Category: Alumni Update

$500,000 gift to spark new global learning opportunities at Clemson

CLEMSON – The efforts of Clemson University to increase opportunities for students and faculty to engage globally continue to move forward with the creation of a $250,000 endowment and a $250,000 fund thanks to a donation from the Michael W. Schwehr family of The Woodlands, Texas.

The gift will create the Schwehr Family Global Service Learning Annual and Schwehr Family Global Service Learning Endowment, both of which will support service-learning, research and engagement in under-resourced communities.

“The generous gift will not only make a lasting impact on the Clemson community but will allow faculty to expand the use of service learning models and open opportunities outside of the traditional study abroad locations,” said Sharon Nagy, associate provost of Global Engagement at Clemson. “Faculty and students will positively impact communities while addressing many of the challenges faced by societies today. Students will be able to do their part to change the world while being changed themselves by the experience.”

The Schwehr Family Global Service Learning Annual will be used immediately to support student and faculty opportunities in developing countries. It will provide annual competitive seed-funding grants to faculty for the development of new Global Service Learning programs. The first call for proposals will be announced in August 2019 and will be reviewed and awarded by the Council for Global Engagement for the 2019-2020 academic year.

Once fully funded, The Schwehr Family Global Service Learning Endowment will provide financial support to programs designed for students from any of the colleges.

Submitted proposals will be reviewed by the Office of Global Engagement and funding will be awarded to selected proposals for service-learning projects and international program development for students in under-resourced communities worldwide.

“We’re blessed to be able to help others in the Clemson family participate in missions at locations of need around the world,” said Schwehr. “Hopefully, with this early contribution, others will join me and my family in this great opportunity to help others”

Global service learning is not new at Clemson. Whether through courses, Creative Inquiryand student organizations, Clemson students, faculty and staff are solving problems and serving communities in Tanzania, India, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Peru, Guatemala and Dominica. These initiatives include bioengineering students working with low-resourced communities to find affordable solutions to health care challenges; agriculture faculty engaging around the world to develop drought-resistant crops and technologies to improve food security; engineers addressing water quality; and the School of Nursing’s Global Health Certificate, for which students address health-delivery systems in Peru.

“It is an honor to receive this gift from the Schwehr family. Having spent time in his career working and raising his family abroad, Mike recognizes the importance of preparing students for meaningful lives and careers in our globalized world,” said Nagy. “The Schwehr family’s commitment and altruism are evident in the careful thought they put into the ideas of global service learning. Their gift will give in ways we can hardly imagine today.

The $500,000 gift was made by Schwehr family members Michael William ’81, Linda Pogue, Laurel Michelle and Victoria Leigh ’16.

Michael W. Schwehr graduated from Clemson with a degree in mechanical engineering. After Clemson, he went to ExxonMobil, where his career spanned more than 35 years. During his time there he served in various assignments, including refining, products supply, retail marketing, environmental remediation and real estate. He traveled and lived abroad on numerous occasions and his work led him to Europe, Asia, South America and Africa.

Schwehr’s daughter, Victoria Leigh, graduated from Clemson with a degree in language and international trade. As an undergraduate she studied and worked abroad in Paris, France. After graduation she joined Amazon in Louisville, Kentucky, and later progressed to AeroTek, a prominent national staffing and placement firm.

2014 graduate Amanda Pridmore, a political science major and student of German, received a Fulbright U.S. Student Program grant in 2017. She has spent her Fulbright year in Germany researching the funding and financing of Holocaust memorials. Amanda gave two conference talks and one short presentation at the Fulbright Berlin Seminar. She is also planning a major publication with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, where she worked prior to heading to Germany.

Listen to Amanda and Sylvia Cunningham, a Fulbright grantee from the University of Connecticut, share how talking to German people has fueled their careers in journalism and taught them about being American citizens abroad. Amanda speaks first.

Congratulations to Sarah Waldvogel, one of six recipients of the $15,000 Marcus L. Urann Fellowship awarded by the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. Sarah is a 2018 graduate in Genetics and Biochemistry with a minor in German. While at Clemson, she served as president of the German Club and traveled to Germany to study the history of the European Union. Sarah is currently pursuing an M.D./Ph.D. at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. Read more about her award here.

From the Summer 2018 issue of Clemson World:

While the Japan Alumni group is not yet an official Clemson Club, some of the more than 50 Clemson alumni and friends in Japan have been getting together for events a few times a year. They are exploring ways to support the University including providing support and guidance to students studying abroad in Japan or alumni moving to Japan for work, as well as finding internship opportunities for students. They are hoping to be the first international chartered alumni club. They gathered in November when Yuki Kihara Horose, study-abroad coordinator for Clemson Abroad, and Carolyn Crist, a student adviser with the College of Architecture, Art and Humanities Global Engagement, were visiting partner institutions in Japan. The group joined emeritus professors Yuji Kishimoto and Toshiko Kishimoto in Tokyo, their hometown, where they received the Japanese national medal of distinction in 2017.

The College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities inducted 17 founding members of a new Hall of Fame celebrating alumni, faculty and friends who have made a significant impact upon the educational, research and/or service goals of the college. The induction ceremony was held March 31 at the Madren Conference Center, with 14 of the new members present.

“It was an extraordinary opportunity having so much talent, so much achievement and so much commitment in one room,” said Richard Goodstein, dean of the college. “Each member of this inaugural class will continue to serve as a beacon for all who come afterward. Each and every one will be a very tough act to follow.”

