[00:00:00.00] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:00:01.90] VICTOR LAWS: On the 30th anniversary of Mr. Henson's original gift to the university, an endowment that started the Henson School of Science and Technology, the Richard Henson foundation was proud to announce recently a $2.5 million gift here at Salisbury University to sort of help take the Henson school to the next level.
[00:00:19.10] - It's really transformative, because it allows us to provide the types of experiences that are going to set our graduates apart.
[00:00:26.45] VICTOR LAWS: Richard Henson was a pioneer in the aviation field. I think it was natural that he would be interested in the science and technology fields. He saw what Salisbury University was accomplishing. He became one of the first to endow one of the major programs.
[00:00:40.34] - Can you center it on the library?
[00:00:42.41] - On the library?
[00:00:43.06] - Yeah.
[00:00:43.36] DR. KAREN OLMSTEAD: Certainly, the Henson Foundation has provided a lot of investment in our students to date. In 1987, we received a multimillion dollar gift from Mr. Henson to name the School of Science and establish the Henson Scholars Program, and then there was a capital budget that provided a lot of instrumentation, and then also in 2011, there was for our Henson medical simulation center, which is the only high fidelity simulation center on the shore - serves students in our programs at UMES and also to continuing education experiences for health care professionals.
[00:01:13.31] DR. MICHAEL SCOTT: The new gift, the renew of the gift is such a major component of where we're moving to in the Henson school with regard to our commitment to undergraduate research, certainly with regard to replacement of equipment, the building of our new high performance computing lab, the start of our new Henson school honors program, all of this is made possible by that new Henson gift.
[00:01:33.38] VICTOR LAWS: The Henson foundation has really been proud of the results that have been achieved.
[00:01:38.42] - The Henson scholarship really does provide me the ability to do the research in the geographical field.
[00:01:44.63] DR. KAREN OLMSTEAD: The Henson school really carries out the mission of the larger university of being very student centered
[00:01:50.54] STUDENT: Being a Henson scholar, I mean, I really love research. Part of research is presenting your research. I like to go to conferences, and they often cost money. It's helped me pay for opportunities like that.
[00:02:02.09] VICTOR LAWS: We're just kind of amazed at the different accomplishments, not only by students, but also by faculty, so we wanted to keep that going.
[00:02:08.72] DR. KAREN OLMSTEAD: We have seven faculty currently who were Henson scholars. One of them is now the interim dean at the Henson school, Mike Scott.
[00:02:15.02] MIKE SCOTT: Well, was a student at Salisbury from 1988 to 1992. Well, I was one of the first students to receive a Henson scholarship. I probably would not have an academic career without that Henson gift.
[00:02:30.25] - It's just very fulfilling to give to grantees that we know can get their-- get the most bang for the buck and really produce results as Salisbury University has.
[00:02:40.46] [MUSIC PLAYING]