Sharing a Legacy

The late Hobson and Grace Zerbe ’30 committed their estate to Lebanon Valley College to enhance student learning through direct experiences within the Languages Department. As a former high school and college French and Latin teacher, Grace knew firsthand the benefits of speaking more than one language and providing global opportunities to students.

Through the Zerbes' generosity, the College welcomed two Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistants (FLTA) to its Languages Department for the 2016–2017 academic year. Manon Waltner, from Thionville, France, and Noelia Carrizo, from Catamarca, Argentina, spent the year sharing their respective cultures and interacting with students.

Waltner and Carrizo are two of the almost 400 young educators from 50 countries that traveled to the United States this year to help teach and internationalize U.S. colleges and universities through the Fulbright FLTA Program. The J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board selects grant recipients on the basis of academic and professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential.

The Zerbes' gift also endowed the Zerbe Summer Study Abroad Scholarship. Multiple students majoring or minoring in French, German, or Spanish can apply for $3,000 scholarships—annually—to pursue summer courses abroad. Through this gift, LVC helped Grace provide what she cared about most deeply, “the improvement of international relations through good foreign language study.”