Individuals in Clark’s Chemistry Department recently helped teachers and students in Liberia replenish their supply of textbooks.
The department responded generously to a request by Denise Darrigrand, vice president for student affairs and dean of students, who announced that members of her church were collecting textbooks—specifically math and science books and encyclopedias—for students in Liberia. The drive was spearheaded by a parishioner from Holden, a former Bancroft School teacher.
Dean Darrigrand said the amount and quality of the books donated by Clark’s Chemistry Department were, by far, the best of all the books the organizers received.
“I am deeply grateful to the Chemistry Department for coming through in such a generous way,” she said.
The church sent a total of 130 boxes (an estimated 7,500 titles) to seven schools, two foundations, and one library in Liberia. Approximately 115 donors, including organizations, participated.
“We need to do everything we can to support such efforts,” said Mark Turnbull, professor of chemistry. “The key to helping less developed nations grow and flourish is education.”
Founded in 1887 in Worcester, Massachusetts, Clark University is a liberal arts-based research university addressing social and human imperatives on a global scale. Nationally renowned as a college that changes lives, Clark is emerging as a transformative force in higher education today. LEEP (Liberal Education and Effective Practice) is Clark’s pioneering model of education that combines a robust liberal arts curriculum with life-changing world and workplace experiences. Clark’s faculty and students work across boundaries to develop solutions to complex challenges in the natural sciences, psychology, geography, management, urban education, Holocaust and genocide studies, environmental studies, and international development and social change. The Clark educational experience embodies the University’s motto: Challenge convention. Change our world.