WHY I SUPPORT THE MONTEREY INSTITUTE

MEGAN ASLAKSEN
Global Trade Specialist
Hewlett-Packard, Inc., Washington D.C.
MBA in International Management, Certificate in Chinese Studies '01

"I’ve lived all over the world, and when I decided to go to business school, I wanted to maintain that ability to walk five feet and hear six other languages. For me, speaking multiple languages is fundamental — and this is the only place, I think, where students who have had that experience can really feel at home. I could also take many courses here at the other Institute schools, such as the Graduate School for International Policy Studies. So I was able to able to develop a foundation here, a unique skill set that I’ve been able to build on in various ways.

"In terms of giving back today, along with financial contributions I also try to help the current students, to mentor and guide them and give them some insight based on my experience. I think the Monterey Institute is a very unique school. I’m lucky enough to interface with fellow alumni almost every day; I really value the ability to go pretty much anywhere in the world and stay with, or get in touch with, a fellow Monterey Institute alum.

"The Monterey Institute has given me a lot of great things, and I have been given a lot of wonderful opportunities in my life. Being able to give back to an institution that holds so much meaning, for so many of us, is just a great thing. I intend to continue doing that."

PETER GROTHE
Director of International Student Programs and Adjunct Professor
International Policy Studies
Monterey Institute of International Studies, Monterey, CA

Dr. Peter Grothe is a lifelong internationalist, a writer on world affairs, and a specialist in cross-cultural communications. As Foreign Relations Advisor to the late Senator Hubert Humphrey, Dr. Grothe drafted the original Peace Corps legislation and suggested the name "Peace Corps." He has supported over 120 scholarship students at the Institute.

"My special focus has been helping to provide educational opportunities to women from developing countries. I have had the opportunity to travel in 132 countries, and I have met some extremely talented women from developing countries who just didn't have any chances for graduate education. More recently, I have also tried to assist U.S. minority students and students interested in conflict resolution and issues of human trafficking.

"What I love about our students at the Monterey Institute is that so many of them go out and make a difference in this world. I often share a quote from my close friend, the late Rev. William Sloane Coffin: 'The calling of every human being is to live a life worth the retelling of it.' So many of our students and graduates do live a life 'worth the retelling of it' — and I have been gratified to have been a very small part of that."

BEVERLY LANNQUIST HAMILTON
Retired President, ARCO Investment Management Company
Former Deputy Comptroller for Asset Management, City of New York
Carmel, CA
Member, Board of Trustees

"The Monterey Institute is really the only graduate school in the country that focuses on international professional education and this is the future of our economy and our society — involvement with other countries and other peoples around the globe.

"My personal focus for contributions has been on creating scholarships for students with financial need. As donors, we get to know these individuals, and we're able to develop relationships with them throughout their two years at the Institute. My husband and I have enjoyed this tremendously and it has introduced us to such bright and interesting young people! We now have friendships with Institute students from Ukraine, Turkmenistan, Slovenia, and Russia, among other nations. We have kept up with the students after their graduation, so this has been enormously satisfying.

"I think the long-term benefits of what happens at the Monterey Institute flow in several important directions. American students gain a much greater appreciation for the global aspects of their careers, and those who come here from abroad become more knowledgeable about, and involved in, the free-market economic structure and Western value systems. This two-way development of knowledge and understanding is very important for the long-term futures of all the countries involved, including ours."

BILL HAYWARD
President, CEO, and Chief Sustainability Officer
Hayward Inc., Monterey, CA
Former member, Board of Trustees and Member, Board of International Advisors. Institute donor in support of dual environmental/business masters' scholarships and green campus initiatives. 

"The profile of the Monterey Institute student is that of a risk-taker — someone who's going to develop international skills, then go out in the world and do something with them. We need more people like that. The environment that Institute students learn in is more international and diverse in its languages and perspective than at any other program in the country, maybe in the world.

"Whether their field is business, international policy, language education, or translation and interpretation, this unique learning environment keeps Monterey Institute students at a uniquely high level of understanding of international issues.

