The staff of the Asian Studies Center join with our colleagues in UCIS to remember the life of E. Maxine Bruhns who served as director of the Nationality Rooms and Intercultural Exchange Program from 1965 until her retirement in January of this year. Up until her death on July 17th at the age of 96, Bruhns dedicated her life to promoting cross-cultural understanding and helped to build diversity into the very foundation of international studies at the University of Pittsburgh. The Nationality Rooms in the Cathedral of Learning serve as a window to the world for our students and as a powerful symbol of the values of inclusiveness, open mindedness and global understanding that are the heart and soul of a liberal arts education. Countless students have benefited in direct and indirect ways from the support they have received from the Nationality Rooms and Intercultural Exchange Program. We see this over and over as our Asian Studies certificate students are awarded fellowships to conduct research in the humanities, social sciences, business, health sciences and other areas. In remembrance of E. Maxine Bruhns, we in the Asian Studies Center join our colleagues at the University to recognize a life lived fully in the service of transforming students into global citizens. With great appreciation for all they do, especially at this time of loss and at this moment in history, we look forward to working with the dedicated staff of the Nationality Rooms and Intercultural Exchange Program toward the ongoing realization of a vision for the future embodied by E. Maxine Bruhns.
