If you can dream it, you can do it - Stetson University

Meeting the Challenge
Richard Carl George graduated
from Stetson University in 1976 as a
political science major. After
graduation, George became
involved in local government in
Volusia County, and eventually started R.
George and Associates,
a library furniture
and equipment firm
based in DeLand.
When Stetson
launched its major
renovation and
expansion project of
the duPont-Ball Library
in 1998, he expressed
his interest in assisting.
The library project,
initiated to relieve
existing space
limitations within the
library, makes
Lilis and
Richard George
sophisticated media services available,
enhancing learning and supporting the
technology necessary to create an electronic
library for onsite and offsite users. A new
three-story north wing was added to the
library - an additional 13,000 square feet.
Richard and Lilis George recognized this
project was necessary to lead the university
into the 21st century. They made a generous
contribution of six study carrels to the library.
These carrels are designed specifically for the
space in the duPont-Ball Library and offer
areas for study and computing applications.
The Georges also underwrote the acquisition
of furniture for the Reference Service Desk,
the center of the library's main floor and the
information focal point for the facility.
George also agreed to assist Stetson
University in fulfilling the study carrel portion of
the library campaign. Twenty-two carrels are
needed to complete the project. Richard has
issued a challenge to Stetson alumni and
friends and has agreed to donate a $1,500
study carrel for each set of oak chairs that the
university receives. The chairs are available as
gift opportunities for $250 each. So, for every
$500 donated for the purchase of oak carrel
chairs, the university will receive $2,000 in
benefit because of the Georges' generosity.
An engraved dedication plate will be
mounted on each chair in recognition of
each donor's gift to this effort.
Please contact Jenine Rabin at (386) 822-
7738 for further information on contributing to
the duPont-Ball Library study carrel challenge.
student with "a passionate commitment
to social justice and social change, whose
efforts have enriched our campus and
helped further our commitment to creating
an open, enlightened and diverse community."
A leader in many Stetson organizations,
including Circle K International, the
Student Government Association, Common
Ground, the Multicultural Student Council
and the Hispanic Organization for Latin
American Awareness, he was an English
major with a minor in French.
He maintained a grade point average of
3.7 and served as a tutor in both Spanish and
French in Stetson's foreign language lab. In
the summer of 2000 he won a Stetson
Undergraduate Research Experience grant
to study the loss of native languages as a
problem in post-colonial identities, and
presented a report on his research to the
National Conference on Undergraduate
Research.
The first person in his family to attend
college, Maldonado was recognized in April
as one of Florida's 20 outstanding students in
a competition sponsored by Florida Leader
magazine, SunTrust Bank and Publix Super
Markets. He also won Stetson's June Brooks
Memorial Award for Community Activism,
as w ell as first place in the Ann R. Morris
Women and Gender Studies Essay and
Creative Writing Competition. He was one
of two student speakers at Stetson's May 12
Commencement.
He plans to pursue a career in public
interest law and currently attends the
University of Florida's Levin College of Law
on a full scholarship.
The Turner Award, won by Knight,
honors Stetson's first woman dean of
students and was established by the family
of former Stetson President J. Ollie
Edmunds, through their Gualala Foundation.
It is presented annually during Spring
Commencement to a graduating senior who
excels both academically and in campus
activities.
In nominating Knight for the Turner
Award, members of the Student Life staff
called her "an outstanding motivator and
role model in all aspects of life (and) a
true portrait of the well-rounded college
student."
Stetson students win Sullivan
Endowment for Writing awards
Four Stetson University students, all English
majors, won Tim Sullivan Endowment for
Writing awards during Stetson's April
Academic Honors Convocation. Presented
by English Professor Terri Witek, two
awards went to Gina Welker of Altamonte
Springs: the poetry award for her poem,
"Hermanito," and the playwriting award for
her play, Queen of Hearts. Also honored
were Michael Hoffecker of Port Orange,
who received the fiction award for "To Have
and Have Not"; Katheryn Wright of
DeLand, who earned the creative nonfiction
award for "Holding Hands"; and
Robert Pagliazzo of Orlando, who received
the graduate portfolio award for "First and
Last Words to Finnegan's Wake."
Now in its sixth year, the Tim Sullivan
Endowment for Writing Program funds
scholarships and prizes for student writers,
visits by professional writers and student trips
to national writing conferences; and helps to
hire extra faculty members to teach regular
English courses, freeing members of the
English faculty with writing experience to
teach special workshop classes. The
endowment is funded by a gift from Stetson
Trustee Art Sullivan of Stuart, a 1962
graduate, and his wife Melissa, in remembrance
of Art's son Tim, who died in an
accident at the age of eight.
Stetson Professor wins McEniry
Award for outstanding teaching
Dr. Robert K. Sitler, who teaches Spanish
language and culture at Stetson University,
is the 2001 recipient of Stetson's McEniry
Award for Excellence in
Teaching. English
Professor Terri Witek, the
2000 McEniry Award
inner, made the
announcement during
Stetson's Spring Commencement.
Both students and
Sitter
professors praised him for
going beyond the
classroom to engage his students in the
outside world. A colleague noted that "his
contributions to the cultural life of Stetson
University through his contacts in Central
28 STETSON UNIVERSITY