"I was born and raised in Monterey, and the Institute is a gem in our community. I first got exposed to it when I took a six-week intensive course in Spanish before going to live in Spain for a time. After I returned to the U.S. and took over our company, a friend said, 'Bill, we need to get you involved with the Monterey Institute. The students there are entrepreneurial, they learn foreign languages, and they start businesses.' So I joined the Board of Advisors, and later I served for a number of years on the Board of Trustees as well. I'm still involved with the Board of Advisors.

"One day I was having lunch with an Institute faculty member, who asked me, 'What is the Hayward Corporation's environmental policy?' That launched me into thinking about these issues — and Hayward is now an industry leader in environmentally sustainable products and practices. There's real opportunity in sustainable business, and to get there we need business leaders who are skilled in both the economic and the environmental sides of that model. This is the kind of knowledgeable, practical, globally-aware thinking that is promoted and developed at the Monterey Institute.

"I support the Monterey Institute because I believe it is very important to the future of the world."

JOHN HOLUM
Former U.S. Under-Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security
Former Director of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency
Annapolis, MD
Member, CNS International Advisory Board

"It is vitally important to identify and train the next generation of nonproliferation experts. That's the heart of what the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute does and as we see in North Korea, Iran, and elsewhere right now, there is an urgent and growing need to bring skilled practitioners to this vital cause. The Center makes a huge contribution in equipping both U.S. and non-U.S. experts with the background and training they need to be effective.

"The benefits are tangible. If you go to the UN First Committee or to a Non-Proliferation Treaty review conference or to the Conference on Disarmament or any arms control implementing body, — you run into people from all over the world who've had an affiliation with the Center for Nonproliferation Studies.

"The Center's other major contribution that has impressed me is the way it assembles data and information that is reliable, comprehensive, and profoundly useful to people in this field. When I was at the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and the State Department, even though I had access to the best governmental information, I would also consult the Center's database, where I invariably found facts I could use.

"In the last six years, we have fallen further behind in efforts to control weapons of mass destruction and highly destructive conventional weapons so it's all the more urgent to have skilled, trained, and committed people involved in this cause. The fate of the planet is at stake."

LINDA CHILDS HOTHEM
CEO
Pacific American Services, L.L.C., Pacific American Management Company, L.L.C.
Sausalito, CA
B.A in Political Science, IPS '85, Monterey Institute

"When I graduated from the Institute in 1985, I don’t think I fully appreciated how much our world was shifting toward a global economy — and how much the Institute had given me in preparing for that. Training minds of the future for a global economy is exactly what the Monterey Institute is doing. And as CEO of a logistics business and operator of the Oakland Foreign Trade Zone, I depend on hiring people who are globally savvy. So that’s another reason, along with being an alum, that I support the Institute.

"Not many other schools have this focus on educating savvy professionals for a global economy; and no one does that better than the Monterey Institute. It’s unique; its approach ties into our business; and it’s important in the business arena. Most of all, it’s important in the world."

"The prevalent model of international education offers a false dichotomy between practice and policymaking. The Monterey Institute is different because it offers the real-time combination of three elements: policy, research, and practical skills. The Institute produces people with balanced vision. There are not many places in the world that come even close to the Institute in this regard. It's a rarity, a niche that is very, very unique.

"Most Master's and Ph.D. programs train specialists. But specialists don't exist on the village level. The world needs people with the skills of ensemble leaders, of musical conductors. We need a new generation of leaders who know what to do when someone says, 'Can someone come help us clean up this mess?'

"The Institute attracts remarkable students, front-line managers with field experience. Institute students care about excellence; they have a passionate sense of accountability. They put a high value on openness rather than defensiveness. Students learn from each other's deep experience. Student A may not agree with student B, but A knows where B is coming from. Peer understanding is at the very heart of what the Institute teaches."

