Your gifts help change the world. It's that simple. Every gift the University receives enhances the education of our students through scholarships, new opportunities in state-of-the-art facilities, or support for professors who share their knowledge through teaching and research. Your gifts give our students opportunities to learn, explore, grow and change as they shape and refine the skills that allow them to make the world a better place.
Let me tell you about one way in which University of Portland students are working to change the world. Last winter, the University of Portland was the regional host of the national Focus the Nation teach-in event in which college students met with local and national leaders to discuss the importance of sustainability. It was a proud moment for the University last year when the efforts of our students and their faculty mentors drew more than 3,200 people to the Chiles Center for an event broadcast live throughout Oregon on OPB.
Our commitment to sustainability and the environment is not new to the University. For a complete listing of our initiatives in this area go to up.edu/sustainability.
Of course, sustainable efforts are not the only ways our students seek to create change. As students they volunteer in hospices and schools, visit homeless shelters and help build homes, and focus their studies so that one day they might become doctors and lawyers, nurses and teachers, inventors and entrepreneurs, and engineers and accountants ready and able to improve their world.
Thank you for your support of the University of Portland; thank you for supporting our students; thank you for helping them find and hone their talents. God bless you.
-- Rev. E. William Beauchamp, C.S.C.