Austin community leaders and philanthropists Teresa Lozano Long and Joe R. Long have given $1 million to The University of Texas at Austin’s College of Education, endowing a fellowship fund for kinesiology, health education and educational administration graduate students and a fellowship fund for faculty.
Half of the $500,000 in the graduate student fellowship fund will be used to support students in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education and half will assist graduate students who are preparing to assume leadership roles in education. Preference will be given to students of Hispanic descent when possible.
The faculty fellows fund of $500,000 will be used to support “meritorious faculty” in the College of Education.
The Longs are graduates of The University of Texas at Austin, with Dr. Teresa Lozano Long being the first Hispanic to receive a doctor’s degree in health and physical education from the university. Dr. Lozano Long has maintained a strong link with the College of Education and Department of Kinesiology and Health Education, offering time and financial resources over the past several decades.
She endowed the Lynn Wade McCraw Presidential Fellowship in honor of her graduate adviser and mentor in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education, and each year this fellowship is awarded to a doctoral student. Dr. Lozano Long also funded the Teresa Lozano Long Endowed Chair in Kinesiology and Health Education, which Dr. John Ivy holds. Ivy, a noted exercise physiologist, is chair of the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education.
The Teresa Lozano Long Endowed Graduate Fellowship Fund, Teresa Lozano Long Endowed Scholarship Fund and George I. Sanchez Endowed Presidential Fellowship assist graduate and undergraduate students in the College of Education.
In April, the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education formally recognized Dr. Lozano Long’s exceptional generosity and bestowed its highest accolade, inducting her into the Hall of Honor. Members of the department’s Hall of Honor must be nationally prominent faculty with a strong record of contributions to kinesiology and health education, distinguished alumni, or community members and leaders who have given exceptional support to the fields of kinesiology, health and fitness.
“We feel so honored to have the Longs support our faculty and students,” said Dr. Manuel J. Justiz, dean of the College of Education. “Having the needed resources inspires our professors and students to dream big and produce scholarship that has a significant impact. The Longs are gifted visionaries and we deeply appreciate their patronage.”
The Longs also have provided considerable support and resources to Latin American studies, the School of Law and the arts at The University of Texas at Austin.
U.S. News and World Report magazine recently ranked the College of Education third in the nation among public institutions of higher education and number one among public universities that offer both undergraduate and graduate programs. The college was ranked second in research expenditures among public institutions, boasting growth in research and development expenditures from about $1.1 million in 1995 to a current figure of around $31 million. Among graduate programs that U.S. News and World Report ranks annually, the College of Education is the most highly ranked college or school at The University of Texas at Austin for the second year in a row.
