NEWSLETTER - ILLINOIS ALUMNI CLUB ARGENTINA

December 2003

Check out the pictures of the Third Annual Cocktail in Buenos Aires!!!

Our third annual cocktail was held on Thursday August 3rd, at the Torcuato Di Tella University in Buenos Aires. More than 40 alumni & friends attended, including Martha Buckley, Cultural Affairs Officer at the local US Embassy. We also had representatives from the Alumni Foundation of Argentina (ALFA) and from other foreign universities alumni clubs.

At the event our first "Honorary Members" were designated. They are Carlos Ezcurra, International Relations, Argentinian Catholic University (who has helped host our first two cocktails and barbecues); Tom Haran, ex-Cultural Affairs Officer at the local US Embassy; Tom Ulen, Law Professor, UIUC; and Paula Havlik from Illinois Alumni Association.

By the end of the cocktail we had our traditional "Illini Raffle". Tommy Elosegui (born and raised at U-C, five year old son of Pedro and Gaby Elosegui) was the official helper for the raffle. The lucky winners left the meeting very happy with their U of I memorabilia. We had a great time meeting once again with all friends, and welcoming other Illinis that came for the first time.

Almost Famous Argentine Illinis...

Last May the Science and Technology Agency that depends on the National Ministry of Education, delivered the Bernardo Houssay Awards to academic careers in different fields. Our club was present there too!! Walter Sosa Escudero (PhD Economics '98) was awarded the Young Researcher Award in the field of Economics and Management, and Rodolfo Cantet (PhD Animal Sciences,1990) was a member of the jury for the Veterinary Medicine field.

On September 16 the newspaper "El Cronista Comercial" published the ranking of the top 40 young lawyers in Argentina, voted by their colleagues and clients. Roberto Silva (LLM '91) and Patricio Martin (LLM '95) were part of these top list.

Congratulations to all of them!

llini visitors in Argentina

Last July we received Peri Kaleagasi Blind, who got her bachelor degree at UofI and is now attending a graduate program at Georgetown University. She spent two weeks in Buenos Aires to do research work and improve her -excellent- Spanish. Maisa Ponce Navelino was her Illini host in Buenos Aires. Check out their picture in an old cafe at trendy Palermo Viejo in our Photos section!

Professor Tom Ulen (Uof I Law School professor) was in Buenos Aires to teach a class at Universidad Di Tella last September. We organized a pizza party for him with some of his former students, at which we presented his Honorary Member Certificate.

Geoff Hewings (Director of REAL, Regional Economics Applications Laboratory, a cooperative venture between the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and UIUC), visited La Plata the first week in August to give a conference at Universidad de La Plata, invited by Pedro Elosegui. Unfortunately Professor Hewings missed our cocktail for just one day ... hopefully next year he will be able to join us, since he is planning to come back to Argentina.

Illini Nobel prizes!!

"Anthony J. Leggett, a world leader in the theory of low-temperature physics and a faculty member at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has been awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize in physics.

Paul C. Lauterbur, a pioneer in the development of magnetic resonance imaging and a faculty member at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has been awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine"

GO ILLINI!!!!

Alumni University Fair

On Saturday October 18 we took part in the Alumni University Fair organized by the Alumni Foundation of Argentina (ALFA). This fair consisted of an exhibition of Foreign universities, represented by their own alumni, and we had our very Illini space there! We distributed printed material that was sent by UofI Alumni Association, and answered questions regarding the university and its programs. Prospective applicants left their personal information to be contacted by alumni in their fields of study.

Check out the pictures of this event at www.alumnifoundation.org

Executive Committee Appointments

We organized a meeting for the Executive Committee, extended to all club members who are willing to take responsibilities in the organization of club activities for next year, in order to establish the appointments for the period 2003 - 2004.

Leaving their appointments are Mercedes Iacoviello, Rodrigo Bunge, Maria Ponce Navelino, Marcelo Rabossi, Carlos Dormal Bosch and Patricia Prandini.

