Student speaker Loan Bui (left) shares her journey to the Access Academy, and her continuing journeys with her classmates.
Please join us in congratulating the Access Academy class of 2010! The graduation ceremony, held on 17 July, featured Foreign Minister Dipu Moni as chief speaker and Loan Bui from Vietnam as student speaker.
Voice of America,
a multimedia international broadcasting service funded by the U.S. Government through the Broadcasting Board of Governors,
interviewed Mowmita Basak Mow (pictured left), an incoming second year undergraduate student at AUW.
To hear the interview, please click on the icon that says "MP3" on the upper right-hand link on the VoA Bangla webpage.
Mr. Steel, former executive manager at the Sony Corporation, will give a talk entitled, "The development of sustainable tourism as a major potential source of social and economic development in Bangladesh." Mr. Steel has also worked at Lever Brothers, Wilkinson Sword, Jaguar Cars, Citicorp and TBWA Advertising, before turning entrepreneur to found DMA Advertising. He also founded Bangladesh Youth Enterprise Advisory and Help Centre.
Date: June 30
Time: 11:40 am - 12:30 pm
Location: 20G Cafe
Mrs. Zarina Hossain, Director of Service Learning and Internships, was a speaker at the first annual Social Business Day of the Yunus Centre. The event was held on June 29 at the Sonargaon Hotel in Dhaka, and was jointly organised by AIESEC, the world's largest student-run organisation, and the Asian University for Women. Dr. Muhammad Yunus launched his new book, Building Social Business: The New Kind of Capitalism that Serves Humanity's Most Pressing Needs at the event.
The 2010 iSTEP project was organized by AUW and TechBridgeWorld to develop tools to provide teachers with an additional teaching resource, and students with a new opportunity to practice their English skills. The iSTEP team -- five students from two Carnegie Mellon University campuses -- will share more information about their projects and how the AUW community can be involved over the next few weeks.
Date: June 9
Time: 3:45 pm
Location: 20G Cafe
Shumona Sharmin Sharna (pictured below) received the bronze medal in Individual Female Kata in the final Divisional Karate Competition, held in Dhaka on 2 June 2010. Congratulations again to Shumona and her teacher, Ms. Maria!
Undergraduate student Shumona Sharmin Sharna is the first AUW student to earn a black belt, from the Honke Shotokan Karate Do Association, and she also recently completed the black belt exam at the Bangladesh Karate Federation.
Shumona received the gold medal in Individual Female Kata in the Chittagong Divisional Karate Competition, held on 21 May 2010. Shumona has been selected to join the final competition in Dhaka on 2 June 2010. Congratulations to Shumona and to her teacher, Ms. Maria Chakraborty!
The AUW Library team will present a talk on Project Muse. This presentation is part of the Library Talk Series, which aims to develop required skills for online literature search, and introduce resources available at the AUW Library Web page. Project MUSE provides full-text access to a comprehensive selection of humanities and social sciences journals.
Date: May 25
Time: 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Location: 20G Cafe
About the speaker: Professor Ulrich von Alemann is a professor of political science and prorector at the Heinrich Heine University of Duesseldorf. His research mainly focuses on political parties, democracy theory, European integration, organized interest and political corruption.
Date: May 19
Time: 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Location: 20G Cafe
America Abroad Media discusses AUW with its founder, Kamal Ahmad.
The National Peace Council of Sri Lanka (NPC) held a workshop on "Understanding of the Ethic Conflict in Sri Lanka" for 25 AUW students from Sri Lanka. The workshop aimed to build awareness of the history and causes of the Tamil-Sinhalese conflict.
Condoleezza Rice, Stanford University professor and former U.S. Secretary of State, joins Cherie Blair, leading human rights barrister and wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, at an event in New York honoring Goldman Sachs and the 10,000 Women initiative for supporting the mission of AUW. Both Dr. Rice and Mrs. Blair are members of the AUW Council of Patrons.
This award recognizes outstanding performance in undergraduate instruction and service from the past year. Students nominate instructors and the final decision is made by the Dean of Undergraduate Studies.
