Clark Egnor

November 29, 2011

Clark Egnor is the Executive Director of the Center for International Programs at Marshall University.

He oversees the placement of exchange students and manages the university studies abroad for Marshall.

But Egnor is also a Rotarian, and he chairs the district scholarship committee for southern West Virginia. Two years ago, he accompanied Ambassadorial Scholars Mallory Wright and Paula Kaufman to visit the Putnam club.

Egnor talked about the role of the Rotary Foundation and its support of international exchange programs: "The Foundation's mission," he said, "is advancement of world understanding through health, education, and alleviation of poverty.

"If one person tried to support world peace, others would say he was crazy!.

"But when you take one Rotarian working with hundreds of thousands of other Rotarians in 34,000 clubs and 500 Rotary districts around the world, you multiply the effort."

The Foundation improves health through such programs as Polio Plus, through water projects.

Education programs include the Ambassadorial Scholars and Group Study Exchange. Since 1947, Rotary has supported some 40,000 scholars. "Multiply Paula Kaufman by 2,000 a year for fifty years, that is the multiplying effect," said Egnor. "1,200 scholarships were given last year at $25,000 for each scholarship.

"A lot of logistical stuff is handled by Rotary. They choose the university, handle the air fare, manage the health insurance.

Rotary guests included (from left) John Hoiness, Rotarian Denise Springer, and her father Don Springer. Retired from Union Carbide, Don now does free-lance writing. John is a former member of the Rotary Club of Saratoga, California.

"Then, there is the World Peace Fellowship.

"It pays $50,000 for two years to study conflict resolution, international relations.at six peace centers in universities in Australia, England, Japan, Sweden, Thailand and the United States."

Egnor says that the organizational support is changing for Group Study Teams and Ambassadorial Scholars. "It will give the districts more autonomy with the programs," he said.

Marshall University places over 200 students each year in programs for study abroad. Many of these are "Promise Scholars" with no tuition expense. With the local Rotary district focused on other details, several scholars may now be supported each academic year.

Miho Egnor, Clark's spouse of twenty years, is a Japanese native. Early in their marriage, he learned Japanese while she learned English. Later, Miho learned Spanish as well, and she teaches Spanish and English-as-a-Second-Language at Marshall University.