Today’s post is perhaps the most meaningful day in my career in international education? Why? Because today we launch a scholarship to honor my mother, Jane Gluckmann, who instilled in me a love of travel, Now that I am a mom, I am only beginning to understand the depths of a mother’s endless well of love for her child/ren.
My friend and colleague at the Melibee hive, Kyle Rausch, has also joined me in honoring his mom, Carol, as she passed away over Labor Day weekend in 2015. In our shared grief, we rallied together to create a new funding source for education abroad – and a way to illustrate the lessons we have learned from our own mothers.
When I think about parenting, I think about how it is truly the most enjoyable exhaustion a body can take. I liken it to jet lag without leaving your house, LOL! You are shaping a human being for goodness sake! And let’s face it, carrying a person inside your body and pushing it out of you is about the hardest LABOR I can imagine heading into Labor Day weekend. Labor Day for Kyle and me became synonymous with motherhood – and the work that goes into parenting, so what better week to launch this new scholarship in honor of our mothers?
Please read on to learn a bit more about the launch of this scholarship to honor our moms through the Fund for Education Abroad.
With love and gratitude, Missy
By Kyle Rausch:
It will soon be Labor Day weekend here in the United States and here at Melibee we are buzzing with excitement about the opportunity to honor that one role which perhaps requires more labor than any other: that of being a mother. We are so very pleased to announce the Jane Gluckmann & Carol Rausch Go Global Scholarship in partnership with the Fund for Education Abroad. Jane Gluckmann and Carol Rausch were two exceptional women who, apart from inspiring two of your very own Melibees to travel and engage with others around the world, were amazing mothers. Unfortunately, their time here on this Earth was cut much too short, but the legacy they left for their children will always be remembered and carried on. We invite you to read about these incredible women for whom the scholarship is named here.
Being a mother is simultaneously a gratifying and challenging job. As actress and comedian Gilda Radner put it, “[Motherhood is] the biggest gamble in the world. It is the glorious life force. It’s huge and scary—it’s an act of infinite optimism.” To support and mold a young life is a huge responsibility and the fact that these women, and countless others, taught their children to be curious about the world around them and embrace difference is exceedingly important during times such as these where ethnocentrism and skepticism of the other seems to be on the rise. This scholarship was designed to honor mothers like Jane and Carol everywhere: women who teach their children that life is to be celebrated and explored to its fullest extent and that people, no matter their race, religion, or creed, are more similar than not deep down.
The Jane Gluckmann & Carol Rausch Go Global Scholarship will be awarded to a current college or university student accepted to a study abroad program traveling to South America, France or Germany; regions of the world where these remarkable women developed lasting relationships and had meaningful experiences. For this first award period, we need to raise $5,000 for the scholarship, however, it is our hope that we will work towards our goal of raising at least $100,000 to establish a lasting endowment in their names so that dozens of students may benefit from a study abroad experience in the years to come, thus memorializing Jane and Carol in a way that honors their love for other cultures.
For more information about the scholarship, please visit (and scroll down on this page) at the Fund for Education Abroad. To donate specifically to this scholarship, select the Jane Gluckmann & Carol Rausch Go Global Fund from the drop down box on this page. Thank you so much for helping us remember these inspiring and beautiful women.
Help spread the word about the scholarship by sharing this page with the hashtag #LaborDayMoms over this Labor Day weekend and sharing your stories of inspiring moms using the hashtag #InspiringMoms and a few others in the future.