In This Section:
Expanding diversity in health care
Fahgri named to UTC chair in thermal-fluids engineering
Freitas Ice Forum dedicated
Bequest supports Armenian studies program
Aetna and Rowe Foundations create $3.5 million endowments
Photo: Peter Morenus
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| UConn Board of Trustees chairman John W. Rowe and his wife, Valerie, enjoy the comments of Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez during a visit to Bulkeley High School in Hartford. |
A total of $3.5 million in endowment gifts were presented to UConn in November—$2 million from the Aetna Foundation and $1.5 million from UConn board of trustees chairman John W. Rowe and his wife, Valerie.
The Aetna Foundation’s endowment will provide long-term stability to the University of Connecticut Health Center’s Health Professions Partnership Initiative (HPPI), which offers academic enrichment and support activities for underrepresented and disadvantaged students in Hartford-area middle and high schools. The program will be renamed The Aetna Health Professions Partnership Initiative at the UConn Health Center.
The endowment from the Rowe Family Foundation, to be known as the John and Valerie Rowe Health Professions Scholars Program, will enrich the academic experience for undergraduate students interested in the health professions. Rowe is chairman and CEO of Aetna and Valerie Rowe is an associate professor in the Graduate School of Education at Fordham University.
“We are grateful to Aetna and to Jack and Valerie Rowe for their support of the University and these important programs,” says UConn President Philip E. Austin. “It builds upon our efforts to continue to attract the state’s best and brightest young scholars, and ensures that they are included in the ‘brain gain’ in the state of Connecticut.”
“These initiatives represent a multifaceted commitment to youth, education and health,” says Rowe.
“This is a perfect fit with Aetna’s integrated business and philanthropic focus on reducing racial and ethnic disparities in health care. It will enrich the diversity of Connecticut’s physicians and dentists and ultimately lead to increased access to quality health care for Connecticut’s diverse populations.
“Valerie and I are proud to personally support the work being done by UConn. We have spent a significant part of our lives in education and understand the importance of opening doors to new ideas. Our hope is that this gift will help expand horizons for promising students.”
It is expected that these gifts will be eligible for matching support under the state legislature’s matching grant program. This would increase the value of the combined gifts to a total of $5.25 million.
in thermal-fluids engineering
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| Photo: Peter Morenus |
Amir Faghri, professor and dean of the School of Engineering, has been named to the United Technologies Corporation Chair in Thermal-Fluids Engineering. The appointment is in recognition of Faghri’s international reputation in thermal-fluids engineering, a field with applications in aerospace, automotive, petrochemical, biomedical and electrical industries, among others.
Faghri is the author or editor of six books, more than 245 archival technical publications—including 144 journal papers—and holds six U.S. patents. In addition, he currently serves on the editorial boards of eight of the most prestigious journals in the field. His signature work, Heat Pipe Science and Technology, is the most widely used book on the subject.
Faghri is recognized worldwide as a leader in heat transfer research, education and service. He has received the most significant awards in his field of research, including the Heat Transfer Memorial Award of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers International and the Thermophysics Award of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
The chair is one component of a $4 million gift from UTC and Pratt & Whitney. Both Connecticut-based companies have had a long history of close educational and research relationships with the UConn School of Engineering.
“The investment UTC and Pratt & Whitney have made in the University of Connecticut demonstrates UConn’s important role in the development of the state’s scientific and technological infrastructure,” President Philip E. Austin says. “Dean Faghri has been a key figure in the state’s technological growth.”
Freitas Ice Forum dedicated
Mark E. Freitas ’81 (BUS) with the dedication plaque unveiled during ceremonies
naming
the Mark Edward Freitas Ice Forum on Feb. 5, 2005. Freitas, a former UConn men’s
ice hockey letter winner, is president and chief executive officer of Frank Crystal
and Company, Inc., one of the nation’s largest insurance brokerage firms. He
has endowed a scholarship for UConn students who are pursuing a career in business.
The Freitas Ice Forum was partially funded by the UCONN 2000 program.
Bequest supports Armenian studies program
A bequest of more than $500,000 has revived UConn’s Armenian studies program and is expected to be matched with $252,000 from the state of Connecticut.
The endowment was created by the late Alice Norian, a long-time Enfield, Conn., elementary school teacher who visited UConn to see an exhibit of Armenian artifacts in 1988. Over the years, she developed an interest in Armenia through her friendship with Frank Stone, UConn professor of education, who began UConn’s Armenian studies program in 1984 following his years as a missionary in Tarsus, Turkey.
The Armenian studies program will be interdisciplinary, involving UConn’s School of Social Work, the Center for European Studies, and the Office of International Affairs. It will build upon a long-standing partnership between UConn and Yerevan State University (YSU) that began in 1988, when the UConn School of Social Work collaborated with YSU to develop a professional social work program there.
University President Philip E. Austin says the partnership will be a boon to both universities.
“It’s exciting because it’s one more sign of UConn’s growing
engagement with the world outside Connecticut and, indeed, outside our national borders,” Austin
says.
“We build on a long tradition of international partnerships, but it’s
one that has made dramatic strides in recent years.”
UConn faculty involved in planning the new program hope to develop courses on Armenian culture and history, expand exchanges between UConn and Yerevan State University, and create publications that will help educate Americans about Armenia.
The Armenian ambassador to the United States, Arman Kirakossian, helped launch the renewal of an Armenian studies program with a lecture to UConn faculty, staff, students, and members of Connecticut’s Armenian community this past fall. The lecture was the first in a series that will continue as part of the Armenian studies program.