(CIUS: Edmonton, 18 September 2018) The boards of three Ukrainian Canadian foundations and Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies are proud to announce the Professor Manoly R. Lupul Endowment to Advance Ukrainian Language Education, co-founded to support programs in Alberta and beyond through the activities of the Ukrainian Language Education Centre (ULEC) at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS), University of Alberta.
This unique initiative has been undertaken jointly by the Alberta Foundation for Ukrainian Language Education Society (AFUES; Vlodko Boychuk, President), the Canadian Foundation for Ukrainian Studies (CFUS; Olga Kuplowska, President), and the Canada-Ukraine Foundation (CUF; Victor Hetmanczuk, President).
The new endowment was established to honour Professor Manoly Lupul on the occasion of his ninetieth birthday for his work as a national leader in multiculturalism and founder of CIUS in 1976.
Annual revenues from the Lupul Endowment will help to fund ULEC projects in Ukrainian language education.
A descendant of Ukrainian pioneers who settled in the Willingdon district of east-central Alberta, Dr. Lupul played a key role in CIUS's founding and was responsible for successfully leading the institute through its "pioneer" era―the first decade following its establishment in 1976. A graduate of the universities of Alberta, Minnesota, and Harvard (PhD, 1963), Dr. Lupul was a prominent activist in the Ukrainian Canadian Professional and Business Federation and a key lobbyist for the adoption of multicultural policies in Canada and the 1988 enshrinement of multiculturalism in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Professor Lupul documented his career as a public intellectual and academic in The Politics of Multiculturalism: A Ukrainian-Canadian Memoir (2005). He was appointed a member of the Order of Canada in 2003.
ULEC is the only university centre in North America dedicated to advancing Ukrainian-language teaching, learning, and research. Revenues from the Lupul Endowment will be used to develop new
Ukrainian digital and other learning resources and to provide professional development for educators and researchers that will benefit primary, secondary, and post-secondary students in schools and
educational institutions across Canada.
The first major donation to the Lupul Endowment was made by the Ukrainian Knowledge Internet Portal Consortium Association (UKiP-CA). Established in 2003, UKiP-CA has been a leader in creating Ukrainian digital resources for the Ukrainian bilingual program in Alberta schools. Then-director of ULEC Marusia Petryshyn identified the need for such an endowment, and in 2017 the board of UKiPCA, chaired by Dr. Olenka Bilash, approved the $25,000 donation, which was supported and received by the current ULEC director, Dr. Alla Nedashkivska.
Documents establishing the Professor Manoly R. Lupul Endowment to Advance Ukrainian Language Education were signed on 23 July 2018 by foundation representatives Olga Kuplowska (CFUS),
Roman Petryshyn (CUF), and Vlodko Boychuk (AFUES), as well as by University of Alberta representatives Jars Balan (CIUS Director) and Alla Nedashkivska (ULEC at CIUS).
The alliance of three donor foundations will coordinate annual community fundraising in order to maintain the endowment and promote Ukrainian bilingual education programming, which has grown in prestige since Ukraine gained its independence. Ukrainian is the official state language in Ukraine, and is mandated for use in its educational system. In Canada, Ukrainian has been taught since the arrival of the first pioneer settlers in 1892, and is now taught to thousands of students in both public schools and private community programs across the country. Knowing the Ukrainian language provides speakers a link to the culture's ancient traditions, folk heritage, and fine arts, and ties Ukrainians in Canada to the people of Ukraine and to Ukrainians in over forty countries around the world.
Further information on how to support the Lupul Endowment can be found at: https://tinyurl.com/ycwcs6yg
(L-r): Roman Petryshyn, Board member, Canada-Ukraine Foundation (CUF) representing CUF President Victor Hetmanczuk; Olga Kuplowska, President of the Canadian Foundation for Ukrainian Studies (CFUS); Vlodko Boychuk, President of the Alberta Foundation for Ukrainian Education Society (AFUES).
Front row, left to right: Vlodko Boychuk, AFUES; Olenka Bilash, ULEC; Alla Nedashkivska, ULEC.
Back row, left to right: Roman Petryshyn, CUF; Andrea Kopylech, University of Alberta-Advancement; Bohdan Horich, Lupul Endowment Committee; Irene Jendzjowsky, CFUS; Anna Biscoe, UKiP-CA; Daria Luciw, Ukrainian Bilingual Language Association; Jars Balan, CIUS.