RUSSELL LENG

Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Middlebury College
Member of the Monterey Institute Board of Trustees

I have taught international politics for more than 40 years, so I am familiar with the teaching of international affairs at the graduate level. Most graduate programs place their highest priorities on furthering the scholarly ambitions of their faculty. The curricula are designed to train students to become future scholars and university professors. The Monterey Institute is different. Students come first, and the curriculum is designed to advance their careers in a wide variety of international fields. We always can use some more good scholars, but the world desperately needs individuals who are willing to accept the challenges of working in the field to strengthen the prospects for global communication, peace, and sustainable development.

All of this resonates with my Middlebury experience in ways that go beyond the shared interests in culture, language, and international affairs. The relatively small size and high commitment to teaching create close working relationships between faculty and students that one does not find at research universities. But the Monterey Institute also offers things that Middlebury cannot, most notably a mature, experienced, and internationally diverse body of students, who are committed to developing the skills to help make the world a better place. Given the global problems that we face today, is there any better way to invest our resources than in helping these young men and women achieve their goals?

JOE MARK
Principal
The Mark Investment Company, Carmel, CA
Member, Board of International Advisors

"The atmosphere at the Monterey Institute is totally unique — and it boils down to the students who come from all regions of the world to live and study together. I love that these students have worked for a few years, they’ve been out in the world, and they’re really serious about language and international relations.

"I’ve been involved with the Institute for 16 years now. I’ve gotten to know a good number of students and faculty members, and it’s very encouraging to see their seriousness about political, economic, and intercultural relations. I think that seriousness about international affairs is one of the most needed things in the world today.

"The faculty is so well-qualified, and so dedicated. Because the Institute hasn’t had an endowment, they have been at a disadvantage, so my wife Sheila and I decided to create the Mark Faculty Awards Fund. It supports faculty members in attending conferences, and in their research and writing. A faculty committee reviews requests to the fund, and it benefits about five to eight faculty members each year. We also recently created the Steven Baker Alumni Scholarship Award, in honor of the Institute’s previous president.

"Today’s combination of the Monterey Institute and Middlebury College is going to be so very beneficial to both schools, and President Clara Yu is very much the right person to lead the Institute at this time. I have high hopes!"

SUE McCLOUD
Mayor
Carmel-By-The-Sea, CA
Former member, Board of Trustees

"The Institute is a special organization. We have over 600 nonprofits in Monterey County! I support this one because, having both studied abroad and lived much of my life overseas, I feel very strongly about the international role of the United States. We need to do a better job, and we can't do that by coming into another country without a clue about its people's language or culture or the basis of their thinking. I feel that the Institute's endeavor to integrate language into all of its graduate degree programs is something worthy of strong support, and something that needs to grow.

“We can not be isolationist. With the problems the world is facing, we have to be involved. When you go to a forum at the Institute, and you hear students from all over the world speak about the meaningful projects they're working on, they're so impressive. The faculty is on the cutting edge of international issues, policy and language studies, and business.

"I've been drawn to this organization by the quality of its faculty, the quality of its students, and the quality of its Board — and it's just so amazing that all this is centered here in Monterey, California."

VICTOR P. MICATI
Retired from Pfizer, Inc. as Vice President, after 34 years with the company that included serving as President of Pfizer Europe
Cordillera, CO
Member, Board of Trustees 

"We talk about globalization, and people try to be simplistic about it, but it's not simple. It's very complicated. All the challenges we face today are issues of different perspectives and values from around the world — and this is something that has to be captured within the school environment. The Monterey Institute delivers global education better than anyone else anywhere.

"I support the Institute because of its vision. These people have the vision that their graduate programs can gather together young people who can, ultimately, make a difference on a global scale. That's exciting stuff! And this vision is reflected in the Institute's curriculum, its faculty, its programs, and most recently in its strategic plan. A tremendous amount of thought and work went into the strategic plan, and it relates not just to language learning: it cuts across the whole school curriculum to serve this vision, which is ultimately to make a difference.

"Other, competing schools tend to be larger and to have graduate programs that are there for academic learning, but without this sense of driving purpose. The Institute has figured out what they want to do, and this separates them. Whether you look the language teaching, translation and interpretation, policy, or business school, what you see is a willingness to innovate.

