Each academic school at the College of Charleston has a Dean’s Excellence Fund that helps support programs, research and activities that enhance the student experience.
Senior Marino Mugayar-Baldocchi
The School of Humanities and Social Sciences, for example, uses its Dean’s Excellence Fund to provide students with internships and study abroad opportunities, says Dean Jerry Hale.
“These high-impact opportunities are transformative to students,” Hale says. “We don’t want a student to be denied a life-changing opportunity for lack of financial support.”
In the School of Business, Dean Alan Shao has relied on the Dean’s Excellence Fund to award dozens of faculty research grants.
Below are other examples of the many ways the Dean’s Excellence Funds are helping to advance and elevate the academic experience at the College.
School of Humanities and Social Sciences
- Marino Mugayar-Baldocchi, a senior in the Honor’s College majoring in psychology and minoring in religious studies, traveled to Long Beach, Calif., to present research at two international conferences.
- Communications major Dakota Isaacs served a summer internship at Birchbox in New York City.
VIDEO: Watch students from Humanities and Social Sciences discuss their internship experiences.
School of Sciences and Mathematics
- Enabled a South Carolina student to study abroad in Brazil where immersion in another culture opened the student to new possibilities for her own advancement.
- Provides support for students engaged in rigorous undergraduate research experiences and helps provide recognition and awards to students and graduates who have exceled in the school’s undergraduate programs.
RELATED: Read how the College’s BOUNDLESS campaign is changing lives through philanthropy.
School of Education, Health and Human Performance
Provided support for The Teacher Leader program, which fosters the professional development of highly motivated seniors in teacher education by providing them with challenging, extracurricular opportunities.
- Enabled school representatives to travel to New York City for the 20th Anniversary of the National Urban Squash and Education Association (NUSEA), whose members provide after-school, weekend and summer programming that includes academics, squash, mentoring, community service and college placement. The College is closely involved with Chucktown Squash, which is applying to become the first NUSEA program in the south.
RELATED: Learn more about the College’s role with Chucktown Squash.
School of Business
The Dean’s Excellence Fund helped business student Nicole Watches upgrade from a “selfie” to a professional headshot.
- Supported the school’s membership in the SAP University Alliance, a German company that produces enterprise resource planning software that gives students access to the software tools used by some of the biggest companies in international business.
- Dozens of business students were able to upgrade from “selfies” by having business headshots taken by a professional photographer.
School of the Arts
- Providing support to bring Daniel Sharp, an ethnomusicologist from Tulane University, to campus in April 2015 to speak about music and cultural politics.
- Theatre professor Mark Landis to travel to London to meet with representatives of the Gate Theatre to discuss collaboration with the Department of Theatre and Dance.
