Steger Center celebrates Virginia Tech’s Sesquicentennial in Switzerland

Evan Czajkowski spent final fall on the Steger Heart for Worldwide Scholarship in Switzerland, studying about and exploring the nations of Europe, sampling a number of the finest cheeses and goodies, and gaining a brand new perspective on the world. His time there was so impactful that he knew he’d return in the future. He simply didn’t suppose it could be so quickly after graduating.

Czajkowski, who in Might earned a bachelor’s diploma in political science with a minor in historical past, joined Hokies from world wide for a particular celebration of Virginia Tech’s Sesquicentennial this summer season on the college’s European living-learning heart. Alumni, present college students, school members, and directors joined native residents and associates of the Steger Heart for 4 days crammed with actions, together with a welcome reception and wine tasting, visits to well-known websites throughout the area, a gala dinner, and a ship tour on Lake Lugano.

“This was a possibility to showcase the Steger Heart and share with the broader Hokie neighborhood extra concerning the many thrilling packages that happen right here,” Government Director Sara Steinert Borella mentioned. “We additionally needed to thank the neighborhood of Riva San Vitale for his or her true hospitality to Virginia Tech over the previous 30 years.”

Don Hempson, affiliate vice chairman for worldwide affairs, mentioned through the welcome reception that the middle is the college’s crown jewel for worldwide engagement. “This can be a really particular piece of Virginia Tech — a spot for private and mental progress, for exploration and transformation, and for neighborhood engagement.”

The middle, which opened in 1994, is housed in historic Villa Maderni, a three-story, pale yellow constructing that dates to the mid-1700s. The primary villa, an adjoining library, and former stables, now classroom and studio house, enclose three sides of a gated courtyard. In 2014, a contemporary classroom and multipurpose eating addition have been constructed to serve this system. Frescoes embellish most of the villa’s ceilings and the partitions of the central stairwell. Exterior, spacious terraced gardens fill the remainder of the location, typical of European development of the interval.

For a few years, it served as the bottom for the college’s Heart for European Research and Structure. In 2014, the middle was renamed for former college President Charles Steger in tribute to his imaginative and prescient of broadening the college’s world presence.

At present, the Steger Heart, a part of Outreach and Worldwide Affairs, serves as Virginia Tech’s main European campus, offering a base of operations for quite a few worldwide education schemes. College students reside and examine within the heart whereas collaborating in a variety of semesterlong or summer season packages at each the undergraduate and graduate stage.

“We assist college students from any main acquire a world perspective and intercultural competencies that can give them an edge of their future endeavors at residence and overseas. Our college students have interaction domestically to benefit from their examine overseas expertise. Whether or not via project-based studying, directed analysis initiatives, or engagement with the world’s colleges or sports activities golf equipment, we work to assist them be taught to be at residence right here in Riva San Vitale,” Steinert Borella mentioned.

The middle additionally serves because the European base for the Heart for European Union, Transatlantic, and Trans-European House Research, a Jean Monnet Heart for Excellence, and helps its analysis and pedagogical goals. The Steger Heart collaborates to host worldwide workshops and conferences on behalf of Virginia Tech and school members.

Through the sesquicentennial celebration, Steinert Borella and her employees confirmed off current renovations to the villa, together with new furnishings in scholar bedrooms, new lighting, the creation of a “lounge” house on the second ground, and quiet classroom on the third.

“A lot of the work we did was to foster neighborhood throughout the heart whereas additionally offering quiet areas the place college students can retreat when they should unplug,” mentioned Liza Morris, assistant vice chairman for planning and college architect.

She mentioned the renovations are an applicable stability of very high-quality preservation methods to keep up the villa’s historic character and new development methods to handle lighting, electrical, plumbing, and air flow considerations. “We labored onerous to make sure the work we did was appropriate with the present structure, remained true to its cultural heritage, and concurrently supported the middle’s objectives.”

Earlier than the gala dinner, a feast ready by the middle’s personal cooks, Government Vice Provost G. Don Taylor supplied a snapshot of Virginia Tech’s historical past, and Rosemary Blieszner, interim dean of the School of Structure, Arts, and Design, delivered a sesquicentennial toast.

Guru Ghosh, vice chairman for Outreach and Worldwide Affairs, talked concerning the significance of making certain that every one college students, no matter monetary circumstances, are in a position to examine overseas. “The unimaginable experiences Hokies have at locations such because the Steger Heart really are life-changing. Virginia Tech packages overseas are among the many most inexpensive you will discover, however there may be nonetheless work to be carried out to take away the boundaries to those alternatives.”