6 June 2005

Retired Longwood professor honored with scholarship in her name, thanks to gift from alum

Thanks to a gift from Longwood alum Michael Hackett, shown in the photo on the table (from his Army days), an endowed scholarship has been created honoring Dr. Maria Silveira, a retired Longwood Spanish professor, here with Franklin Grant, Longwood's major gifts officer. [CLICK TO ENLARGE]

Dr. Maria Silveira, professor emerita of modern languages at Longwood University, has been honored with an endowed scholarship in her name.

The Maria Milian Silveira Scholarship was formally established in March, thanks to a generous gift from Michael Hackett, a 1985 Longwood graduate who is an executive with Johnson & Johnson. His gift in February 2004 was matched by a 2:1 gift by Johnson & Johnson. Gifts to the scholarship also were provided by other alumni, as well as Dr. Silveira's family and friends.

The scholarship, designed to attract outstanding Spanish majors to Longwood, will be awarded to an entering freshman who intends to earn a degree in Spanish. Although he didn't major in Spanish, Hackett - influenced by a grandfather who told him that a person wasn't truly educated unless he could speak a foreign language - took Spanish courses under Dr. Silveira.

"Dr. Silveira was an exceptional teacher and a mentor who impacted my life," said Hackett, international director of training and development for the Asia Pacific division of Johnson & Johnson in Shanghai, China. "Her passion and commitment to her students and to Longwood are legendary. She played a significant role in my education."

Dr. Silveira, a Cuba native who emigrated to the United States in 1962, was a professor of Spanish at Longwood from 1964 until retiring in 1992. She initiated the partnership program with the University of the Andes in Venezuela, directed the study-abroad program at the University of Madrid and the Summer Spanish Institutes for teachers, founded Longwood's chapter of the national Spanish honor society, Sigma Delta Pi, and was president of the Virginia chapter of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portugese for five years.

The author of three books - one of which, on the late Uruguayan novelist Juan Carlos Onetti, is now considered a standard text on Onetti - and numerous articles, she received the Award for Excellence in Teaching from the Foreign Language Association of Virginia in 1985, Longwood's Maria Bristow Starke Award for Faculty Excellence in 1989, and the Woman of the Year Award from the Business and Professional Women's Club of Farmville in 1986. Her husband, Michael, also is retired from Longwood (he was director of audiovisual and technical services), and three of their four daughters are Longwood graduates: Ginny ('89) who teaches at Cumberland Elementary School and is a graduate student at Longwood, Maria Harris-Lenett ('74) and Mireya Hayes ('74).

Dr. Silveira, who still resides in Farmville, also is well-known for the huge, meticulously decorated cakes she makes for special Longwood occasions.

The scholarship's major donor, Michael Hackett, has worked for Johnson & Johnson for 14 years. He majored in business administration at Longwood and was in the ROTC program. After graduating, he served in the U.S. Army for six years and participated in Desert Shield/Storm from August 1990 to April 1991. He served as the logistics operations officer in the 407th Support Battalion of the 82nd Airborne Division, and he was on one of the first planes into Saudi Arabia as part of the advance party for the 82nd Airborne Division.

"I can still see Dr. Silveira teaching and motivating her students to not only gain a better appreciation of Spanish culture, but to apply yourself 100 percent in all that you do," he said in a recent e-mail. "In and out of the classroom, she reinforced that there are no shortcuts in life. She reinforced that you have to have to apply yourself, and seize and make your own opportunities."