Walter R Roberts Endowment seeks your support

Walter R Roberts Endowment seeks your support

November 2021

Dear Friend,                          

The Walter Roberts Endowment was established by Dr. Walter R. Roberts and his family to educate students, recognize leadership, and disseminate best practices in public diplomacy.

]Thanks to the generous support of donors like you, the endowment has supported dozens of students interested in public diplomacy and has assisted in funding related activities of the Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication (IPDGC) at the George Washington University (GW).

Every year, we host speakers at our annual Walter Robert’s Lectures: Dr. Joseph Nye, Dr. Robert Kagan of the Brookings Institution, Ambassador Bruce Wharton (ret.), Ambassador Michael McFaul (ret.) of Stanford University, and many others. This year’s speaker was Ambassador Ted Osius (ret.) who spoke regarding the journey of reconciliation between the U.S. and Vietnam and the importance of “people-to-people” diplomacy. The 2021-22 Walter Roberts Lecture can be viewed here. 

The Endowment also funds IPDGC’s Award for Congressional Leadership in Public Diplomacy, which honors members of Congress who have been consistently supportive of public diplomacy throughout their careers. These awards support public diplomacy micro-projects in institutions situated in the member’s state or congressional district. The 2020-2021 recipient was Senator John Boozman of Arkansas in recognition for his support of the Fulbright program. The award ceremony can be viewed here. Past recipients have been Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, and Congresswoman Nita Lowey (NY-17). The Endowment provided small grants in the recipients’ names to the University of Tennessee Center for Sport, Peace, and Society, the Vermont Council on World Affairs, Battery Dance Company in New York, and Global Ties Arkansas. 

We seek your assistance and support in our efforts to provide funded internships for undergraduate and graduate students, and grants to graduate students who could not otherwise afford to study public diplomacy at GW. Over the past 2 years, recognizing the challenge students have faced during the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Endowment funded summer internships in public diplomacy for graduate and undergraduate students. 

You can see the full range of our programs by visiting the IPDGC website at ipdgc.gwu.edu.

We hope that you will join us in this worthy endeavor to further the awareness of the importance of public diplomacy. The invitation to contribute to the Endowment begins with a click on the DONATE NOW button that follows this letter.

Sincerely,

Janet Steele, PhD

Director of IPDGC and Professor,

School of Media and Public Affairs