Trustee Emeritus Bud Risser, and his wife, Fran, were honored at a Feb. 5 Global Education Dinner during a meeting of the Eckerd College Board of Trustees. Photos by Penh Alicandro ’22
Eckerd College now has the resources to ensure that every eligible student can study abroad, thanks to a recent $5.5 million commitment from a trustee emeritus and his wife.
The gift from Bud and Fran Risser was announced by Eckerd College President James J. Annarelli at a celebratory dinner on Feb. 5 attended by the Board of Trustees, students and faculty from this year’s Winter Term trips, and supporters of study abroad scholarships. This transformative gift also will rename Eckerd’s study abroad division as the Risser Center for Global Education.
“To quote Bud, we have the right people in place to take our Global Education program to new heights,” Annarelli said. “What began with our founders’ innovation of Winter Term has grown into national recognition for short-term study abroad and life-changing semester programs—and now the trajectory is set for a future in which every student participates in a global learning experience at Eckerd College.”
This gift, Annarelli shared, impacts multiple dimensions of Global Education. First, $4 million will expand the capacity of Eckerd’s study abroad offerings and provide perpetual support for Eckerd’s programs and people. Second, it will add $1 million to the Diane Ferris ’86 Endowment for the London Study Centre, ensuring the future of the College’s cornerstone study abroad program. Third, it will award an additional $400,000 in study abroad scholarships over the next two years. And finally, it will add $100,000 for faculty to develop new study abroad courses. In addition, Annarelli announced, Eckerd will match the $5.5 million from the Rissers through fundraising for Global Education by 2030.
Sophia DiPaola ’27 talked about her trip to New Zealand and the power of studying abroad at the dinner.
Bud Risser, a St. Petersburg businessman who joined Eckerd’s Board of Trustees in 1992, said his own international perspective was shaped in 1963, when he and three friends spent the summer after their college graduation traversing Europe in a Volkswagen Beetle. They kept to a $5 a day budget and slept in sleeping bags under the stars. He has been excited about study abroad ever since.
A longtime supporter of the College’s study abroad programs and scholarships, Risser said that he had long advocated for 100% student participation in study abroad, but as he grew to understand the logistics needed for that to come to fruition, he realized the scope of resources that would be necessary—thus, his recent $5.5 million commitment. He looks forward to the Eckerd community joining him in meeting the needs of the program.
Clockwise from top left: Bud Risser, Eckerd College President Jim Annarelli, Anna Annarelli and Fran Risser.
“I’m a great believer in challenge gifts,” he said. “It’s about igniting a spirit of giving.”
Students gain practical hands-on experience serving as interns for local environmental projects.
Risser said that, in his mind, Global Education is a crucial component of Eckerd’s charge to change the lives of students who change the world.
“We professed an aspiration to train leaders of the world,” Risser says. “And you can’t do that if you stay in one country. It’s just that simple.”
At the study abroad dinner where President Annarelli announced the gift, one such future leader—biochemistry junior Sophia DiPaola—spoke about her recent trip to New Zealand through the Biophilic Self-Actualization course, where she and other students learned about themselves and others through their innate connection to nature. They hiked volcanoes, camped in the rainforest, and spent time with the Maori people, and through it all, connected more deeply with themselves and one another.
“To me, this is what makes an Eckerd study abroad experience so much different from traveling on your own,” she said. “It is education woven into experience, reflection built into adventure, and community embedded into every moment. It challenges students not just to see the world, but to understand their place within it and think outside…Your investment is not just in my education, but my future, who I am becoming, and all the places I will go.”
