USU programs receive $3 million gift
The Sorenson Legacy Foundation will give USU $3 million to benefit programs that incorporate the arts into elementary education, said Jacob Moon, public relations manager of Sorenson Companies.
Moon said USU was chosen because the university is uniquely positioned and equipped to improve art teaching skills in elementary schools through its program.
“The USU College of Education and Human Services prepares more elementary school and early childhood teachers than any public university in Utah, drawing on a system of school district contacts, regional campuses and its own statewide, distance education network that uses video conferencing and online technologies which are specifically effective for reaching teachers in rural Utah,” Moon said. “Said James Lee Sorenson, a trustee for the foundation, ‘USU has been committed to expanding the teaching skills of those who educate our children, and we believe this university can become a national leader in developing research-based teaching methods that deliver high-quality arts education to elementary school children.'”
The money will be divided between two purposes, Moon said. Half the money will be devoted to research initiatives that develop programs for integrating the arts into education. He said the other $1.5 million will be shared by the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences and the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services. Moon said this portion of the donation will fund an endowed chair in elementary arts education.
Scott Hunsaker, associate professor of educational foundation and gifted/talented education, said legislation, such as No Child Left Behind and the Utah Performance and Assessment System for Students, require teachers to test their students only in literacy and math skills.
“This, of course, does a great disservice to students,” Hunsaker said. “The tool skills learned in literacy and mathematics education are not ends in and of themselves but must have application in the wider world. This means it is a mistake to drive the content areas such as science and social studies and fine arts out of the curriculum.”
The greater purpose of the endowment is to create a better balance in elementary curriculum, Hunsaker said.
“The hope is that we will prepare teachers with the knowledge, skills and dispositions that will permit and encourage them to include the arts in the curriculum so that students have a reason to use the skills they learn in literacy and mathematics education,” he said.
Hunsaker said work has begun on filling the endowed chair, starting by making a search committee. Some USU faculty members have received invitations to serve on the committee, he said, and by next week the committee is expected to be finalized. He said the committee will likely have its first meeting in January where they will write a job description for a national search for someone to fill the chair.
“An outstand teaching artist from one of these art forms or who integrates these art forms and who has an excellent record of scholarly or creative contributions to arts education will be sought through the national search,” Hunsaker said.
The James LeVoy Sorenson family created the Sorenson Legacy Foundation, a nonprofit organization, in 2001, Moon said. He said the organization’s founder, James LeVoy Sorenson, died at age 86 in January.
“James LeVoy Sorenson was a pioneer in the biotechnology industry who invented and developed many of the medical devices ubiquitous in health care today, including the first paper disposable surgical mask, the first disposable IV catheters and the first computerized heart monitor,” Moon said. “He was among the world’s most successful entrepreneurs.”
According the the Sorenson Companies’ Web site, the Salt Lake City-based foundation’s purpose is to promote “charitable, religious, educational, literary and scientific endeavors.”
“The Sorenson family and the Sorenson companies are dedicated to improving the lives of others and the world in which we live. The Sorenson companies often donate funds, services and equipment directly to worthy causes, while the Sorenson Legacy Foundation manages the charitable endeavors of the Sorenson family,” Moon said.
Moon said the foundation has also given money to the University of Utah, Brigham Young University and Southern Utah University in the past.
This isn’t the first time USU received a grant from the foundation, Moon said. He said a gift in 2006 contributed to the creation of four programs devoted to teaching elementary school teachers how to incorporate the arts.
“As a result, more than 4,000 children per year in rural and urban schools will be taught by those who enrolled in at least one statewide, distance-delivered course and more than 23,000 children will be taught by teachers or art specialists who attended at least one of the summer workshops, according to USU Dean Carol Strong,” Moon said.
Laurie Baefsky, program director of USU ArtsBridge, said she believes including arts in core curriculum is beneficial to students and the foundation’s gift will substantially further the cause.
“Beverley Taylor Sorenson’s (founder of the Sorenson Legacy Foundation) vision is to have quality arts instruction – in drama, music, dance and theater – in every elementary school classroom across the state of Utah,” Baefsky said. “She believes a rigorous sequential arts education in all disciplines is necessary for the development of the ‘whole child.’ I couldn’t agree more and hope that through this generous gift and the training for future educators that will resultantly be developed in arts education and integrated arts instruction, our elementary schools will adopt a model of arts inclusion that values the intrinsic worth of the arts as well as the rich benefits to learning and growth it naturally affords.”
–rac.ch@aggiemail.usu.edu