The University of Toledo holds ceremony for international donors

Xinren Yu / University of Toledo

Jessica Harker, Editor-in-Chief

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On Monday, Oct. 3 a group of 25 alumni from China visited the University of Toledo and were honored for the donation of $37,000 to create a scholarship endowment. The ceremony began at 10 a.m. in Student Union and was UT’s first-ever donation from an international donor.

“They kept wanting to give more,” Sammy Spann said, the Center for International Studies and Programs assistant provost. “$25,000 was the original amount needed to set up the scholarship endowment, and we have already surpassed that.”

Spann said that the donation comes after a trip he and other University of Toledo representatives made last year to Shanghai, China to meet with alumni there. Chinese alumni of the university traveled far across the country, according to Spann, and were met with videos and stories about how UT has changed throughout the years.

“We suggested them to start a scholarship since there are not many scholarships available to our international students,” said Xinren Yu, International Programs Coordinator at UT. “So they decided to use this money to start a scholarship for Chinese students at UT.”

Spann explained that the alumni from China came from prestigious positions, including CEOs of two different companies and another alumni who works for John Deere.

“We hope that this initiative could be a good start to encourage more international donors to donate. We overcome a lot of difficulties throughout this process. Now we have a better idea on how these initiatives could work and are very optimistic on having more international alums contributing. There are so many successful alums around the world that are doing very well,” Yu said.

Spann said that UT has bragging rights when it comes to international programs because we are ranked 3rd in the state for international universities. The national average, according to Spann, for percentage of international students on a college campus is between 5-7 percent; UT currently has 10 percent.

UT is unique, according to Spann, because of all of the programs we offer to international students who choose to study here. One specific program he referenced was the UT Thanksgiving, where faculty and staff of the university invite an international student to join their family for dinner so they can experience a real, American Thanksgiving.

“One woman, she buys a turkey every year since 1989, when she graduated, and cooks it for all of the alumni that are near her in that part of China,” Spann said. “Turkeys are not easy to get ahold of there either… That is the impact UT has on people.”

Yu said that depending on the total amount, the scholarship could be $800 each for two people, and that the award criteria for this scholarship could change, but currently the student must have a 3.5 GPA, be enrolled to attend full-time and must write an essay about why they believe they deserve the award. Yu also added that the scholarship is non-renewable.

“They are willing to provide more support, including internships/jobs, joint research opportunities, marketing and branding, and help in any way possible to raise the profile of the university. Future plans to be discussed soon,” Yu wrote.

Spann said that his office is working very closely with the president’s office, and that this scholarship endowment works perfectly with the president’s strategic goal of increasing university funding by alumni support.

“They had a lot of questions about the university’s standing,” said Spann. “Part of the university ranking is how much alumni give back.”

Spann also explained that he plans to continue to grow this trend and meet with international alumni “We are able to build this up with almost no cost to us,” Spann said. This is because the department is already traveling to these various countries for other reasons and are utilizing their time by meeting with UT alumni when they are there.

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The University of Toledo holds ceremony for international donors