January 2, 2009

Dear Covell Alums

As we begin the New Year, one of the things I am most looking forward to is welcoming you back to campus this June. You will find so many changes at the university and in SIS. Our new “green” student center is beautiful and functional, and the new biology building means we are ensuring that students have the most up to date information in the fast changing field. There is a lot of change at SIS. As some of you know, we have launched a Global Center for Social Entrepreneurship and really are at the forefront of this new field. We will begin offering programs in Uganda and Rwanda this summer in this area. Three years ago we established PICCT-the Pacific Institute of Cross Cultural Training that trains faculty, students and staff on all three campuses.

And most importantly…we have modified but brought back the Inter-American program that started this fall with “Casa Covell” a Spanish speaking resident hall and this spring launch the new academic component of the Inter-American program. This is directly an outgrowth of your Covell experience and I thank those of you who helped us design this new program, as well as welcome the new students last fall.

As you prepare for the summer reunion, could I ask you please to consider Albert Yanez’ suggestion to establish country teams who I could coordinate with for recruiting students, developing joint programs and meeting with Pacific students when they are in your country . I am reprinting a part of his note below:

“To attract a larger group from each country we need to improve our personal and direct contact with peers in each place. For this purpose, we need to directly request the help and appoint Coordinators in each country. These coordinators will help us contact our friends and follow up enrollments to the event in each place. I believe that we need to define specific names and talk to them directly in order to get them on board with us in the organization committee. Some people that I can think of, right now, are:

In Venezuela:                                  Felipe Sanchez / Carlos Marchiani

In Ecuador:                                       Gerardo Borrero / Walter Andrade

In Chile:                                              Rodrigo Zulueta / Juan Estay

In Guatemala:                                 Ingrid Lynd Harold

In Nicaragua:                                    Jenaro Sanchez

In Costa Rica:                                   David Aguilar

In Honduras                                     Cecilia Kawas

In Mexico:                                         Luis Erlich

In Colombia:                                     Bernardo Gomez

In Peru:                                              Enrique Palacios

In Brasil:                                             Haino Burmaister

In Florida:                                          Fausto Rohr / Sandro Gaggia

In Texas:                                            Ramon Mancilla

In Northern California:                   Kim Edwards /

In Bay Area:                                      Teri Graf Pulvino / Gus Meyer

In Southern California

I look forward to welcoming you back this June and updating you more on our new programs and projects.

 

My very best for 2009,

Margee Ensign, Dean and Associate Provost

University of the Pacific