The University of Notre Dame has received a $5-million gift from Joan B. Kroc, a philanthropist from Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., to establish the Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., International Scholarship Fund for Peace and Justice. The fund will provide scholarships for students in the graduate program of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.p. The gift honors Father Hesburgh, Notre Dame’s president from 1952-87, whose vision of gathering students from around the world to study peacemaking while building cross-cultural understanding among themselves continues to guide the Kroc Institute.p. “For more than 15 years, Mrs. Kroc has joined with Notre Dame in efforts to build a more peaceful world,” said Rev. Edward A. Malloy, C.S.C., president of the University.p. “Now, in an era of new global challenges, we are once again tremendously grateful for her generosity, vision and support.”p. “It is a great honor for me to be a part of the hope for peace,” Mrs. Kroc said, “and I can think of no better way to share this hope than to create the Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., International Scholarship Fund for Peace and Justice.”p. Scott Appleby, the John M. Regan Jr. Director of the Kroc Institute, added: “The Hesburgh Scholarship Fund will enable more students from around the world, especially those from impoverished backgrounds and countries, to be educated and trained in our master’s program.”p. The institute currently is expanding its graduate program from one to two years and adding a one-semester fieldwork component to better prepare students for the challenges they will face.p. The Kroc Institute specializes in the religious and ethnic dimensions of deadly conflict and peace-building, the ethics of the use of force, and the peacemaking role of international norms, policies and institutions. In addition to research and policy programs, the institute offers an innovative major and minor at the undergraduate level, and a unique, interdisciplinary master’s degree that trains professional peace-builders to provide communities and policy-makers with strategic, research-based alternatives to violent conflict. The program’s 350 alumni from 78 countries form a global network of peacemakers.p. The institute was established in 1986 with a $6-million gift from Mrs. Kroc, who shared Father Hesburgh’s vision for ending the nuclear arms race and promoting peace, social justice and human rights. Mrs. Kroc gave an additional $6 million in 1988 to build Notre Dame’s Hesburgh Center for International Studies, which now houses the Kroc Institute and the Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies.p.
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