In commemoration of the 15-year anniversary of the death of Tufts alumna Anne Elizabeth Borghesani (LA '89), the founders and supporters of the umbrella Anne E. Borghesani Community Foundation gathered for a concert Saturday night.
Under the Foundation, the prestigious Anne E. Borghesani research grant is awarded annually to two to four University students by the International Relations (IR) department.
Borghesani graduated from Tufts with a degree in IR.
The concert featured the music of Livingston Taylor, son of James Taylor and Harvard artist-in-residence. Taylor was chosen, according to Anne's mother Betty Borghesani, because Anne had always enjoyed his music.
Attendees also participated in a silent auction.
The event served the dual purposes of community building and fundraising, said Borghesani. "Our only means of fundraising is to send out a yearly newsletter to our supporters to let them know who we're giving grants to," she said.
This year, the family decided to "do something different," she said. Although she was not able to provide concrete numbers, Borghesani said that the event raised over $30,000.
In addition, "about three-quarters of the people there are connected to the foundation, both our supporters and the friends of our supporters," Borghesani said. Although the people remaining were most likely fans of Taylor, she said, they "hopefully had a chance to learn about our foundation and its goals and objectives, too."
Following her graduation from Tufts, Anne Borghesani was working as a legal assistant in Washington, DC when she was attacked and murdered by a stranger in Arlington, Va. on the way to her 23rd birthday party.
The Borghesani Foundation distributes grants to four community organizations per year based on violence prevention, as well as scholarship prizes at both Tufts and Lexington High School, of which Anne Borghesani was also an alumna.
Saturday's event featured tables run by the grant and scholarship recipient, so that "they could talk about the programs so others who are supporters can learn first-hand what they are contributing to," Borghesani said.
Tufts representation included Kirk Okano-Lange, the new Assistant Director of the IR department, and Professor David Sloane of the German, Russian & Asian Languages Department. Okano-Lange presented information about past projects conducted by Borghesani Prize recipients.
Three students attended: senior and past Prize recipient Eva Skillicorn, who also spoke at the event, as well as two of this year's recipients.
Sophomore Ben Roseth, who will receive a grant for research next spring on how the role of music in society has changed in Argentina since its economic collapse in 2001, said that the event was helpful in putting "a face to the name and a face to the money they're giving us."
Now, he has "an incentive to keep [the Borghesanis] up-to-date on my research and how it's progressing," Roseth said.
The Tufts Borghesani Prize was established a year after Anne's murder in 1990, and is awarded annually to "people who contribute to the community that they're in, and whose projects are going to develop their interests in community building in other parts of the world," Borghesani said.
The grants are intended to "take [the recipient] to another part of the world to learn about other cultures and bring that knowledge back to the Tufts community" in the form of the project presentations given annually, she said.
The Tufts Prize in particular has been a "wonderful experience" for Betty Borghesani and her husband Roger because "Anne was an IR graduate and it's a way for us to support people with interests similar to hers," she said.
This year, $8,000 will be distributed among four Tufts students. Although these students have been notified about the Prize, all the names will not be public until a formal ceremony in April.