Drs. Ralph Rynes and Patricia (Pat) Wannamaker became the first representatives of the Department of Languages honored at this inaugural ceremony.

Prior to his retirement, Dr. Ralph Rynes was a board-certified physician with over 30 years’ experience in treating the neurological aspects of Infectious Diseases. He worked primarily with individuals living with HIV and co-occurring mental health or substance use disorders. He earned a B.A. at Clemson University and an M.A. at the Universität Hamburg in Germany before completing his Doctoral degrees (MD and Ph.D.) at l’Université Denis Diderot. Dr. Rynes completed clinical and research residencies in Neurology and Neuroscience at l’Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière in Paris, France, followed by post-doctoral research in Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He specialized in Prion diseases and in the treatment of HIV and Hepatitis C as well as the neurobiology of substance use disorders, practicing at the Immunology Center of the USC School of Medicine, the largest infectious diseases clinic in South Carolina.

Additionally, Dr. Rynes provided cultural sensitivity training to other physicians and support staff on Latino, French-speaking African refugee, and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender treatment nuances, in addition to providing HIV/AIDS training and cultural sensitivity training for SC Alcohol and Drug Commissions, SC and other state’s Primary Healthcare Associations, the National Association of Addictions Counselors, the SC Health Information Management Association, SC DHEC and a host of national organizations.

He now volunteers with Doctors Without Borders in a consulting capacity, and continues to work to mitigate the stigma associated with HIV, Hepatitis C, and mental health and substance use disorders in the U.S. and in Western Europe.

Special interests include Prion diseases, the neurochemical pathways of addiction and specialized treatment issues in LGBT and Latino and African refugee populations.

Prior to retirement, he served on numerous national and international Boards, as well as serving on and chairing the Boards of the Columbia Free Medical Clinic and the Columbia Oral Health Clinic.

Of his induction into the Hall of Fame, Dr. Rynes said, “As a senior at Clemson, I had already forged my career path: MS and PhD at Georgetown, where I had already been accepted, followed by a career teaching Foreign Affairs on the university level. But Dr. Margit Sinka, my German professor at the time, changed all that by encouraging me to apply for a Fellowship to study in Germany. I was accepted, beginning a relationship with Europe and Europeans that continues to this day. I cannot imagine what my life would be like had I not had the opportunity and the encouragement to live and study in other countries. My life is so much richer and satisfying than I could ever have imagined, all thanks to a very intuitive and highly motivated Clemson professor.”

Dr. Patricia W. Wannamaker received both her B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of South Carolina in Columbia. She taught English and German for nine years in secondary schools in the state before finishing her Ph.D. in German and linguistics at Louisiana State University in 1964.

Dr. Wannamaker finished a twenty-five year teaching career at Clemson as founding Director of the Language and International Trade (L&IT) baccalaureate degree program under the funding of the Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE).

During Dr. Wannamaker’s time at Clemson, the undergraduate business curricula was generally restricted to 12 hours or fewer of electives that could be used in language study. Dr. Wannamaker knew a Liberal Arts B.A. was the answer!

Studies show that liberal arts grads are well prepared to succeed in business. She envisioned a Clemson L&IT degree that would combine humanistic and technical learning to develop cultural sensitivity as a marketing tool in global business.

She formed partnerships with supporting agencies and multinational firms were also a vital part of the success of L&IT, including the S.C. State Development Board, the S.C. Ports Authority, the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the many upstate multinational firms and their parent companies around the world.

Dr. Wannamaker also invested a lot of time and effort in recruiting high school students for visits to Clemson’s campus, and more specifically to provide information to the potential future Language and
International Trade majors.

Since its inception, the L&IT program has graduated more than 1,000 undergraduate students.

Of her induction, Dr. Wannamaker said, “Thank you so much for this great honor you all have bestowed upon me. The Language and International Trade baccalaureate program has exceeded my highest expectation as founding director. Congratulations to all of you for the continuing success of every aspect of the program, including the annual L&IT trade conference which supports the all-important networking aspect of L&IT.”

Hannah Mills (BA  2010)

The first time I ventured across the Atlantic was to study abroad in the coastal community of Alicante, Spain, during the spring semester of my sophomore year. As a Language and International Trade Spanish major, I wanted to be as immersed in the Spanish language and culture as possible. Fortunately, Clemson had a direct exchange program with La Universidad de Alicante, which allowed me to enroll in courses taught entirely in Spanish with native-speaking students.  I was even able to take French courses taught in Spanish to earn credit toward my French minor.

I received a grant to do an internship abroad through the Honors College; so I went to Paris the summer after my junior year to intern at the U.S. Embassy. I spoke in French full-time for three months and was tasked with photographing and archiving all of the antique furniture owned by the US government in Paris. I even had the chance to meet President Obama, while he was visiting the Embassy.

The exposure to Europe during my undergraduate studies inspired my choice to attend the Grenoble Graduate School of Business at their satellite London campus. Being the only American student in the International Business program gave me an academic experience I will never forget; it also piqued my interest in finance.

Following graduate school, I moved to New York City to pursue a career in the financial industry. I currently work in investor relations at a credit asset management firm, Golub Capital. The opportunities, encouragement, and support that I was given by the Language and International Trade program, and especially Professor Touya, put me on track to the career I have always wanted.