Prestigious National Award Goes To UA Editor Emerita

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Marie Lavallard, University of Arkansas editor emerita, has been chosen as one of only 32 national recipients of the Millennium International Volunteer Award, the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs has announced. Mrs. Lavallard was chosen primarily for her work with the Foundation for the International Exchange of Students (FIES), a non-profit organization founded to work with international students at the U of A’s Fayetteville campus.

The Bureau established the award in partnership with USA TODAY to honor those Americans and permanent residents who have contributed greatly to international educational and cultural exchange and in doing so have furthered global understanding and international education.

The prestigious award includes $5,000 to the non-profit organization of the recipient’s choice. Mrs. Lavallard designated these funds for the FIES, for which she has worked unflaggingly for 50 years and for which she currently serves as president, a position she also held in the 1960s.

"When I saw the requirements and qualifications for the award, it just had Marie Lavallard written all over it," said Lindy Goza, FIES vice-president and UA’s assistant director of international admissions. Goza nominated Mrs. Lavallard for the national award after being made aware of a request for nominations she found on the U.S. Department of State’s Internet Web site.

Goza is well aware of Mrs. Lavallard’s hard work and dedication on behalf of the foundation and international students.

In addition to the cash award, the winners are provided with an expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C., where they will be honored at the "Millennium International Volunteer Awards Gala" March 1 at the National Building Museum. Approximately 500 to 700 guests are expected to attend the gala, including senior government officials. Earlier that same day, a morning symposium in the Senate Hart Office Building is planned at which recipients will share success stories and exchange ideas.

However, Mrs. Lavallard will not be attending the festivities, she said, as she will be in South America at that time.

"I’ve planned this trip since last August," explained Mrs. Lavallard, "and during the first part of the trip I’m taking three days to visit a former UA exchange student that lives in Uruguay. She’s from there, and I haven’t seen her since 1958."

According to a State Department spokesman, the only other award recipients who will not be attending the ceremonies are former President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn, who will also be out of the country at that time.

Hoyt Purvis, UA professor of journalism and international relations and also director of the Fulbright Institute of International Relations on the Fayetteville campus, will be at the award dinner as a member of the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, a national board to which he was appointed by President Clinton.

Purvis is acquainted with Mrs. Lavallard’s years of work with and support of the international students at the university, but Purvis emphasized he had taken a hands-off approach to the award due to his seat on the national board. Even so, the pride and appreciation he feels for Mrs. Lavallard’s many years of dedication to improving international relations through education is very evident.

"This is an extremely significant recognition for her and for the university and community," he said of the honor being paid to Mrs. Lavallard. "It’s such a great tribute, especially when you consider this was a national competition. It’s a wonderful way of recognizing those who have contributed so much to furthering understanding between the countries of the world."

The FIES was founded in 1949 by interested members of the Fayetteville community and UA faculty and staff to assist and support international students on campus, with the stated mission of furthering understanding among countries through the international exchange of students. The following year Mrs. Lavallard and her husband John, who were already hosting their first international student, joined the organization.

"I’ve been doing this since 1950," Mrs. Lavallard said of her work with the international students. "I wasn’t one of those that started the foundation but was recruited the next year by a close friend who was one of those that did."

Since then, the couple hosted or looked after one or more international students each year. After her husband’s death in 1980, Mrs. Lavallard continued working with the students and does so even after they leave the campus for their own homes.

"I have kept in touch with about 100 former students all over the world, and would say I’ve visited at least one-quarter of them," she said.

Not only does she correspond personally with many of the former international students, since 1954 she has also written an annual newsletter each year for the FIES, detailing activities of present and former students, the university, and the Fayetteville area. She has also served on every FIES committee and has also been the foundation’s recording secretary since 1960.

In 1994 the FIES established the John and Marie Lavallard Scholarship to honor the couple’s many years of work and dedication on behalf of the foundation and international students.

As is customary with Mrs. Lavallard, she has worked untiringly for the scholarship fund’s growth.

"The foundation set up the scholarship in my and my husband’s names, but I’ve always contributed to it and supported it," she said.

In addition to all of her other work with the foundation and the students, Mrs. Lavallard is also a member of the FIES awards committee, which oversees the administration of and fund raising for all FIES scholarships. One of the fund-raising events the organization holds annually is a used book sale that Mrs. Lavallard helps to organize and at which she works each day.

Her life has always had an international flavor. Her grandparents immigrated to this country from Germany, and her husband immigrated to this country from France with his family while he was still a young boy.

The couple traveled extensively with many trips to France, Portugal, the Caribbean Islands and Central America. Mrs. Lavallard is still a world traveler, having just returned from Madeira, an island off the coast of Portugal, which she said is a favorite winter retreat for Europeans.

Upon her return from each trip, she speaks to the fifth-grade class at Butterfield Trail Elementary School in Fayetteville about the country she has just visited. Besides her talks, she volunteers two mornings a week at the school, four afternoons at the public school system’s resource center, and has twice received the Fayetteville Public Schools’ award for Outstanding Volunteer of the Year. She was also a 1999 finalist in the J.C. Penney Community Service Award.

Her many interests and hard work don’t stop there. She also visits Cornell University twice a year where she is very active with the College of Agriculture, the Veterinary College and the department of plant biology. She is a member of the Evening Lions Club and consistently volunteers to work at UA basketball games that benefit the Lions’ eyesight project. She answers phones for the local public radio station’s fund-raisers, and gives one afternoon a week to the Washington County Public Library’s electronic media resource center.

Mrs. Lavallard retired from the U of A in 1981 as head of the department of agricultural publications, now communication services. She began her distinguished academic career at the University of Vermont but came to the UA College of Agriculture in 1946 when she and her husband moved to Fayetteville.