UW-Green Bay, Chancellor, FYI, March 2005

	Taking the global view at Green Bay's University of Wisconsin Greetings from Green Bay’s University of Wisconsin! This month it is my pleasure to introduce Dushani Corea-Dharmaratne, a junior from Colombo, Sri Lanka, who is studying business and finance at UW-Green Bay. She is an exemplary student in and out of the classroom. Cyndie and I have come to know Dushani through her service as a volunteer student ambassador for the University. She helps spread the good word about UW-Green Bay to prospective new freshmen. She assists with community events and is often among the students who help us host gatherings on campus or at the residence. This semester, Dushani is coordinating an effort to help families devastated by the tsunami that struck her homeland in late December 2004. She came up with the idea after getting an up-close look at the destruction during a trip home over semester break. I know many of you have contributed generously to disaster relief through your own churches and favorite aid organizations. Dushani’s project is a little different, however, and potentially more long-lasting. Working with family members and others in her home city, she believes it possible for members of the UW-Green Bay community to have a direct connection. Donations here could help rebuild small fishing businesses there, and in the process forge a lasting relationship. It is Dushani’s dream to see a fishing boat with the words “Sponsored by the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay” imprinted on the side. There are plans for special fund-raising events in early March and I encourage you to listen to Dushani’s appeal and consider carefully whether it is something you would like to support.		Dushani is an ambassador for international education and the idea of "connecting learning to life." A prime example is her effort to involve friends of UW-Green Bay in the long-term reconstruction of the tsunami-ravaged coastal areas of her native Sri Lanka. She reminds us we are all called to be connected globally. I mention her initiative because I think it important. I believe it also helps illuminate a larger truth about this University and our call to pursue global connections. UW-Green Bay isn’t just the “connected university.” We are an inter-connected institution, linked to people and cultures around the world. The tsunami hit with such force — a dozen countries in its path, at least 200,000 dead, travelers of many nationalities among the missing — it cannot be surprising that deeply and directly affected are individuals with Green Bay ties. Dushani isn’t alone, of course; there are many others.
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