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Elizabeth A. Salt Anthropology Travel Endowment

Elizabeth (Betsy) Salt (MA, anthropology, 1975) is passionate about traveling and studying abroad. She is equally dedicated to philanthropy. With the establishment of the Elizabeth A. Salt Anthropology Travel Endowment for graduate students engaged in dissertation research abroad, Salt has ensured a legacy for both.

"My parents taught me that if you have the means to help others, you need to do so," said Salt. "I've become aware of a real need for travel funds for anthropology graduate students hoping to do their doctoral field work abroad."

Salt works at Otterbein University as a cataloger/metadata librarian; she is the librarian liaison for the academic areas of modern languages, international literature, religion, philosophy, deaf studies, and anthropology. She also reviews new books in anthropology and archaeology for Library Journal.

When Salt was an undergraduate, she fell in love with archaeology but was unable to travel to the many sites that so captivated her attention. As a graduate student at Ohio State, Salt was further inspired in her desire to travel around the globe to gain a greater understanding of various diverse cultures. Over the years, she has visited 71 countries and a number of remote islands such as Montserrat (West Indies) and Pohnpei (Micronesia), which she first learned about from her Ohio State anthropology professors.

"I want students to have the opportunity to immerse themselves in other cultures and learn from them as I have," explained Salt. "I want to help them travel for field research without having to worry about the financial burden of their travel expenses."

Over 35 years ago, Salt first dreamed of visiting Bagan, an ancient city located in Myanmar (formerly Burma) and home to the largest and densest concentration of Buddhist temples, pagodas, and ruins in the world with many dating from the 11th and 12th centuries. She hopes to realize her dream later this year when she plans to visit the Bagan Archaeological Zone for the first time.