Making the Difference
Barb Lee
At Home, Abroad, at Carolina
By Hope Baptiste
The late Charles Kuralt asked: “What is it that binds us to this place as to no other?”
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| Barb Lee |
The answer is unique to every Carolina alumnus(a) or friend because each enjoys an individual and special relationship with the University. Alumna Barb Lee sums up her relationship this way: “‘Carolina is where I learned to love to learn.’” Borrowed from alumnus and Georgia Regional Committee Co-Chair George Johnson, this phrase represents an experience Lee described as “invaluable in the preparation for the rest of my life.”
Raised in a small town nestled in the North Carolina mountains, Lee credits her family for instilling in her not only the importance of a good education, but also her strength of character, dauntless spirit, unquestionable integrity and insatiable curiosity. From that start, Lee began a lifelong journey that she says has been shaped by her Carolina experience. “The most significant thing I learned as a student is that one can learn anything—vocabulary, geography, grammar or anatomy—that can make one educated. It’s what you do with that that makes the difference.”
Lee is making a significant difference. She and her husband, alumnus Alston Gardner, support and serve the University in a variety of areas—business, the arts, internationalization and minority affairs to name a few. Lee has chaired the Board of Visitors and the Carolina Performing Arts Society National Advisory Board. She also serves on the Scholarship Committee of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication Board of Advisers, as well as the Alumni Committee on Racial and Ethnic Diversity, known during the campaign as the Minority Alumni Steering Committee. Gardner is a member of the Board of Trustees and has served on the Carolina First Campaign Steering Committee, the Kenan-Flagler Business School Board of Visitors, the Kenan Institute Asia Board of Trustees, the Global Education Center Building Committee and chaired the International and Area Studies Advisory Board.
For all their service on campus, Lee and Gardner focus a significant part of their philanthropy toward extending the campus’s borders by strengthening global studies opportunities, study abroad and internationalization. They feel strongly that a true Carolina education must be an international experience. “I believe a global education is the single most important element of our society right now,” Lee said. “We must reach out to the world with curiosity and humility and open ourselves up to how our fellow humans think, live, worship and communicate. We can’t afford to squander the chance to prepare the next generation, so I’ll help Carolina any way I can.”
Lee is the president of Point Made Films, her Colorado-based documentary film company, and she has produced numerous events and videos for the University. “My professional life is dedicated to seeing things from a variety of perspectives and being exposed to many points of view,” she said. “A global education is a natural and meaningful progression from my college experience to my life today, and I want that for my own children and for future generations as well.”
Lee fondly recalls her own introduction to that “real-world” philosophy. “My mom insisted that my brother and I travel outside North Carolina and took us on trips as much as she could,” Lee said. “Today I’m fortunate to be able to visit places she could only dream about. My children have their own passports and can say ‘thank you’ and ‘hello’ in at least six different languages. The hope of global learning my mother envisioned for me is clear and present in my family today.”
As a result of the Carolina First Campaign, more than $19 million has been raised for study abroad and the FedEx Global Education Center opened to house all international programs. Lee says this emphasis is the most significant improvement Carolina has made so far. “When Chancellor [James] Moeser said that we cannot claim to create future leaders for North Carolina unless we insist that they travel outside of the U.S., I was sold,” she said. “It is the single wisest thing I’ve heard anyone in education ever say, and I endorse this evolution of our education completely.”
The evolution continues thanks to alumni like Lee and Gardner. Carolina ranks among the leaders in study abroad participants and Peace Corps volunteers. A dynamic and comprehensive global enterprise, UNC Global, forms a framework for the programs, curricula and initiatives that together comprise UNC’s international endeavors.
“The impact of these experiences will reach far into the future,” Lee said. “We hope that students will truly immerse themselves in an international environment and ultimately make a significant and lasting impact at some point in the future.”
Where do they go from here? The possibilities are, well, boundless.
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