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Campus News 8
Dr. Richard Stanger (from left), Alexandra Dousmanis-Curtis of BMO Harris Bank, and Wally Lagerwey accepted the Founders Medal at a ceremony in October.
High Honors
Every year Elmhurst College awards the Founders Medal to individuals who have made outstanding contributions in philanthropic or personal service to the College’s mission. Established in 1978, the Founders Medal is one of the College's most prestigious honors. The 2016 Founders Medals, presented in a ceremony in October, recognized the contributions of Wallace “Wally” Lagerwey, the Stanger family and BMO Harris Bank. A Chicago-based institution, BMO Harris Bank is the 16th largest commercial bank in the United States. At Elmhurst College, BMO Harris Bank Foundation supports a wide range of initiatives, including scholarship dinners, the College’s annual June Jazz outdoor concert, the Rudolf G. Schade Lecture Series, the Governmental Forum, and a Light of Knowledge Scholarship. The Stanger family has a long, rich legacy at Elmhurst College dating back to 1891, when the family patriarch, Christian Stanger,
graduated from Elmhurst and launched a career as a teacher of music and romance languages at the College. Over the years, several other members of the Stanger family attended the College, including Robert, Class of 1918, who served as president of the College from 1957 to 1965; Richard (Dick) and his wife, Joan; and Dick and Joan’s daughter, Allison. Together, the family has provided exceptionally generous support for Elmhurst College and its students. Wallace “Wally” Lagerwey, a former member of the Elmhurst faculty, played an instrumental role in building the College’s international education presence. When Lagerwey became Elmhurst’s director of international education and oΩ-campus programs in 1997, study-abroad programs at the College were virtually nonexistent. Lagerwey secured funding, primarily from Elmhurst alumni Lester and Joan Brune, that launched the program. He also led his own study-abroad experiences in Berlin, Amsterdam
and Warsaw through a January Term course called “Holocaust and Genocide.” Today, some 150 Elmhurst students travel abroad each year.
Study-Abroad Grants
Three Elmhurst College students are spending Fall Term in Europe, thanks to scholarship support from the Institute of International Education. Sara Wojtasik, a junior from Melrose Park who is majoring in English and secondary education, will attend the Middlebury CollegeCMRS Oxford Humanities Program in Oxford, England. Senior Ryan DeSalvo, a nursing student from Villa Park, will study at University College Dublin in Ireland; and Diana Puga, a senior from Melrose Park who is majoring in intercultural studies and political science, will spend the fall semester studying in Amsterdam. Each will receive a $2,500 scholarship through the Institute of International Education’s Generation Study Abroad initiative. The