A groundbreaking ceremony for the new America for Bulgaria Student Center took place on May 14, 2011 at the campus of the American University in Bulgaria (AUBG). The event was attended by the members of AUBG Board of Trustees, faculty and staff, representatives of the America for Bulgaria Foundation (ABF), Blagoevgrad municipal officials, many students, and guests.
“The America for Bulgaria Foundation is proud to be the major supporter of this historical undertaking that will tremendously affect student life and university experience for students from more than 40 different countries. In AUBG, we see a model that fits well with our objective for providing high quality education in an international setting that not only educates the future business and political leaders of Bulgaria and the region but also develops socially responsible citizens of the world,” said Desislava Taliokova, Executive Director of the America for Bulgaria Foundation.
“We are greatly honored to have ABF as a partner in building world-class higher education in Bulgaria,” said Marianne Keler, who is the chair of the AUBG Board of Trustees.
The student center will be named after the America for Bulgaria Foundation in recognition of the generous support of $8 million that ABF has provided for the construction of the facility, which is expected to take about 18 months. This is in addition to the $2 million that ABF has provided to AUBG for scholarships for Bulgarian students.
The groundbreaking ceremony for the America for Bulgaria Student Center is a signature event to mark the 20th anniversary of AUBG. The University opened its doors with a first-year class of 208 students and 16 full-time faculty members in September 1991. Today, the AUBG has grown to 1,100 students and 70 faculty members and was declared the Best University in Bulgaria according to the official ranking of the Bulgarian Ministry of Education.
“It’s hard to imagine a more exciting way to mark the University’s twentieth anniversary than beginning construction on the America for Bulgaria Student Center,” said AUBG President David Huwiler. He added that AUBG founders’ dream “to create a university which would offer students from this region a university campus experience that would be equal to or better than they would experience at a quality institution in the United States” was finally becoming true.
