There are many rewarding aspects of being the vice provost and dean of the International Division, and one of my favorites is learning about the talents of our team that extend beyond the workplace. Throughout the winter I have enjoyed the honey and wellness products that Sarah Ripp, the academic services and programming manager in LACIS, makes with her family. Maj Fischer, assistant dean for international strategy and partnerships, is known for her culinary skills and outdid herself a few weeks ago by creating pink rattles from a scrumptious spice cake for a special baby shower.
These talents also extend to those who have played a major role in the success of two of our most important weeks of the academic year: Fulbright Week and Peace Corps Week. Anyone who has peeked into the verdant office of Mark Lilleleht knows that he is not only a successful Fulbright coordinator but also a master gardener. Fulbright Week is now in its second year on campus, and it has blossomed into multiple events to publicize the different Fulbright programs for students, staff, faculty, and alumni. This year it also provided an opportunity to celebrate the recent news that UW–Madison has grown to become a Top-Producing Institution of both Fulbright U.S. students and scholars for 2024-2025.
The Peace Corps has long flourished on our campus, and Madison boasts the second-largest concentration of returned Peace Corps volunteers, second only to Washington, DC. Hannah Bennett, our campus Peace Corps recruiter, works hard to make our celebration of the national Peace Corps Week informative and entertaining with events like the Peace Corps Story Slam. What some of you may not know is that Hannah is also a gifted artist who has an exhibit at Madison’s Arts + Literature Laboratory that runs through April 12, 2025. I had the privilege of attending the opening of In the Vernacular: People, Places and Things, an exhibition of multimedia tapestries that draws on Hannah’s experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador. As she described it, “By mending together disparate materials into something new and whole, I honor my memories of that time and the people who were a part of my life (and remain so now).”
I hope we will continue to honor the work we do together in the International Division as well as the new life and new ways of seeing the world we create on campus and beyond.