Young Alumni Contribute Early

Alumni Brad and Margo Cohen (top left) and Aaron Cahn (top right in regalia) are supporting university initiatives including the CIVICUS living and learning program (above).

When Aaron Cahn’s great uncle died and left him a significant inheritance, he easily decided to give $10,000 of it to the CIVICUS living and learning program. Like a growing number of young alumni, he felt compelled to support a program that had strongly influenced him.

“If you improve education, you’re improving all aspects of the future by influencing a future policymaker or principal,” says Cahn ’06, who teaches in the Philadelphia public schools while also working on his master’s degree.

A former government and politics major, Cahn’s participation in the service-oriented CIVICUS program was an extension of his commitment to volunteerism, having completed more than 1,200 hours of community service in high school.

“People need to experience community service, experience social action and have a feeling of satisfaction,” he says.

The genesis of Cahn’s dedication to community service began with his mother Sandy Levine, a school principal, who taught and nurtured pregnant middle schoolers, created a vegetable garden at her synagogue to feed the homeless and instituted required community service for all students at her school. She laid the foundation for Cahn’s focus on community work and responsibility.

Young alumni can give in many ways. Keep in mind:

No gift is too small: $50 provides copies of the First Year Book to an entire English class; $250 can send a student to a conference; $400 covers wireless service for a campus building for an entire year. The Maryland Fund for Excellence combines your gift with those of other young alumni to make a major impact. If total gifts from Graduates of the Last Decade meet the annual goal of $250,000, they match the interest generated by a $5 million endowment. Your gift through the Maryland Fund for Excellence may have double the impact with no additional expense to you. Leverage your gift from your employer’s matching gift program. To see if your company participates, visit www.matching gifts.com/umd/.

It is this same sense of wanting to help others that drives Brad M.B.A. ’95, M.S. ’99 and Margo M.B.A., M.S. ’00 Cohen’s philanthropic work. The two former business majors are among recent Maryland graduates making Maryland a funding priority.

After years of personal giving, they created the Cohen Foundation in 2006 to fund non-commercial medical research. The Cohens understand the impact of serious illness. Margo’s father died of a heart attack seven years ago. Brad’s mother is a breast cancer survivor, and his sister has diabetes.

The Cohen Foundation (www.thecohenfoundation.org) donates 100 percent of funds raised to research, while the Cohens personally cover all administrative expenses. In 2007, the foundation raised more than $16,000 for medical research focused on diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer.

The couple chose to contribute to Maryland’s Center for Biomolecular Structure and Organization, and looked to their Maryland connections for support. “We liked the sensibility of Dr. George Lorimer [center director],” says Margo, adding that he helped them decide on the best use of their money. “Whether the research discovers a cure, better treatment or prevention, we’re raising money to help save people’s lives.”

The Cohens and Aaron Cahn have found that spark of passionate giving. “I now have the ability to give back to something that can do great things for others,” says Cahn. -DCJ

Persian Studies Gift Expands Dialogue and Cultural Richness

by Denise C. Jones

The Roshan gift supports the following: Roshan Institute Chair in Persian Language and Linguistics Roshan Institute Fellowship for Excellence in Persian Studies Roshan Institute Undergraduate Scholarship for Excellence in Persian Studies Roshan Institute Endowment for Persian Programs

Internationally acclaimed 12th century Persian poet Rumi captured the essence of dialogue when he said, “Since in order to speak, one must first listen; learn to speak by listening.”

Dialogue that promotes engagement through cultural interchange is at the heart of the Roshan Institute Center for Persian Studies at the University of Maryland, where students of wide-ranging backgrounds explore the beauty and complexity of Persian culture. It is the nation’s first full-fledged academic center focused on Persian-speaking cultures in Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia and throughout the Persian-speaking diaspora.

With a generous $3 million naming gift from the Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute, the center, established in 2004, is poised to significantly expand its faculty, programs, research and scholarships, adding a new dimension to Maryland’s growing strength in Middle Eastern studies.

Elahe Mir-Djalali Omidyar, president and CEO of the Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute, says she is “helping pioneer this new academic concentration because cultural understanding and appreciation are essential to effective communication, [and it is] essential to the development of non-antagonistic and more productive relationships.”

Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak, founding director of the Roshan Institute Center for Persian Studies, estimates that the number of students interested in Persian language has increased by nearly 50 percent over the past few years. “This awakening reflects more than the coming of age of second-generation Persian-Americans seeking to explore their family’s cultural heritage,” says Karimi-Hakkak. “About half of our students have had little or no previous connection with the subject. Some are lured by the headlines and want to develop skills in a critical language. But others feel the timeless resonance of Persian culture, and that’s our focus.”

Maryland is fast becoming a leader in scholarship on the artistic and political dimensions of Middle Eastern cultures.

The recently established Joseph and Alma Gildenhorn Institute for Israel Studies and the Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Studies complement the Roshan Institute Center for Persian Studies, placing greater emphasis on the cultural, historical and social dynamics of Israeli life.

Shibley Telhami, the Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development, adds to an evolving body of scholarship that elevates cross-cultural understandings of the issues impacting the region, through the findings of his multi-year surveys of Arab public opinion. TERP

Education Alumnus Establishes the College’s First Two Endowments

Maryland’s College of Education is known for developing strategies that effectively address low literacy and student achievement in American schools. So retired schoolteacher and College of Education alumnus Jean Mullan ’68 (left) decided it would be an ideal location to launch two endowments. Her generous $1 million in gifts support professorships in literacy and teacher development.

“My investment in the college and its faculty is anchored in my belief that education truly transforms lives and opens many doors for kids,” says Mullan, chair of the College of Education cabinet supporting Great Expectations, the Campaign for Maryland.

One of the highest honors a faculty member can receive, an endowed professorship is bestowed on an eminent scholar who substantially advances the discipline. Professor John T. Guthrie (below), director of the Maryland Literacy Research Center, is the recipient of Mullan’s first $500,000 endowment. He explores innovative literacy-building research that targets elementary school children.

Guthrie’s research focuses on the primary obstacle to academic achievement for students. “Literacy is the most important attribute any student can acquire,” Guthrie says. Statistics show that 3,000 students drop out of high school each day. “Most of these students can’t cope with school because they can’t read well enough to meet the demands that they’re facing.”

He is integrating science and reading instruction among students in Prince George’s, Montgomery and Frederick counties in Maryland. Whether students are interested in astronomy, history or gardening, to advance one’s identity requires reading and writing, he explains.

Mullan’s second $500,000 endowment established the Jeffrey and David Mullan Professorship in Teacher Education-Professional Development, named to honor Mullan’s two sons. Associate Professor Linda R. Valli (above) was named to the post. Her research focuses on strengthening teachers’ preparation to work in challenging school environments, addressing the ethical, relational, gender and cultural aspects of teaching and learning.

“I intend to use this gift to strengthen the quality of learning opportunities we provide teachers and teacher candidates, to support those who are preparing to be teacher educators and to encourage research on our efforts,” says Valli. -DCJ

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