Santander Bank & Trust Limited's Donation of $150,000 to COB
Dr Linda Davis, Vice-President Research, Graduate Programmes and International Relations; President Hodder; Sr Jose Gonzalez De Castejon, Managing Director Santander Bank & Trust Ltd; Sophia Fox-Lightbourne, 4th year Education/Spanish student; Maria Taylor, Vice-President Santander Bank & Trust Ltd at the cheque presentation.
The College of The Bahamas Study Abroad Programme received a huge boost this week in the form of a substantial gift from Santander Bank & Trust Limited. The gift was in the amount of $150,000.00 presented to College President Janyne M Hodder by Jose Gonzalez De Castejon, Santander Bank's Managing Director, at a very happy reception at Goodman's Bay Corporate Centre, the bank's headquarters.
To be called the Santander Bahamas Spanish Language Fund, it will provide $30,000.00 annually until 2012 towards student study abroad experiences in Spanish speaking countries.
This wonderful gift, which comes to The College during Santander Bank & Trust Ltd's 150th anniversary celebrations, is the first to create a fund for student study abroad awards held by The College.
"The bank is extremely active in its support of higher education," stated, Sr Gonzalez De Castejon. "Our social commitment finds its expression in the Santander Universities Global Division, whose activities form the backbone of the bank's social action and enable it to maintain a stable alliance with the academic world in Spain, Portugal, Latin America, Russia, the United Kingdom and now The Bahamas."
President Hodder thanked the Santander Board of Directors for their generous gift and remarked, "Santander's support for our internationalization strategy is timely. We commend your leadership in participating in building a better Bahamas with this study abroad support for our students. As such opportunities expand, we can truly say 'Come to The College/University of The Bahamas and see the world.'"
She added that by becoming a corporate sponsor Santander has recognized the importance of higher education. She also stated that a university cannot thrive on public funds alone but it needs private donors to help it build excellent programmes and provide excellent opportunities for excellent students. She concluded her remarks by saying that she envisaged Santander becoming a trailblazer in promoting the message that The College of The Bahamas is a cause to be supported.
Sr Gonzalez de Castejon added, "Between 1996 and 2006 Santander Bank has channeled more than 400 million euros in sponsorship to academic research and the development of projects to support higher education. More importantly, there are now 600 academic institutions receiving support from Santander Bank for the development of initiatives and research projects."
He went on to pledge Santander's commitment to fostering and maintaining its relationship with The College of The Bahamas. Recognizing the importance of students studying other languages because knowledge of a foreign language will no longer be a requirement but a necessity, Sr Castejon said that he foresaw College of The Bahamas students making a tremendous impact in the business community of The Bahamas and the financial services industry.
Speaking on behalf of future beneficiaries of the fund, Sophia Fox-Lightbourn, a Spanish Education major at the College, shared that she had benefited greatly from the study abroad programme in 2006 and she had found the experience to be valuable, in that it added another dimension to her appreciation and understanding of the Spanish culture and language.
The College already has success stories resulting from study abroad programmes. Recently, Patrick Thompson, a math major, was part of an exchange involving the University of Rhode Island where he spent his final semester before graduating in summer 2007. He took five courses and gained five A's.
We all hope the Spanish language students achieve similar success in the future.
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The College of The Bahamas
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