Glenda Garrelts Mattes

Changing Lives by: ensuring students in the College of Arts and Sciences can have the transforming experience of international travel that she had as a K-State student.

Experience of a lifetime: A trip in June of 1964, where Glenda Garrelts Mattes traveled Europe for two months through People to People, a program founded by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, changed her life and served as the inspiration for her generous bequest that established the Glenda Garrelts Mattes and Donald A. Mattes International Travel Award.

K-State connection and beyond: As a medical technology major at K-State, Glenda graduated and worked as a medical technologist for 15 years. She later dedicated herself to working in real estate and now volunteers for Literacy Volunteers of America. Glenda also works in fundraising and is curator of a small museum in Dover, Mass. She has traveled all over Europe, Peru, the Galapagos Islands and India.

Why she gave: “Both Don (husband) and I believe in funding education, and I wanted to do something that I thought would make a difference in students’ lives. I thought about what has really had an impact on my life, and that early travel just was always in front. I was surprised that my idea was accepted and expanded upon so quickly. It’s exciting to know that others are also excited about my idea.”

How travel changed her life: “I mostly got over being shy. I made new friends with different life experiences. It’s hard to put it into words, but that two months was an absolute life-changing experience.”

Impact: “I hope that it will open minds. I wish it were possible to require that every student study a foreign language and experience foreign travel before receiving a degree. Travel opens up a huge world full of different people, different languages, different ideas and different cultures. It’s almost impossible not to be changed by those contacts and experiences.”