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| Nancy McGlathery, recipient of the
Cosmo Service Award, with Earl Kellogg, Associate Provost for International Affairs at the
16th Annual International Dinner and Performance Night.
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The annual Cosmopolitan Club Service Award is given to a club member who has offered exemplary service to the international community on the U of I campus and our Champaign-Urbana community. This year's Service Award was presented to longtime club member Nancy McGlathery, who has been an active member of the club for many years. Over those years, Nancy has attended almost all of our dinners, coffee hours, and other events, and has helped with several coffee hours and receptions.
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| Nancy McGlathery, recipient of the
Cosmo Service Award, with Earl Kellogg, Associate Provost for International Affairs at the
16th Annual International Dinner and Performance Night.
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Nancy was born in New York, NY, in 1939, though she grew up mostly in New Bedford, MA. After receiving her A.B. from Bryn Mawr in 1961, she studied in the Netherlands for a year, living with a host family. She still keeps in contact with four generations of that family.
Nancy received her Ed.M. degree in 1965, after which she taught for a few years. She spent 1972 and 1973 living near Vienna, Austria. Since 1978, she has worked at Garden Hills School in Champaign, taking time out in 1993-94 for a stay in G”ttingen, Germany. These several stays in Europe have taught her what it means to feel like a "foreigner." While in G”ttingen, she was active in international activities.
She has always maintained an interest both in international activities and in children and students. Since 1970, her family has been a "host family" for the International Hospitality Committee (IHC). She has been actively involved in the IHC since 1993 and has served as International Friend Coordinator since 1994.
Besides her work with the IHC, Nancy and her husband have been foster parents, have adopted two Korean sons, and have had two biological sons of their own. One of their foster daughters had continued to be part of the family, which is indeed a multinational, multiracial family. The international students who stay with the McGlatherys as part of the IHC program are typically of the same age as the McGlatherys' own children, so they become part of the extended family.
Of course, big families have big dinners! Luckily, they inherited a round table from Mr. McGlathery's grandparents. This table pulls apart to accommodate leaves, and since it comes with ten leaves, it can be expanded to whatever size the crowd demands! The family's Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter dinners tend to be hilarious affairs with lots of teasing and laughing as well as mishaps.
All the McGlathery family members, and extended family members too, love the Cosmopolitan Club. Nancy proclaims that the Club "has a wonderfully buoyant atmosphere." Her Cosmo friends know that Nancy too has a buoyant personality, as well as an uplifting spirit and outgoing nature. We feel she is a truly deserving recipient of the Service Award.
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