GIA Experts Reach Out to Consumers – One Person at a Time

By William E. Boyajian

When I introduced our theme for 2004: Ensuring the public trust, one person at a time, in my last message, I emphasized how GIA has served the public for decades and how Richard T. Liddicoat, our long-time president and late chairman, epitomized that service with every individual he met. He truly was a mentor to all of us. The education he pioneered – and from which so many have benefited – was a highlight of his many accomplishments and our focus in the last Loupe.

We expand that focus in this issue to highlight our service in ways that were not even anticipated during GIA’s humble beginnings. When Robert M. Shipley founded the Institute in 1931, his focus was on “correspondence” training in gemology for U.S. and Canadian jewelers. Although still the most vital element in our educational offerings, we have branched out in so many additional directions – On Campus, Extension, Jewelry Manufacturing Arts, Business – and in so many countries (nine), I believe even the visionary Shipley would be inspired.

Robert Shipley, as noted in GIA’s history book, Legacy of Leadership, often enticed jewelers to sign up for his courses by offering to loan them window displays of “Famous Diamonds of the World” and “The Cutting of the Cullinan Diamond” – exhibits he knew would be attractive to their customers. He even wryly admitted years later that the displays may have been much more appealing to those Depression-weary jewelers than his courses.

Interestingly, what goes around comes around. This issue of The Loupe illustrates how we serve the public trust today through our museum exhibits, lectures and tours and the various ways GIA staff go out “into the public” to educate people about gemology. Like Shipley, we want to enhance the knowledge of consumers by sharing gemological information with them in as many ways as possible.

One of the most exciting new offerings at GIA is the Jr. Gemologist program for local school children. It is amazing to see these young people become mesmerized as they look through one of our loupes or microscopes. We are opening a whole new, fascinating world to them. We hope their enthusiasm for the science of gemology steers them into a career in the jewelry industry or as researchers who will help the industry stay on top of the latest treatments and synthetics.

Just as we educate children through the Jr. Gemologist program during the day, we offer lectures to their parents at night, so they, too, can learn about the many different aspects of the gem and jewelry industry. We have covered such topics as colored diamonds, jewelry history, pearls and trips to exotic gem locales in these lectures. GIA also teamed up with the Smithsonian Institution last year to produce one of the most popular exhibits they’ve ever had, “The Splendor of Diamonds.”

Whether through our education, research, laboratory services, instruments or books – or through our library, museum and exhibitions – we serve the public by enhancing knowledge on the subject of gemology. Doing that well will serve everyone interested in either buying or selling precious jewels and items of adornment.

After all, like those before us, we have an obligation to enthuse both the trade and the public about the beauty, rarity and mystique of fine gems and jewelry. We work in a wonderful field, one that not only ensures the public trust by educating and serving the trade, but also by educating and serving all we encounter – one person at a time.