We welcome Luis Vizioli, Augusto Sabra, Cecilia Lalor, Sebastian Aleman, Patricio Martin, Pedro Elosegui and Maria Cursack. Damian Rodriguez Peluffo and Gabi Victoria were already part of the Executive Committee, but they will be in charge this coming year as president and vicepresident... best luck!!

Besides these changes in the formal conformation of the executive committee, we have always had a bigger number of people working for the club and taking responsibilities for different projects, and you are all welcome to come and help!!

Please transmit this message to all people you know who might be interested in participating in any of these events. Thanks! Illinois Alumni Club www.oocities.org/illiniargentina

Executive Committee 2004

President: Damián Rodriguez Peluffo, LLM '99, Law
Vice president: Gabriela Victoria Walerko, BA '01, Fine Arts
Secretary: Luis Vizioli, LLM '94, Law
Vice secretary: Pedro Elosegui PhD '01, Economics
Treasurer: Augusto Sabra, MSBA´01, Business

Vocals
Sebastian Aleman, LLM '98, Law

Maria Cursack, Exchange '02, Economics

Cecilia Lalor, Exchange '94, Agricultural Economics

Patricio Martin, LLM '95, Law

Gabriela Sabbatella, Exchange '01, Speech and Hearing

Executive Committee 2002 - 2003

President: Mercedes Iacoviello, MA'95, ILIR
Vice president: Rodrigo Bunge, PhD ´92, Animal Sciences
Secretary: Maria Ponce Navelino, LLM '00, Law
Vice secretary: Damián Rodriguez Peluffo, LLM '99, Law
Treasurer: Marcelo Rabossi, MS '00, Education

Vocals
Carlos Dormal Bosch, MCL '81, Law
Claudio Onetto, MCL '75, Law
Gabriela Victoria Walerko, BA '01, Fine Arts
Patricia Prandini, MS '88, Accountancy
Pedro Elosegui PhD '01, Economics

NEWSLETTER - ILLINOIS ALUMNI CLUB ARGENTINA

April 2003

Check out the pictures of the first "Illini asado" in Buenos Aires!!!

We had our first Illini Asado in Argentina, on December 21 last year. Once again, the Universidad Catolica Argentina was kind enough to let us use their premises, this time at the College of Agriculture, with a beautiful park and BBQ facitities right in the middle of the city.

It was a nice informal gathering outdoors, with a turnout of about 25 people. We had very good "choripan" (sausage sandwich), and "lomo de cerdo" (pork tenderloin). The official cooks for the event were Pedro Elosegui, Marcelo Rabossi and Walter Sosa Escudero. That proves that three Illinois PhD´s are enough to prepare a BBQ!

Tom Haran, from the US Embassy in Buenos Aires, was controlling very closely the cooking process. He seems to be an expert after three years in the country. This time he attended the event with his son, who was visiting the city for a few weeks.

Laura Ripani, the president of Comunidad Argentina at Urbana Champaign, brought a number of Illini gifts for our traditional raffle. But this time, the prizes went for those that knew the answers to a UofI Trivia. Just in case, start preparing for the next one! You must keep update about information like the name of the present chancellor, number of graduates at the university, and so on...

Don´t miss the pictures at our website www.oocities.org/illiniargentina

Our club mentioned once more...

This time it was at the official end-of-year letter that is sent to all international graduates from the Law School, which says: "Congratulations to the Illinois Alumni Club of Argentina, which was named Best International Club last Fall. A kickoff event was held in Buenos Aires, and featured Professor Tom Ulen".

They also mentioned that they are interested in applications to the LLM program from Latin America to keep their program diverse. If you know of potential candidates for this program, contact the Law School website www.law.uiuc.edu

Illini visitors in Buenos Aires

Last January we had two visitors from Greater Naples Illini Club: Clyde and Phyllis Hause. They came to Argentina on vacation, and met Mercedes Iacoviello and Walter Sosa Escudero before starting their cruise to Tierra del Fuego. Clyde is the inmediate past president of GNI. His club received an award last Fall, specially because of their excellent Scholarship program, that provides financial aid for undergraduate students at UofI.

