earlier] Guatemala trip possible, was critical to my success in the application process.”

Each year, the University of California, San Diego sends nearly 1,000 students overseas and UCSD’s Programs Abroad are ranked second in the nation based on student participation in full-year study abroad programs. UCSD also leads the UC campuses in the total number of students who participate in study abroad programs.

The International Center is a multipurpose facility created to foster cross-cultural exchange and to provide international events and education for the entire UCSD campus and community. The International Center provides advising services and programs for the 4,000-plus international students and scholars as well as the more than 1,000 participants in overseas programs. The International Center also offers programs for the entire campus community that foster global perspectives. About 1,200 volunteers participate annually in a wide variety of International Center projects. For more information about the International Center, visit: icenter.ucsd.edu.

Media Contact: Shannon Casey, (858) 822-2485