"This is a very unique place. The Institute brings together people from all over the world. They have a driving baseline of language capabilities that draws people from all different cultures. I think it's that mix, and the environment that the mix creates, that makes students aware of why they're here and what is expected of them. The Monterey Institute is creating an environment that allows young people to understand the complexity of the world. That's a very, very important thing."

PAULIEN RUIJSSENAARS
Principal
Crown Communications, Monterey, CA
M.B.A, '96, Monterey Institute. Member, Board of International Advisors, and former member, Board of Trustees

"I had a fantastic experience at the Institute. I love that it is a small school and that it is an international community. I'm originally from the Netherlands; I lived in Germany for many years, and I believe that languages are an intricate aspect of everyday life and we should be more conscious of others, linguistically and culturally.

"I enjoyed all the contacts and the opportunities I was given as a student, the access to staff and Board members. Anybody you wanted to talk with, you could. The Institute did a wonderful job of preparing us for the world out there.

"I really enjoy giving back to the students who are at the Institute now. It's great to stay involved with them. I mentor a student, I'm part of the Alumni Committee, and I'm on the Board of International Advisors as well. I'm at the Institute at least once a month, and it's great to be back on campus. It's great to be involved in any way I can."

BERNARD H. "BUZZ" SCHULTE
Senior Advisor, John Parry & Alexander, Inc.
Retired Managing Director and Senior Partner, Korn/Ferry International
Orinda, CA
Member, Board of Trustees

"I was a 'headhunter' with the largest global executive-search firm, and early in my career it became very clear to me that the ability to understand different cultures hinges on your ability to speak those languages. When I became involved with the Monterey Institute, my first thought was, 'Here's a place that solves that problem.'

"It isn't just that we teach basic languages; students here are enhancing and using a second, third, sometimes a fourth and fifth language to be better citizens of the world. And they're combining that ability to speak and negotiate with the knowledge they need to perform successfully in a foreign environment. For me, that's very exciting.

"You really have to experience the Monterey Institute process. One of the things the school has done very effectively has been to focus on 21st Century issues, such as nuclear nonproliferation and environmental policy. These are very meaningful concerns to students in their home countries, and, of course, to all of us.

"My family has given to the General Scholarship Fund, and last year we met ten recipients of those funds. Ten! And these are very promising students from the United States, Russia, Latin America, and South Asia — so really the whole world is involved in this educational process. It's very rewarding to watch these students succeed. My own hope is that they'll go out and become leaders in the world, and leaders in working effectively for peace and for a new global marketplace."

J.R. WILLIAMS
Vice President, Investments and Certified Investment Management Analyst
Wachovia Securities, Inc., Monterey, CA
MBA Fisher Graduate School of International Business '93. Former Peace Corps volunteer in West Africa. Member, Board of Trustees

"When I came to the Monterey Institute, I thought I wanted to stay in development project management. In the course of my studies, I learned a lot about other career opportunities. One thing I studied was investment finance, and that really intrigued me. So my Institute education gave me the opportunity to go down a new path, and that has worked out really well.

"Why do I give to the Institute? I don’t see it as giving; I see it as giving back to a place that gave me so many things, such as the education and skills to pursue a great career taught in a wonderful learning environment. Most importantly it gave me a great group of friends from different cultures, with different experiences and from all parts of the globe. If you are someone who likes being part of the world at large, then there is no better place for you than the Institute.

"Beyond what I do financially, which is modest compared to many others, I’ve been involved with the Institute on various levels for about ten years. I’ve mentored MBA students; I’ve served on committees, both alumni and board; and I became a trustee in 2003. It’s been great! I say to the Institute, ‘I will never say no to you if I have the capacity to say yes. I’ll get out of bed in the middle of the night to go mow your grass, if that’s what you need.

"It’s all about giving back. When I think about my experience as a graduate student at the school, that was probably the coolest — I can’t think of a better word for it — group of individuals that you could have found anywhere on earth. Different cultures, different experiences, all corners of the globe. If you’re someone who likes being part of the world at large, I’ve never found another place like this one."

For more information:

Contact Shirley Coly, Development Officer,
at 831-647-3595 or shirley.coly@miis.edu.