Planning activities for this year

Our annual cocktail will take place in July this year. If you happen to know of any professor or staff member from UofI visiting Buenos Aires by that time, please let us know so that we make sure we invite them to the event.

We are also planning a series of meetings to discuss topics that could be interesting to club members from different fields. We haven´t determined the specific format yet, but the idea is to have an expert talking about national and international current issues. If you have any suggestions, please contact Mercedes Iacoviello at mercedes@ddmail.com.ar

Alumni Foundation of Argentina
Rodrigo Bunge and Maisa Ponce Navelino are attending the regular meetings at ALFA (Alumni Foundation of Argentina). There are many plans for this year, including the organization of a university fair to provide information for people planning to study abroad, a series of networking events for alumni, and there is also a project to provide professional services to non profit organizations free of charge. We will keep you informed about the activities that are organized. More information can be found at http://www.alumnifoundation.com/

Please transmit this message to all people you know who might be interested in participating in any of these events. Thanks! Illinois Alumni Club www.oocities.org/illiniargentina

Executive Committee 2002 - 2003

New members will be appointed in September 2003

NEWSLETTER - ILLINOIS ALUMNI CLUB ARGENTINA

November 2002

Best International Illini Club!!

Our Club was awarded the "Best International Illini Club" by the University of Illinois Alumni Association. Our President, Ms. Mercedes Iacoviello received the award in represantation of the Club's Executive Committee at the annual meeting of Illinois Alumni Clubs, held at the Illini Union on October 25th. Congratulations to all!!

To add success upon success the Illini beat Indiana at the Homecoming Football Game the day following the award presentation!!
Soon we will have pictures of the event (and the prize!) on our website.

Our club in the news...

The following caption appeared on page 24 of the "Illinois Alumni" (Volume15, Issue 3, November/December 2002) Magazine:
International Outreach. The regional clubs have expanded to include the new Illinois Alumni Club of Argentina. A kickoff event in Buenos Aires featured law professor Thomas Ulen. The Argentina club is quickly becoming a model for other international clubs and the International Alumni Networking Contacts Program.

Executive Committee Appointments

We have delayed renewing the Club's authorities because although many members have offered to help; very few have indicated that they are able to take Executive responsabilities. Because of this our idea is to maintain the executive positions one more year, except for Vocals. We will make new appointments for Vocals hoping they will next year take on more executive positions.

Leaving their appointments as Vocals are Fernando Lopez, Facundo Gomez Minujin, Patricio Martin and Walter Sosa Escudero, though they will continue helping out with different Club tasks. New Vocals are Patricia Prandini, Gabriela Walerko, Carlos Dormal Bosch and Pedro Elosegui. Our hearty thanks to those who helped this year and a welcome to the new Executive Committee members!

Annual Interclub Meeting

You are all invited to the IV Foreign Alumni Meeting which will take place Tuesday December 3rd at 7 pm. The meeting will be held in the MALBA (Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires). We are collaborating with ALFA (Alumni Foundation of Argentina) in the organization of this event. We hope lots of Illinois Alumni turn up!! Because you must pre-register for this event please check current information at: http://www.alumnifoundation.com/

End-of-year barbecue

Together with the Argentine Comunity at Urbana-Champaign we are planning an end of year barbecue. Tentative date is Saturday December 21st. We will confirm and update information in the following weeks. Please reserve this date in your calendars so you and your families can come to the first Illini Barbecue in Argentina.

