PAGE 14 // SATURDAY, MAY 22, 2010
COMMENCEMENT ISSUE
the pendulum
Periclean Scholars
graduating class raise
funds to support Ghana
Caitlin O'Donnell
News Editor
As the class of 2010 Periclean Scholars prepare to
graduate from Elon University, the impact they have on a
small community in Ghana will continue long after they
leave campus.
According to Heidi Frontani, professor of geography
at Elon and adviser to the scholars, the class passed the
$80,000 mark in donations for their class project.
“The 2010 class of Periclean Scholars set an initial
goal of raising $10,000 by May 2010 to
support the construction of a five-room
community health clinic in Kpoeta,
Ghana,” she said.
The idea originated from Francis
“THE STUDENTS JUMPED INTO
..w... FUNDRAISING AND, WITHIN THREE
Amedahe, who came to Elon as the AND A HALF WEEKS OF MEETING
DR. AMEDAHE IN APRIL 2007, HAD
RAISED NEARLY $3,500.”
Visiting Fulbright Scholar for the
2006-2007 year, from the University of
Cape Coast in Ghana. Amedahe’s rural
hometown is located near the Ghana-
Togo border, Frontani said.
“The students jumped into
fundraising and, within three and a
half weeks of meeting Dr. Amedahe in
April 2007, had raised nearly $3,500,”
she said. “By the third week of their
first semester of their official Periclean
coursework, they passed the $10,000 fundraising mark.”
According to Frontani, the class continued its hard
work and now has pledges and donations in excess of
$83,000. Many scholars also secured scholarships and
other awards for use at Elon, including five Lumen Prizes
and two Monroe Awards, among others. The prizes total
more than $110,000.
She said numerous donors have given large pledges
to the project.
“Johnson & Johnson (gave) $10,000 to start up a
drug store in the now completed 10-room Kpoeta
of Ghana-posted nurses,” Frontani said. “The Strickland
Foundation (gave) $5,000 to support estabhshmg a
$10,000 endowment that would allow $500 to be sent to
Ghana annually for maintaining the clinic and meeting
other needs well after May 2010.”
Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Tennessee also
gave $8,000 toward a Heifer International Initiative in
Sokode, Ghana.
“The 2010s took on secondary projects after they were
collecting so many funds so quickly for their main project,
the Kpoeta Community
Clinic,” Frontani said.
According to the scholars’
Web site, these included
supporting this Heifer
International Initiative,
hosting speakers and an
African Culture Festival at
Elon and purchasing more
than 500 children’s books
for an elementary school in
Ghana.
Frontani said the scholars
-HEIDI FRONTANI
PROFESSOR OF GEOGRAPHY also received grants from
Elon’s Fund for Excellence
program and a Project
Pericles course enhancement
grant.
“Most of the other $50,000 or so came from letter-
writing campaigns to friends and family, donations of
$20.10, symbolic gifts for the 2010 class in honor of their
graduation from Elon faculty and staff, Ghana card sales
and from ARAMARK via meal card swiping,” she said.
Though exact totals are not known, Frontani said she
estimates ARAMARK has been the biggest donor with
more than $10,000 earned from them through generous
students donating extra meal plans.
The Kpoeta Community Clinic officially opened in
January of 2009, according to the scholars’ Web site.
Medical start hou^ngTs currenlTV"B?lftg buTlTr"
NEWS BRIEFS
Bud Warner to serve as Faculty Fellow for
Civic Engagement
Bud Warner, an associate professor for Human
Services Studies, came to Elon University in
2006. In 2007-2008 Warner was selected as
a Service-Learning Faculty Scholar and later he
was the Sen/ice-Learning Faculty Development
Fellow.
Elon senior recipient of Fulbright Teaching
Assistantship
Molly McKnight Costigan will use the funds
from the assistantship to spend a year in Spain
teaching in an elementary school in Spain. She
also received the Senior Spanish Award and was
inducted into Phi Kappa Phi.
Elon ROTC Partake in SWAT Urban Training
Cadets in the Elon Army and Air Force ROTC,
along with Burlington Police Department SWAT
TEAM, participated in urtian training May 11.
Elon cadets conducted urban missions such as
entering buildings, clearing rooms and breaching
doorways.
Alumna featured on ‘The State of Things’
2009 alumna Erin Barnett was featured on the
May 20 broadcast of ‘The State of Things” at
WUNC 91.5 FM. She is being featured for her
documentary “My Name is Anita,” a film about
Anita Isaacs and HIV/AIDS activist in Namibia
and former Pertclean-in-Residence.
Department chair promoted to Associate
Dean of Elon College
Angela Lewellyn Jones wilt assume the position
of Associate Dean of Elon June 1. She
previously was department chair of department
of sociol(^y and anthropology and sen/ed as the
coordinator of women’s/gender studies.
Have your voice be heard...
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