La Casa Latina Receives Largest Donation in History
This past spring, La Casa Latina: The Center for Hispanic Excellence, the University’s only cultural resource center focused on Latino students and interests, received a gift commitment of $20,000, its largest donation in history. Ruth Colp-Haber C’81 WG’85 is the generous donor and decided to contribute because of her strong connection to the Latino community and after an inspiring visit to La Casa.
Ruth explains her motivation to ALA:
“I feel forever indebted to Penn for many reasons but perhaps the most important was mastering Spanish after studying abroad in Seville, Spain during my junior year. These language skills enabled my husband and I to go to Colombia, South America to adopt our daughter, Carly. Everyone in Colombia was impressed with my Spanish banter and my desire to raise a bilingual daughter. Both Carly and I are now fluent Spanish speakers.
I love the Spanish language, culture and people and wanted to do something to help promote these causes at Penn while also assisting deserving students. Thus, a gift to La Casa Latina seemed very worthwhile. Now that my daughter is 14 years old, I look forward with excitement to the possibility of her attending Penn and spending time with the wonderful students at La Casa Latina.”
Johnny Irizarry, the Director of La Casa Latina expresses his excitement over this announcement:
“The students, staff and advisory board members of La Casa Latina are extremely honored by the generous investment made by Ms. Ruth Colp-Haber in support of our programs and services. It is inspiring to receive such a donation from a Penn Alumna. It affirms the value of our role in furthering the University’s commitment to diversity.”
ALA is thrilled that La Casa Latina has received such support and we hope to see even more alumni support this wonderful center’s great work!