Please transmit this message to all people you know who might be interested in participating in any of these events. Thanks! Illinois Alumni Club www.oocities.org/illiniargentina

Executive Committee 2002 - 2003

New members will be appointed in September 2003

President: Mercedes Iacoviello, MA'95, ILIR

Vice president: Rodrigo Bunge, PhD ´92, Animal Sciences

Secretary: Maria Ponce Navelino, LLM '00, Law

Vice secretary: Damián Rodriguez Peluffo, LLM '99, Law

Treasurer: Marcelo Rabossi, MS '00, Education

Vocals

Carlos Dormal Bosch, MCL '81, Law

Claudio Onetto, MCL '75, Law

Gabriela Victoria Walerko, BA '01, Fine Arts

Patricia Prandini, MS '88, Accountancy

Pedro Elosegui PhD '01, Economics

NEWSLETTER - ILLINOIS ALUMNI CLUB ARGENTINA

June 2002

Invitation to annual meeting

We invite you to the cocktail to be held on July 31 at Universidad Católica Argentina, Alicia Moreu de Justo 1400. Our special guest will be once more Tom Ulen, Distinguished Alumni Professor of Law.

Funding from Illinois Alumni Association

We received a donation of 500 dollars from Illinois Alumni Association, that will be used for our activities this year. We specially thank Paula Havlik, Associate Director, Club and Constituent Programs, University of Illinois Alumni Association, who asked for the funding to be assigned to our club.

Travel expenses refund for alumni from Argentine provinces

We offer to alumni living in the provinces to refund their travel expenses from their city of residence to Buenos Aires to assist to our annual meeting. Those interested in this possiibility please contact Rodrigo Bunge (rbunge@ideamail.com.ar).

Orientation meeting for new students.

An informal orientation meeting for new students will take place on Thursday June 27 at 6 pm. We are organizing this activity with

Comunidad Argentina en Urbana Champaign (CAUC). For more details please contact Veronica Alaimo alaimo@uiuc.edu.

Our club in the news!

Illinois Alumni included the announcement of our annual meeting in its May-June issue. Illinois International, published an article on the organization of our club, with a comment about our activities during our first year.

Web page

We are updating our web site www.oocities.org/illiniargentina

Next week we will publish a list including all club members. Please check if your information is correct, and contact us if you have any other information for Argentines that have studied or worked at UofI.

ALFA Alumni Foundation

Rodrigo Bunge y Maisa Ponce Navelino participated in several ALFA meetings during the last months. The Foundation is working on its formal registration, sponsored by Intel. We are following the advances of the project, and collaborating with the communication of their initiatives among club members.

Please forward this message to any other Argentinians that lived or are currently living in Urbana Champaign , and may be interested in participating in our activities. Thanks!

Illinois Alumni Club

www.oocities.org/illiniargentina

Executive Committee 2001 – 2002

Renewing members in Septiember 2002

Presidente: Mercedes Iacoviello, MA’95, ILIR

Vice presidente: Rodrigo Bunge, PhD ´92, Animal Sciences

Secretaria: Maria Ponce Navelino, LLM '00, Law

Pro secretario: Damián Rodriguez Peluffo, LLM '99, Law

Tesorero: Marcelo Rabossi, MS '00, Education

Vocales

Claudio Onetto, MCL '75, Law

Patricio Martin, LLM '95, Law

Facundo Gomez Minujin, LLM '89, Law

Fernando Lopez, MA’ 90, Architecture

Walter Sosa Escudero, PhD’98, Economics

NEWSLETTER - ILLINOIS ALUMNI CLUB ARGENTINA

January - February 2002

Our club in the news!

The Illinois Alumni magazine, edited by the Illinois Alumni Association and distributed to alumni around the world, included information about the launching meeting of our club in the Club Hopping section, page 35, in the November-December 2001 issue. The Illinois Jurist publication, edited by UofI Law School, also mentioned the news about the inauguration of the club. Copies of both articles will be included in our web page, which is being updated this coming March.

Visitors from UofI

Last semester we received several visitors from UofI in Buenos Aires:

· Joan Solaun, Director, Study Abroad Office

· Tom Ulen, Professor, Law School

· Alejandro Lapunzina, Professor, School of Architecture

· Janet Glaser, Associate Vice Chancellor for Research

· Christine Godziak, Associate Director, MBA Marketing and Communication

· Werner Baer, Professor, Economics Department

· John Santas, Professor, College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences

All of them offered their support to our club´s activities

MBA Tour

We collaborated with the UofI information table at the MBA Tour, an annual meeting that gathers several business administration programs from foreign and local universities. The meeting was held at Hotel Inter Continental on October 18, 2001. Gabi Walerko, Patricia Prandini, Mercedes Iacoviello and Maisa Ponce Navelino helped Christine Godziak, who was representing the UofI MBA at the meeting.

