By: Michele L. Thomas, Development Director

Aspiring students cannot fulfill their potential if the cost of education is beyond their reach. Scholarships enable us to attract the best and the brightest and recognize exemplary students. Top students provide for dynamics of greater knowledge as they carry experiences gained beyond their years at IUPUI. Understanding the great value of a strong scholarship program, we continue to build upon current scholarship funds and establish new ones benefiting our students.

Our most recent addition to the scholarship program is the Jeff & Susan Vessely Scholarship. Jeff Vessely earned a Bachelor of Science from the School in 1973, joined the School’s faculty in 1974 and has served the School and University admirably and continually. He currently holds the position of IUPUI’s dean of students and has served as national executive director of Phi Epsilon Kappa Fraternity since 1986. His wife, Susan, has been a professional secretary and an administrator in a law office most of her career. Together, Jeff and Susan Vessely have been committed to their family, churches, education, and community service. The establishment of the Vessely Scholarship further demonstrates their devotion to education. This scholarship is for an incoming freshman who will be a physical education major in the School with a high school grade point average of 2.50 on a 4.0 scale.

Spotlight on Juana Watson
By Jim Bennett

1998 RHIT graduate Juana Watson continues to keep busy! The director of the Su Casa in Columbus Indiana, Watson recently returned from Los Angeles where she taped an episode of Dr. Laura Schlessinger’s TV talk show. Watson was part of a program focusing on life in Indiana.

Watson was invited to the show on the recommendation of people from IUPUI who knew of her mission work in her hometown of Calnali, Mexico. The show contacted IUPUI asking for recommendations of people who make a difference in other peoples’ lives.

Said Watson, “The reason I went was because a teacher from IUPUI who I really respect told me she recommended me and thought it would be a good idea to go and educate people that Indiana is more that cornfields, that good people are doing good things here.”

Watson went on to say that “it is very important that people recognize the young people in Columbus (IN) and good work they do, and I think it’s important for immigrants to see people like themselves going back home and helping the people still living there.”

The episode in which she was to appear aired earlier this month. The show also included Miss Indiana; Boomer - the Indiana Pacer mascot; and man-on-the-street interviews of Hoosiers.

Wait…there’s more!!!

Watson was a featured speaker at the Indiana Civil Rights Commission’s fifth-annual hate crimes conference and town hall meeting in late November. The conference took place at the Indiana Government South in Indianapolis.

Workshop topics for the conference included successful strategies for community groups, effective classroom activities, and law enforcement programs.

In October, Watson was appointed by Governor Frank O’Bannon to be a member of the newly-formed Indiana commission on Hispanic and Latino Affairs, a 17-member group serving Indiana’s Hispanic population. Members of this group includes men and women of Mexican, South, and Central-American, and Puerto Rican descent.

Students Receive Honors
By: Jim Bennett

The Indianapolis Hotel and Motel Association (IHMA) awards $1,000 scholarships to deserving students majoring in the hospitality management field. Students from IUPUI, Ivy Tech State College, Purdue, Ball State, and Vincennes are eligible to apply.

One of these recipients of this year’s awards was TCEM department student Damon Bell, who was honored at the IHMA December meeting at the Canterbury Hotel. Damon is a senior from Brazil, Indiana and is interested in pursuing a career in the lodging industry.

The Per Moller Scholarship is an award in honor of the late manager of the University Place Hotel, who was a strong supporter of the TCEM department and it’s mission.

This $400 award is open to any student majoring in hospitality management, or a related field of study, who is a resident of the United States and has a minimum 3.0 GPA. The student must also be registered for full time (12 or more credit hours) for the spring 2001 semester.

This year’s Per Moller Scholarship recipient is Marie Blackett. Marie is a sophomore and is currently working at Marriott Courtyard as a guest services representative.

Congratulations to both students on receiving their much-deserved honors.

Off to China!

Dr. Avgoustis will present a paper titled “Promoting Domestic Tourism Using Travel Consumer Profiles” at the Joint Conference in Hospitality and Tourism.
This conference is organized by the Center for Hospitality Research at the School of Hotel Administration of Cornell University and the Center for Hospitality and Real Estate Research at the School of Hotel Management of The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

The conference will be held on January 12-14, 2001 in Hong Kong. It will provide a forum for educators, researchers, and industry executives for the information exchange across a broad spectrum of hospitality and tourism topics. The conference venue will be the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong, one of the leading 5-star hotels in Hong Kong.

Enrollment in Upswing
By: Jim Bennett

Enrollment in the School of Physical Education continues on an upward climb. The Department of Physical Education recorded 5,223 credit hours during the Fall Semester, which is the highest in the past five fall semesters.

Fall Semester 2000 credit hours for the TCEM Department totaled 1,362, which is highest since the Fall Semester of 1996.

There are several factors to which the growth may be attributed. They include the good economy, significant job opportunities, interest in the major, and strong recruiting and retention efforts by each department. Many thanks to the faculty, staff, and students for assisting in this endeavor.