UNIVERSITY NEWS - NOVEMBER 2005
MEDIA CONTACT: Jennifer Harpaz
954-762-5244, jharpaz@fau.edu
FAU and Holy Cross Hospital
Reach Out to Students Affected by Hurricane
Katrina
FORT LAUDERDALE, FL (December 13,
2005) - A check presentation ceremony
recently brought representatives from Florida
Atlantic University to Holy Cross Hospital of Fort
Lauderdale. Adopting FAU's charge to provide Gulf
Coast students displaced by Hurricane Katrina with
higher education opportunities, Holy Cross Hospital
generously pledged to help two New Orleans
students, Ta'Veca Hinton and Dreama Goldsmith,
temporarily enrolled at FAU, continue their studies
in medical-related fields. Each student was awarded
$5,000 from Holy Cross. The money will help Hinton
and Goldsmith with educational and living expenses
while attending FAU. There are a total of 45
students from such schools as Tulane University and
Xavier University of Louisiana currently taking
classes on FAU campuses.
"The tradition of community outreach has
guided Holy Cross Hospital for 50 years," said Mark
Dissette, vice president of Physician Services for
Holy Cross Hospital. "Our hospital's Donation
Committee chose to support students at FAU because
of our long-standing partnership with the
University. By joining efforts with FAU, we can
create tremendous opportunities for young people."
"Anytime you invest in young people, you
invest in the future," adds Sister Levasseur, vice
president of Sponsorship and Mission Effectiveness
for Holy Cross Hospital. "We are especially
interested in these two wonderful students because
they are both pursuing careers in helping
professions."
As a graduate student in Tulane University's
School of Social Work, Ta'Veca Hinton, a native of
Fort Lauderdale, is striving toward a career in
mental health and hopes to one day work as a
psychotherapist with children and teens. She is
currently gaining valuable experience through an
internship with the Intensive Delinquency Diversion
Services program at Psychotherapeutic Services.
Hinton will graduate this December with a master's
degree in social work from Tulane University.
For Dreama Goldsmith, Hurricane Katrina
could have put an end to a promising future career
in the pharmaceutical industry. In her second year
of the six-year program at Xavier University of
Louisiana's College of Pharmacy, Goldsmith is
temporarily enrolled in FAU's Charles E. Schmidt
College of Science and benefiting from the
College's outstanding biotechnology courses and
faculty. She has been told that Xavier will be
ready to resume classes in January and though eager
to return to New Orleans, a place she has called
home for most of her life, she will miss the
relaxed pace of Boca Raton. Goldsmith hopes to one
day design life-saving drugs and has a special
interest in pharmacology for pediatric oncology
patients. Without FAU, Goldsmith's intensive course
of study would have been put on hold for at least
four valuable months.
Additional efforts, led by faculty, staff
and students to help the victims of Hurricane
Katrina were widespread on FAU campuses. Both
fund-raising and emergency supply drives were
conducted. The Sallie Mae Fund matched Hurricane
Katrina relief contributions of $25 or more made by
FAU employees to the American Red Cross. This
greatly leveraged the value of donations made to
FAU's "Dollar Drive" and "Beads for the Bayou"
campaigns. Other fund-raising initiatives included
an emergency supplies campaign for canned goods,
first aid kits, baby care items, children's
vitamins and personal hygiene products, as well as
a Yogathon meditation fund-raiser.
-FAU-
