Published on the opinion page of the Akron Beacon Journal on Feb. 4, 2016.
By Scott L. Scarborough
A FEW DAYS AGO we were able to share the very good news that The University of Akron’s excellent Honors College is about to get even better, thanks to the vision and generosity of Dr. Gary B. and Pamela S. Williams.
Taken on its own, this is wonderful news indeed. But it also is like that moment when the placement of a key piece of a jigsaw puzzle suddenly makes the partially completed picture clear.
Dr. Gary B. and Pamela S. Williams
The Williams have added a $3 million gift for the Honors College to an already-generous bequest to The University of Akron, raising their lifetime commitment to our institution to well over $10 million.
With deep gratitude, we have asked our Board of Trustees to name that academic unit the Dr. Gary B. and Pamela S. Williams Honors College. It will challenge our best and brightest students to step beyond traditional knowledge acquisition and engage in really transformative learning.
It will engage teens, many of whom have little life experience beyond Ohio or even Northeast Ohio, to develop a global mindset.
It will raise their aspirations from being good citizens to becoming great citizen-leaders.
It will provide an ivy-league style education without the ivy-league price tag.
Under the leadership of Dr. Lakeesha K. Ransom, vice provost and dean, the Williams Honors College will send students into the world to learn through study abroad and to compete with their peers internationally.
This March a team of four University of Akron honors students will travel to Dubai to compete as regional finalists for the famed Hult Prize, the world’s largest student competition to solve the world’s toughest challenges. Akron’s team will engage students from such schools as the London School of Economics, University of Cambridge, Johns Hopkins University and the Stockholm School of Economics.
And that’s just a beginning.
New additional programming planned for the Williams Honors College include:
- A two-credit course that brings students from diverse disciplines to work together to address current community challenges.
- Summer- or semester-long study-abroad opportunities for select students at the University of Oxford in England, considered by many to be among the top institutions of higher education in the world.
- Annual grants for 50 Williams Honors College students to fund 10 weeks of intensive research in their field of study, either in Akron or at other universities.
Akron’s honors program has grown dramatically in recent years to almost 2,000 in 2015 from 1,500 in 2010. To be considered for admission, students need a minimum high school GPA of 3.5, ACT composite score of 27 or SAT score of 1,210, and meet other criteria.
These high-achieving, self-challenging students come from across Ohio and the nation, and from all walks of life and socio-economic backgrounds.
They have enormous talent and potential, and it is our responsibility as an institution to provide them with opportunities to further develop that talent and stretch their potential.
This obligation we owe not only to outstanding students, but to all who attend our university and even to those who hope to one day enroll here.
That is why we established the Experiential Learning Center for Entrepreneurship and Civic Engagement, to get students thinking about how to move their ideas and inspirations from thought into reality.
That is why we created the Center for Data Science, Analytics and Information Technology. Its executive director is Dr. Mario Garzia, a respected mathematician and researcher, as well as a recently retired, partner-level executive from Microsoft. Dr. Garzia also is a UA alumnus who returned to his alma mater to help us deliver cutting-edge educational programming in this vital and growing field.
That is why we partnered with the LeBron James Family Foundation to make higher education a real possibility for Akron schoolchildren who have the drive and ability, but not the funds, to enroll in college.
That is why we created a Success Coach program to offer all freshmen, whether they need it or not, an extra layer of support and guidance in that critical first year of education.
That is why we are in the process of hiring more than 70 bargaining-unit, full-time faculty members, with more hires to come.
This is why we continuously seek out new opportunities to benefit our students and extend our service.
Sometimes in life we must be patient as the puzzle that is our future comes together, piece by piece.
Thanks to the kindness, vision and generosity of Dr. Gary and Pamela Williams, we gratefully add another key piece to the picture of what The University of Akron for the 21st century will look like.