-Unique Project in Philanthropy Endowed by Private Donor Requires Students to Find and Investigate Non-Profits and Give Away Money-
MIAMI, FL – October 7, 2014 – During the coming semester, Professor Elena Nuciforo and her students at Florida International University’s Department of Communication Arts will face a dynamic challenge as an integral part of their advanced public speaking class. The topic for the students this semester is philanthropy.
This advanced public speaking course in philanthropy was endowed by a $25,000 grant from Herbert Gruber and his partner Donna Lee Steffens, an FIU alumna ‘06. Gruber, a Miami resident and former CEO of Heller Financial Company/Miami is now retired, and also a student at FIU’s Biscayne Bay Campus (BBC) in North Miami.
“I became a full-time student at FIU/BBC and have a great love for FIU and the outstanding professors I have been privileged to meet. They are gifted professionals,” said Gruber.
The course will permit Professor Nuciforo, who works within the Communication Arts Department at FIU’s College of Architecture + The Arts (http://carta.fiu.edu/comm-arts/academics/academic-enhancement/) and her students, in the advanced public speaking class to find and investigate non-profit organizations. Once a decision is made by the students and professor, they will award monetary grants to the organizations chosen.
This concept is innovative but not new. Other major universities such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Stanford have engaged in similar successful teaching projects. According to Jan Solomon, Development Officer at the BBC campus of FIU, “The course offers our students a real-world experience of philanthropy. This donation enables a unique pedagogical endeavour that benefits FIU students as preparation for potential work in the non-profit sector or inspiration for becoming philanthropists themselves.”
“It is all about making informed, ethical choices about how to do good for society,” added Gruber. “Most students will think before taking this course that it is easy to give away money,” added Jan Solomon. “Once they take this class, they will realize how difficult it actually is.”
The Communication Arts Department has previously partnered with the Miami Coalition for the Homeless to teach formerly homeless individuals public speaking skills. From speech writing to message delivery, FIU students enrolled in the public speaking class worked directly with members of the Miami Coalition. Students took the information they learned in their class and helped train the formerly homeless to give passionate and well organized speeches about their experience of life on the street. These speakers then passed their message on to at-risk youth and government agencies throughout the greater Miami-Dade County and through these efforts increased community awareness and sensitivity to the important issues related to homelessness.
For more information about this course or any others available within the Communication Arts Department, please visit www.carta.fiu.edu/comm-arts/.
About the College of Architecture + The Arts
With more than 2,000 majors in seven academic departments—Architecture, Art and Art History, Communication Arts, Interior Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Music, and Theatre—the College of Architecture + The Arts is proud to offer undergraduate and graduate students an intimate and nurturing atmosphere that offers opportunities for individual attention while promoting the creative spirit in the pursuit of knowledge and the cultivation of imagination, intellectual curiosity, and artistic expression. For more information, visit CARTA’s website at: http://carta.fiu.edu
About FIU
Florida International University is recognized as a Carnegie engaged university. Its colleges and schools offer more than 180 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programs in fields such as engineering, international relations, architecture, law and medicine. As one of South Florida¹s anchor institutions, FIU is Worlds Ahead in its local and global engagement, finding solutions to the most challenging problems of our time. FIU emphasizes research as a major component of its mission. FIU has awarded more than 200,000 degrees and enrolls more than 50,000 students on two campuses and three centers, including FIU Downtown on Brickell and the Miami Beach Urban Studios. FIU is a member of Conference USA and has 400 student-athletes participating in 18 sports. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu.
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Website: http://carta.fiu.edu/comm-arts/
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