14 Nov 2016 Adcocks endow $1 million for UCA’s study abroad

Bunny and Carol Adcock have established a $1 million endowment for study abroad opportunities at the University of Central Arkansas.

The Adcock Study Abroad Fund will provide financial support for students to live and study abroad.

“By providing an endowment for our students to travel and study abroad, it will provide opportunities for generations of UCA students to travel the world, learn other cultures and languages interact with others and really change UCA and Arkansas. What these students will learn and experience, and then bring back to UCA and our state will pay enormous dividends for our state and institution down the road,” said President Tom Courtway. “We all express our most sincere thanks and appreciation to Bunny and Carol for their unwavering commitment to our students and the mission of this university.”

This marks the second endowment from the Adcocks for study abroad opportunities. The first was allocated for students majoring in a foreign language who also planned to become an educator.

Carol Adcock noticed the need for additional study abroad opportunities for foreign language teachers while working as a foreign language instructor at UCA in the 1970s. During this time, she was also serving as adviser for foreign language student teachers and recognized the need for more study abroad opportunities like the one she experienced as a college student living in France and Mexico.

“I was going to all the schools where they were student teaching, and I saw what a difference it made to go into a classroom where the teacher had never been abroad,” she said. “I thought it would be better to go abroad and actually know the culture.”

That endowment has supported more than 80 students with a total of almost $45,000 since 2000. The couple said this recent endowment is much broader. It will allow full-time students of all majors and career paths to apply for the study abroad funds, with preference given to students majoring in a foreign language. The scholarships will fund up to 75 percent of program costs that include travel, food, lodging and tuition and fees.

“That’s all a part of growing and expanding your horizons and that’s what will happen to these students. They will grow and develop and be more educated because they left McGehee, Ark., and saw there’s a lot more to this world than just McGehee,” Bunny said referring to his own hometown. “It’s just like studying history. It is part of an education.”

A check presentation for the fund is scheduled for 2 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 15, in the Wingo Hall Board of Trustees Conference Room.

Kale Gober, vice president for University Advancement, said, “UCA’s success is credited to supporters like Bunny and Carol who give their support for the sole purpose to impact the lives of our students, and I have no doubt their generosity will make an immeasurable difference for countless students.”