UC Faculty Awards 2020: Gayle G. Elliott

“I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to direct the ICP,” says Elliott. “I meet most of these students as freshmen, many away from home for the first time. They’re excited about learning another language, understanding another culture, and traveling to another country. They go into a workplace where they succeed in a professional environment using a language most didn’t speak just eight months ago. Their commitment and motivation is the reason companies outside the US continue to hire ICP students year after year. 

“The students feel the program was the highlight of their UC experience; then they go on in life and do amazing things. My satisfaction comes from knowing I was just a tiny part of their success.”

Her former students — many of whom Elliott has stayed in contact with after they graduated from UC — see it differently. 

“There simply is no graduate of the ICP who doesn’t have many recollections of the personal impact Gayle has made; this continues today, when there is no second thought given to participating in Sunday night phone calls with Japan to work out the details of a student’s visa, getting on a plane to cross an ocean to identify and strengthen corporate partnerships or simply being a ‘shoulder to cry on’ for a student who may be homesick,” says Karl Zimmer (Industrial Engineering ‘99), president and CEO of Premium Peanut. “One can argue that many of these activities are ‘part of the job,’ but I can assure you that Gayle goes above and beyond, taking it very personally that every student has a positive experience.”