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Arabic Program Hosts Successful Promotion of Arabic Major/Minor and Flagship Programs
April 29, 2009
The Arabic Program hosted an all-day conference at the Inn and Conference Center to promote its newly launched undergraduate Major and Minor in Arabic Studies and Flagship Programs. The conference was funded by the Maryland Arabic Flagship Program as part of the initiative to establish linkages with the K-12 community. It was attended by 60 K-12 foreign language supervisors, high school college counselors, teachers of Arabic, and prospective employers in the Greater Washington Area, and provided an excellent forum to promote our SLLC and Flagship programs to prospective freshmen from the area.
For the same promotional purpose, they also organized a special event during Maryland Day and hosted 40 high school students interested in our Arabic programs. Both events were very successful and the addition of the new Maryland Arabic programs was exciting news to the participants.
Dr. Alaa Eligibali, head of the Arabic program, states "I am grateful for all the hard work put into these events by the students, Elizabeth Eroadwin and Bayan Brussmy, and colleagues Bouchra Arij, Meryem Cherrouk, Inas Hassan, Dina Hefnawy, Ridha Krizi, Roula Mounir, Saleh Nusairat, and Manal Yousef. Also, many thanks all those who were instrumental in making these new programs possible at Maryland, especially Dean Harris and Associate Dean Loizeau at ARHU, Lauretta Clough, Claire Goebler and Angela Wish at SLLC, and Amy Weinberg, the PI of the Flagship programs".
Honoring Dr. Graciela Nemes de Palau
April 3, 2009
Friday, April 3rd, will go in our records as a historic day. On the occasion of Graciela Palau de Nemes’ 90th birthday, The Department of Spanish and Portuguese rendered homage to her life and works in a two-part symposium. Throughout the day we had the opportunity to dwell on Graciela Nemes’ remarkable life and stellar career. Colleagues, students, family members and friends traveled from distant places in the USA and from overseas to celebrate this extraordinary moment.
The morning opening remarks were delivered by President Mote, who ventured some Spanish by wishing the honoree “feliz cumpleaños,” presented her with a symbolic gift and delivered an enthusiastic speech about Graciela Nemes’ contributions to UMCP. Dean Harris followed up in the same celebratory note. Carmen Benito-Vessels, who spoke on behalf of her colleagues at the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and at the SLLC, highlighted memorable traits of GPN personality as she narrated her unforgettable first encounter with Dr. Nemes. A panel of colleagues delivered papers in Spanish about GPN teachings, research and collaboration projects. After a splendid and happy luncheon, full of camaraderie and friendship, the afternoon celebration started with the unannounced and lively speech of Chancellor Kirwan, who stated the impact that Graciela Palau de Nemes had in UMCP, and added a few personal notes about the honoree. This was followed by a projection of a documentary about her life story and her long relationship with the Department and UMCP. A panel, this time in English, was dedicated to Professor Nemes, the educator and mentor. Former students of hers, present at the event, also intervened to offer their testimonies. Associate Provost Saúl Sosnowski officially gave closure to the celebration by delivering heartfelt and laudatory personal remarks. Finally, Chili Valverde, a folk singer from Juan Ramón Jimenez’ birthplace in Spain, delighted the audience with samples of her musical adaptation of the Nobel laureate’s prose and poetry.
Time and again thanks were expressed to Prof. Eyda Merediz, who almost singlehandedly had put together this historic event while receiving generous help from the staff of the SLLC, as well as faculty members and graduate students from the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. While ample and measurable funding was provided by SPAP, SLLC, ARHU, The Office of the Vice-President for Research, LASC, Jiménez-Porter, and the Embassy of Spain, the happiness and sense of fulfillment that this event brought to all of us is simply impossible to measure. Perhaps it has happened before, but I have never seen any celebration of such success and caliber at UMCP. The youngest person in the audience was nine years old, and the oldest was the honoree herself, a 90 years old bright scholar and exceptional human being that made us all proud of our history. The University Archivist has requested a copy of the documentary and so has President Mote. Since the acoustics at the Driskell Center were not the best, another screening will be scheduled for the enjoyment of those who were not able to attend.
The cooperation of all the graduate students from SPAP, especially Maggy Rodríguez, and the staff members from SLLC, especially Jeff Maurer, was extraordinary and contributed to the great success that we witnessed on Friday, April 3rd. Congratulations to all the participants, thank you for the opportunity to share with you the remarkable story of an exceptional human being, a remarkable scholar, a faithful friend, and a legendary matriarch.
