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Ambassador of Goodwill to Receive Alumni Award

Detroit, Michigan—August 30, 2004—Dr. Elsa Potter, founder of the International Institute of Culture and Language will receive the Marygrove College Distinguished Alumni Award, on Friday, September 17, 2004, 7 p.m., for significant contributions made throughout her career. The ceremony will take place in the college’s newly renovated theatre. Marygrove is located at 8425 W. McNichols Road, Detroit, Michigan.

Dr. Elsa Potter is widely viewed as an ambassador of goodwill. After graduating from Marygrove in 1960 with a bachelor’s in Spanish, she attended the University of Detroit where she earned a master’s in theology, and then Oakland University where she earned a master’s in elementary education. She received a doctorate in education from Texas A & M. And then the momentum of her life’s work shifted into high gear.

An assignment with the Peace Corps from 1978 to 1980 took her to Nicaragua and West Africa and started her on a journey to help create world peace. After returning home, she began focusing on ways to improve people’s quality of life through greater communication. She began teaching the Interlingua program, which is designed to bring people who speak English together with people who speak Spanish, at the YMCA of Austin, Texas.

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In 1994 she founded the International Institute of Culture and Language (IICL), a small educational and charitable non-profit institution. Now in its eleventh year, the IICL has sponsored a monthly series of meetings in the Austin area that foster Islamic-Christian dialogues.

Potter has received recognition and thanks for her life-long work on behalf of intercultural understanding. She received the Austin Woman of the Month Award in 1999. She also received the Beyond War Award, the Goodwill Employee of the Month Award, the Hildago Award, and a Giraffe Commendation in 1998 for "standing tall and taking responsibility for making the world a better place."

Dr. Potter and her family reside in Austin, Texas.

The Marygrove College Distinguished Alumni Awards were established in 2002 to recognize and honor alumni of distinction. These awards celebrate the college’s ideals of competence, commitment and compassion. Other recipients are Mary Ellen Hanlon Riordan ’41; Ann Gabriel Kilsdonk, IHM ’45; Elizabeth Fischer Richards ’64; Mary Massaron Ross ’82; Khris Nedham ’98; and Angela Celeste May ’90. # # #