Lovering Family's Commitment to Education Benefits UPEI Students
For Dr. James Lovering of Charlottetown, education has always played an essential role in his life, both his own learning, and the learning of others. The retired agricultural economist demonstrates this commitment to education in a variety of valuable ways at the University of Prince Edward Island. His most recent contribution involves an intensive tutoring program with two Chinese students who are taking the English Academic Preparation program (EAP) at the Webster Teaching and Learning Centre.
EAP is becoming increasingly popular as the number of international students attending UPEI continues to grow. The program teaches students whose first language is not English how to get the most from lectures. It develops their academic writing, research, and critical thinking skills. Dr. Lovering volunteers for up to two hours most days as an English language coach to first-year business students Jei Li, from the province of Yunnan, and Yang Zhang, from Liao Ning province. Both have a good grasp of the language already. It is Dr. Lovering's job to help them increase their confidence level and improve their pronunciation.
"I enjoy working with students this way. It is satisfying on a personal level, but I also do it because I believe that it's hard to beat education as an investment, whether it's for individuals, for nations, or internationally," he explains.
Over the last few years Dr. Lovering and his wife, Frances have established an endowment fund to support two major graduate scholarships for UPEI students. They created the valuable awards in memory of their daughter, Janet Lovering. The Janet Lovering Scholarship for Graduate Studies in Nursing is a $3000 annual award to support nurses who wish to pursue graduate studies in nursing, health education, or health administration. The Janet Lovering Graduate Scholarship in Science will be a $2000 award for a full-time student entering the first year of the Master of Science program in Biology or Chemistry at UPEI. The award-winner will be selected based on high academic accomplishment and involvement in research. The Loverings have made additional gifts as well, to fund subscriptions to nursing journals for the Robertson Library, and most recently, to purchase laboratory equipment for the Department of Physics.
"We are very grateful to Dr. and Mrs. Lovering for their gifts to the Building a Legacy campaign, and for Dr. Lovering's tutoring work," says Kevin Lewis, Chief Development Officer at UPEI. "There is a Chinese proverb that says, 'If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people.' Dr.Lovering is making a lifetime of difference."
James Lovering's passion for life-long learning has prompted him to enrol in numerous undergraduate courses in recent years. And his family's leadership gifts in support of education have ensured that UPEI students will benefit for generations to come.
