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December 7, 2007

Roger Williams University gets $1-million gift

BRISTOL -- Roger Williams University will get $1 million from the Robert F. Stoico/FIRSTFED Charitable Foundation for a new foreign-language center.

The money will be used to create the Robert F. Stoico/FIRSTFED Foundation Language Center in a new building slated to be finished in fall 2009.

A news release said Roger Williams University has seen a more more than 60 percent increase in the last five years among students studying Arabic, French, German, Greek, Italian, Latin, Mandarin, Portuguese and Spanish.

The center will be an "immersion classroom" where students can "interact virtually with students in the countries they’re studying," such as through a video conference in China, that will put Roger Williams students in a Mandarin class face to face with peers in that country.

Robert F. Stoico, who founded the foundation and is on the university's board of trustees, announced the gift in a news release today.

“Education is power,” Mr. Stoico said. “We wanted to honor the colleges in our area while paving the way to a brighter future for our communities’ young people through scholarship support. And we especially wanted to give back to the local schools that trained so many successful FIRSTFED employees.”

The foundation will make "comparable donations" to the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth and Bristol Community College in Massachusetts.

“Bob Stoico has been a tremendous supporter of higher education in our region, and Roger Williams University is grateful for his generous commitment,” said University President Roy J. Nirschel. “The Language Center will be an integral tool in helping us fulfill our mission of educating students to become global citizens and to bridge the world both personally and professionally.”

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney

Posted by Mike McKinney  at 12:59 PM | Permalink

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