Written by Rachael Hirstein
NSU’s 19th annual Celebration of Excellence took place on Jan. 29 in the Don Taft University Center and the newly named Rick Case Arena. The arena had a sold-out attendance of 400 people, including most of NSU’s trustees, President Hanbury, 64 students, Chancellor Ray F. Ferrero Jr., the president’s executive council and many of NSU’s sponsors.
The Celebration of Excellence is an event that shows all of the progress NSU has made each year and to honor and acknowledge members of the community for their service and leadership.
Sharon Sullivan, executive director of Advancement & Alumni Relations, said this event has changed in different ways over the course of nearly two decades, including what is presented and where the event is located.
“For many years, the Celebration of Excellence also included the recognition of NSU’s Distinguished Alumni, but that ended in 2014 when the Distinguished Alumni Awards became a unique event and the Celebration of Excellence focused on the honorees of the President’s Award for Excellence in Community Service,” Sullivan said. “[The event] has been in several locations, primarily off campus at the Signature Grand. In 2013, we moved the celebration back to campus to showcase NSU to all of our guests.”
The event this year awarded the President’s Award for Excellence in Community Service to Dr. Stanley and Pearl Goodman for the donation of their collection of modern and temporary Latin art to the NSU Art Museum and for the dedication of their time to other nonprofit organizations, such as Goodman Jewish Family Services of Broward and the Broward Center for Performing Arts.
President Hanbury also discussed Realizing Potential: The Campaign for Nova Southeastern University. The purpose of the campaign is to raise $250 million dollars by the year 2020 to support philanthropies, scholarships and the students who attend NSU and the University School. He discussed NSU’s progress not only on the campaign, but also on its research.
“We’re over 50 percent there with $150 million raised for the $250 million, so we only have $100 million more to make by the end of 2020,” President Hanbury said. “We’re also halfway there in our research capabilities of $300 million by 2020, and what we are doing by 2020 is raising enough for a half a billion dollars…for philanthropy, scholarships, research and special projects for NSU to reduce our dependency on tuition for students to come to this university.”
During his speech, President Hanbury reiterated the opening of the Center for Collaborative Research last fall and discussed the future plans for medicine at NSU including the new College of Allopathic Medicine, which will be the eighth college in the Health Professions Division at NSU.
“NSU will be the only university in the southeastern United States, and the only university in the state of Florida, that will have both colleges of osteopathic medicine, or D.O., led by Dr. Elaine Wallace, and of allopathic medicine, or M.D., led by Dr. Johannes Vieweg,” Hanbury said. “The establishment of NSU’s M.D. program coincides with the future relocation of Plantation General, a community hospital, to our campus, which will evolve into a teaching-research hospital by the Hospital Corporation of America. The hospital will not only serve the surrounding community, but, contrary to other medical schools and hospitals, will indeed be integrated to doctoral research universities of NSU.”
The celebration concluded with presentation of the 12 new members of the NSU Shark Circle, which means each member donated more than $1 million to the university. Of the 12 awarded, six were NSU trustees.
Caption: Honorees of the President’s Award for Excellence in Community Service, Dr. Stanley and Pearl Goodman
Credit: V. Mandilovitch