Foreign Universities Foundation - Happy Hour en el MALBA

On December 4, 2001 the annual meeting for the foreign universities alumni clubs network was held at the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA). In that opportunity there was a presentation about the iniciative of creating a foundation that will represent all our clubs. Many of our members took part at the happy hour. Maisa Ponce Navelino and Mercedes Iacoviello helped with the organization of this event.

SMS Annual Meeting cancelled

From October to December 2001, we have been collaborating along with a group of other alumni clubs in the organization of a round table for the Strategic Management Society Annual Meeting, that was to be held on March 2002 in Buenos Aires.

Unfortunately the meeting was cancelled due to the difficult economic times our country is going through during these months. We hope that the contact we established with the authorities of other alumni clubs and with the Entrepreneurship Center at Universidad Austral will be useful to organize other activities in the near future.

Contact with local institutions

Patricia Prandini and Mercedes Iacoviello met with the authorities of the Instituto Universitario del Ejército and with the president of Argentine Auditors Association. Both institutions were interested in establishing academic exchange with the UofI. We are establishing contact with the appropriate departments that are related with their activities.

Thank you notes

We received thank you notes from different UofI offices in response to our condolences message sent after September 11. The messages were received from Illinois Alumni Association, Law School, Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations, Study Abroad Office, and Associate Provost for International Affairs. They also sent greetings responding to our Holidays electronic card.

Work groups

We invite you all to join our work groups, that are coordinated by the following members of the club:

· Orientation for students and families - Gabi Walerko and Carla Santangelo

· Orientation to UIUC staff members and professors visiting Argentina - Fernando Lopez - Sebastian Aleman

· Orientation and activities for exchange students - Lucas Cook

· Web page and data base – Walter Sosa and Patricia Prandini

· Academic activities - Marcelo Rabossi

· Institutional Relations with UIUC - Damian Rodriguez Peluffo

· FUAC (Foreign Universities Alumni Club) projects - Claudio Onetto - Maria Ponce Navelino - Rodrigo Bunge

If interested in joining any of these groups please contact Mercedes Iacoviello, at mercedes@ddmail.com.ar

NEXT ACTIVITIES

We are starting to organize two events for this year

· A round table with club members, to discuss about the crisis our country is going through, next April. There was a similar activity last February at UofI, sponsored by the Argentine Community in Urbana Champaign, and it would be interesting to do something similar in Argentina.

· An informal meeting to celebrate our first year as a formally organized group, since we had our formal launching reunion in July 19, 2001.

· We are also in contact with the Comunidad Argentina en Urbana Champaign to organize another orientation session for new students in Buenos Aires, before they leave the country to start classes in August.

If you have any suggestion regarding these iniciatives, please contact Marcelo Rabossi (mrabossi@utdt.edu) or Rodrigo Bunge (rbunge@ideamail.com.ar)

Please forward this message to any other Argentinians that lived or are currently living in Urbana Champaign, and may be interested in participating in our activities. Thanks!

Executive Board 2001 – 2002

To be renewed in September 2002

Presidente: Mercedes Iacoviello, MA’95, ILIR

Vice presidente: Rodrigo Bunge, PhD ´92, Animal Sciences

Secretaria: Maria Ponce Navelino, LLM '00, Law

Pro secretario: Damián Rodriguez Peluffo, LLM '99, Law

Tesorero: Marcelo Rabossi, MS '00, Education

Vocales

Claudio Onetto, MCL '75, Law

Patricio Martin, LLM '95, Law

Facundo Gomez Minujin, LLM '89, Law

Fernando Lopez, MA’ 90, Architecture

Walter Sosa Escudero, PhD’98, Economics