The value of higher education is made evident through a family legacy of generosity. Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus (IUPUC) receives a gift from Dr. Kate Baird that honors her father and great-grandfather’s commitment to education.

 

Baird’s gift to IUPUC enables a new endowment titled the Robert Baird and Albert Kagel Science Education Travel Fund. As part of the IU Bicentennial Campaign faculty match program, annual income from this gift will be matched by Indiana University. Over $6,000 will be available annually to support funding requests. “The positive impact of this gift will affect generations of students and educators,” says Brenda Vogel, director of development and external affairs at IUPUC.

 

Students will be provided, through this travel fund, with opportunities that are unprecedented in experiential learning and have a greater impact than classroom lectures alone. “The intent of this scholarship is to expand and actively engage the students learning experience by moving outside-the-classroom. They experience and appreciate the larger world and, as future educators, understand the importance of learning science,” explains Baird.

 

A born educator and scientist, Baird lives to teach science and train future educators. She places a high level of importance on diversity and believes that students who visit other cultures have an expanded mindset essential in developing an others-centric perspective. The cultural experience allows students to learn networking skills from a global outlook, helping them better understand the importance of developing a world view through successful collaboration, critical thinking, and problem-solving that benefits future classrooms.

 

A strong family legacy of education and travel has helped shape the namesake fund for Baird’s family. Her great-grandfather, Albert Kagel, realized early career success by becoming the youngest school principal in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at age 23. He was later named superintendent of schools in Milwaukee, a position that he held for forty years.

 

Baird’s grandmother, Hilda Kagel, attended college at Vassar before most women were allowed to go to college. She and two sisters became world travelers. Her mother, Bonnie Robinson Baird, worked as a nurse in the burn wards in France during WWII, and by the time the war ended was a Captain in the military. Later, she worked in the neo-natal and tuberculosis wards in Milwaukee.

 

As a bacteriologist, Baird’s father, Robert Kagel Baird, worked at Pabst and Abbott Labs and a pharmaceutical field representative for Abbott Labs. “My father encouraged people to be the best they could be through education and service to others. He believed it was a duty to use one’s education to help educate others. I want to carry on his vision of service and education by giving IUPUC students some financial support to continue their educations,” she added.

 

Thanks to the generosity of Dr. Kate Baird, IUPUC students and faculty will have expanded opportunities for teaching and learning. Through her donation, Baird has added to her family's legacy of humanitarian services and supporting higher education.