Melinda Zook and Cornerstone Integrated Liberal Arts
Please join me in congratulating Melinda Zook, Professor of History and director of the Cornerstone Integrated Liberal Arts program, which was awarded a $25,000 Planning Grant in spring of 2017, and now an additional $175,000 grant for the next three years, from The Teagle Foundation.
The grant will help further develop and refine the Cornerstone program at Purdue over the next three years, and its ability to increase enrollment in Cornerstone classes. The grant will also help fund Cornerstone’s outreach to students and advisors across the West Lafayette campus as well as its efforts to disseminate the Cornerstone model to Purdue’s regional campuses and to other universities and colleges.
Cornerstone Integrated Liberal Arts offers a 15-hour certificate open to all Purdue undergraduates with a special emphasis on providing a liberal education to undergraduates in STEM programs, management, agriculture, and healthcare. It complements the student’s area of study and fosters creative thinking, exceptional communication skills, an appreciation of diversity, and the curiosity to be lifelong learners.
The planning grant allowed Cornerstone to sponsor a “Community of Learning Dinner” with its partners across campus and a conference, “Reviving the Liberal Arts” for faculty, graduate students, and area colleges and universities.
Special recognition goes to Martha A. Weise of CLA Development, and Beverly Logsdon of Sponsored Programs Services, for being integral partners in obtaining these grants.
Congratulations!
David A. Reingold
Justin S. Morrill Dean
College of Liberal Arts