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| Gifts open windows to the world: Campaign makes sweeping impact on foreign languages department
For a microcosm of the impact of UW-Eau Claire’s Fulfilling the Promise of Excellence campaign, one need look no further than the university’s foreign languages department. There, campaign gifts literally are opening up a world of opportunities for students and faculty — as well as for others in the local community. “These gifts to our department represent the difference between standing still and moving forward,” said Richard Gunn, professor emeritus of foreign languages, chair of the foreign languages department in the 1980s and 1990s, and interim department chair from July 2001 through July 2003. “Funding from the university budget allows us to maintain and sometimes move forward, but the Foundation gifts help us to accelerate the move forward.” Fulfilling the Promise of Excellence seeks private support for six key areas of need at UW-Eau Claire. Five of those areas — faculty and staff distinction, technology for learning, facilities enhancements, student success and regional service opportunities — have received support from gifts directed to people and programs in the foreign languages department. Faculty and Staff Distinction: UW-Eau Claire has offered first-year Japanese for more than a decade, and enrollment in the class has been consistently solid. However, with increasing frequency, students who already have begun studying Japanese in high school wish to continue their Japanese studies at an intermediate or advanced level at UW-Eau Claire, Gunn said. He noted that students returning from study-abroad programs in Japan also wish to continue learning the language. “It is clear that now is the time for this institution to move forward aggressively to develop language and culture courses in Japanese beyond the elementary level,” Gunn said. The new position —the only full-time Japanese professorship in northwestern Wisconsin — will allow UW-Eau Claire to better promote the appreciation and understanding of Japanese language and culture, and it will enhance the international exchange of students and scholars between UW-Eau Claire and its Japanese partner universities, said Karl Markgraf, director of UW-Eau Claire’s Center for International Education. Technology and Facilities Enhancements: “In the updated lab, our students will be working with language acquisition activities instead of just listening-based drills,” Gunn said. The Roma Hoff Language Lab, which will incorporate the use of networked computers, Internet access, video and interactive software, will consist of 30 computer workstations surrounding a central console, projection screen and conference table. Audiotape players and cassettes previously offered for student use will remain available as well. The use of visuals was a key component of teaching for Hoff during her 32-year career at UW-Eau Claire, and she continues to enjoy an appreciation of things visual through photography, which she pursues as a hobby. She said she is pleased that the updated language lab will help other faculty members include the visual component of foreign language learning in their curricula. “It’s the old adage, ‘A picture is worth a thousand words,’” Hoff said. “I believe that if you see something, you remember it. If you just hear it, you tend to forget.” Student Success: Study in France: $22,000 Gingerich’s gift is particularly fitting because in 1965 he was the first UW-Eau Claire faculty member to lead a student trip to France, said Josette Migawa, UW-Eau Claire Spanish instructor and longtime friend of Gingerich. She noted that in those early years, Gingerich and his students made the trip from New York by boat. “Dr. Gingerich’s initiative to take UW-Eau Claire students to France in 1965 was an innovative idea,” Migawa said. “His quest was to have the students be totally immersed in French. He was a true pioneer in bringing the students to the language and culture.” Because the Vernon J. Gingerich Study Abroad Scholarship for Caen, France, is an endowed scholarship, faculty members in the French section will have the opportunity to offer this scholarship to their students for years to come, Migawa said. “A scholarship like this is a living memorial and testimony to the dedication of foreign language teachers,” she said. “We would hope that our students might have some of the wonderful experiences abroad that we had while learning the language we teach.” Study in Germany, Austria: $5,000 “The German-American Heritage Foundation supports students in UW-Eau Claire’s prestigious German foreign language program because we see the many ways the program is working to build relationships between contemporary Germany and the United States,” said Bruce Larson, German-American Heritage Foundation founder and administrator. “The good work of UW-Eau Claire’s foreign languages department and Center for International Education fits perfectly with our mission to preserve German language, culture and traditions in the United States.” The German-American Heritage Foundation gift will support four scholarships each year for students accepted into UW-Eau Claire study-abroad programs in Wittenberg and Marburg, Darmstadt, or Kassel, Germany, as well as in Graz, Austria. In addition, the gift will subsidize fees paid by students taking German language proficiency examinations. UW-Eau Claire is an official testing site for those seeking to earn the “Zertifikat Deutsch als Fremdsprache” and the “Zertifikat Deutsch für den Beruf,” which are highly valued credentials in job searches. “The German-American Heritage Foundation enables us to produce more graduates whose command of German not only increases their job and salary prospects but who also will contribute to the close collaboration between the United States and the German-speaking countries,” said Johannes Strohschänk, professor of German and foreign languages department chair. “My colleagues in the German section of the department of foreign languages and I look forward to a bright future of teaching a growing number of students, and teaching them well, thanks to the generous support of the German-American Heritage Foundation.” Regional Service: “In other countries, so many children have a second language taught to them at an early age,” Janke said. “It’s such a benefit to them. That’s why I took the initiative to begin the Spanish in the Schools project, which introduces Spanish language instruction to elementary-aged children beginning at the second-grade level.” Janke, UW-Eau Claire’s director of publications, made a gift to the UW-Eau Claire Foundation to fund stipends for two university students to teach a voluntary Spanish class to elementary students. The first semester of the Spanish in the Schools program, which ran from January through May 2003, was the result of collaboration between Janke, the Foundation, UW-Eau Claire’s foreign languages department and Center for Service-Learning, and Meadowview teachers and administrators. UW-Eau Claire education majors Valerie Mumm and Lee Ann Pignet were selected as teachers for the pilot Spanish in the Schools program through an application and selection process coordinated by Paul Hoff, professor of foreign languages. Mumm and Pignet developed the program curriculum and provided language instruction to 34 Meadowview students, who attended one of two sections of the Spanish class during their lunch recess. In May both Mumm and Pignet received the UW-Eau Claire Excellence in Service-Learning Award for their work at Meadowview. Additional support through the Foundation for elementary foreign language education, including commitments from individuals and school parent-teacher organizations, has ensured an expanded Spanish in the Schools program for the 2003-04 academic year. The expanded program includes six area schools, 20 student teachers and the addition of French classes at some of the sites. Participating schools include Lakeshore, Manz, Meadowview, Putnam Heights and Robbins elementary schools in Eau Claire and Pedersen Elementary School in Altoona. Hoff noted that foreign language education is not formally introduced into the Eau Claire public schools’ curriculum until sixth grade. He said he is encouraged by the interest from parents and others in the community to establish foreign language education in the lower grades. “It’s always a challenge to get ongoing, consistent foreign language instruction in the elementary schools,” Hoff said. “With this interest in Spanish in the Schools by families, students and donors, hopefully the program can grow and continue.”
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