Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri — April 21, 2001
John D. Hopkins, Lecturer in American Language and Culture and Coordinator
of the FAST Area Studies Program at the University of Tampere, Finland,
has been honored with the Westminster College Alumni Achievement Award at
ceremonies marking the 150th anniversary of the college. The award,
considered the highest honor Westminster can bestow upon its graduates, is
given for outstanding career accomplishment. Hopkins was cited for
noteworthy achievement in International Education, American Studies, and
the deployment of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) in
European higher education.
Leadership positions and distinctions for which he was cited included
12 years on the Board of Directors of the Finland-United States
Educational Exchange Commission and the Board Chairmanship of the
Washington-based International Student
Exchange Program (ISEP). He is the only non-U.S. resident ever to
be elected to the Board of Directors of the U.S. NAFSA: Association of International
Educators, and the only person ever to chair the ICT
administrative and policy units of both NAFSA and the European Association for International
Education, the two largest international education membership
associations worldwide. He founded the FAST
Area Studies Program in 1992, having previously been co-founder in
1983 of the Tampere University American Studies Program. He has
spoken and been published widely throughout Europe and the United States
in American Studies, International Education, and the application of new
technologies in higher education, and is also known for the organization
and administration of international conferences in these fields.
Westminster College,
founded in 1851 as one of the first higher education institutions west of
the Mississippi River, enjoys a reputation as one of the leading liberal
arts colleges in the Midwest. The site of Sir Winston Churchill's famed
"Sinews of Peace" address in 1946, it is the home of the Churchill
Memorial and restored 16th-century Christopher Wren Chapel of St. Mary, the Virgin, Aldermanbury, in
which the awards were presented.
John Hopkins was one of six Westminster alumni to receive the Alumni
Achievement Award, the others being James Clarkson '62, Johnson Ho '75,
Joseph Marting '69, Drennon Stringer '55 and Robert Stufflebam '54. He
was nominated for the award by Westminster emeritus professors Christian
and Elizabeth Hauer, and presented at the awards ceremony by Reverend
Russell Viehmann, Vice-President of Webster University.
Hopkins, son of the late Woodard B. and Erna Rowe Hopkins of Boonville,
Missouri, is a 1969 Westminster graduate. He has taught at the University
of Tampere since 1973. His wife Maritta is a lecturer in the University
of Tampere Language Center. John and Maritta reside in Tampere, Finland,
and have two grown children, Brian and Christina.