In addition to student recommendations, the Dean considers the degree to which the teaching inspires colleagues and contributes to the development of the Asian University for Women as a center of excellence.
Congratulations to this year's award recipient, Sara Nuzhat Amin, Assistant Professor of Integrated Social Sciences & Quantitative Reasoning!
Yahoo! has partnered with Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) for the Student Technology ExPerience (iSTEP) program, which provides students with the opportunity to apply skills learnt in the classroom to benefit under-served communities around the world. CMU students will be in Bangladesh for ten weeks to work on their projects, including the creation and evaluation of culturally-relevant educational technology tools and games to enhance English literacy, and a low-cost Braille writing tutor for visually-impaired students.
Ms. Roopal Shah will give a talk about Indicorps, a non-partisan, non-religious, non-profit organization that encourages Indians around the world to actively participate in the progress of the country that defines their identity. Indicorps' development-oriented programs are designed to build principled leadership, empower visionaries, inspire collective action, and unite India towards a common vision while creating opportunities for Indians and the Indian diaspora to serve India by applying their skills, time, and resources towards grassroots projects and sustainable strategies for change. The core fellowship program aims to inspire a new generation of global Indian leaders through structured grassroots public service opportunities. Indicorps projects embody a firm and demonstrated commitment to promoting peace, inclusiveness, secularism, and the empowerment of India's people.
Come and listen to the morale of the organization, the dedication that drives the activities, and the leadership that Indicorps is fostering!
Date: May 12
Time: 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Location: 20G Cafe
Lauren Moriarty, former U.S. Ambassador to Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and member of AUW's International Council of Advisors, will visit the University to give a talk entitled, "Practical Skills for Prospering as a Professional." Read her bio
Date: May 9
Time: 5:15 pm - 6:15 pm
Location: 20G Cafe
The Office of Service Learning and Internships is pleased to announce that 18 AUW students have completed a two-month learning experience with a Chittagong-based NGO named YPSA (Young Power in Social Action). They will share their experiences with microfinance, community-based development and empowerment projects, and others.
Date: May 4
Time: 3:30 pm
Location: 20G Cafe
AUW's Tuesday Afternoon Learning Extravaganza (T.A.L.E.) sessions are led by Dr. Jalene LaMontagne. This week, Ms. Summer Lewis will give a talk entitled, "It's a Grind: Working for a Fair Trade Coffee Company." Before coming to AUW, Ms. Summer worked for a fair trade coffee, tea and chocolate company called Equal Exchange in Boston, U.S.A.
Ms. Summer will share:
- How coffee is grown and processed
- What "fair trade" is
- What it was like to work for a company with an unlimited supply of coffee, tea and chocolate!
Date: April 20
Time: 3:30 pm
Location: 20G Cafe
A Carnegie Mellon graduate student receives a Yahoo! iSTEP Fellowship to work with AUW. The Yahoo! iSTEP Fellowship seeks to motivate students to think creatively about how they can use their technical skills, business knowledge and global awareness to solve social issues around the world. Read more on Carnegie Mellon's site
Members of the AUW Community, and all our friends, are cordially invited to watch the AUW Drama Club's production of "The Lottery," a one-act play based on the Shirley Jackson short story about a ritual in a small village. The play will be performed at 7:30 PM on the following days: Thursday, 15 April; Friday, 16 April; and Saturday, 17 April.
Mr. Syamal Gupta, former chairman of Tata International Ltd., his wife Mrs. Sandra Gupta, and Mr. A.P. Mull, Director of Tata Consulting Engineers (TCE) Ltd., will visit Chittagong on April 13 as part of a larger Business Leaders delegation to Bangladesh. TCE has provided assistance for the construction of AUW's permanent campus.
Mr. Emad Gabra will play Middle Eastern music with his Oud, an 11-stringed instrument. He may be joined by another musician, who would play a Brazilian instrument. Come and enjoy music from different parts of the world!
Date: April 11
Time: 5:00 - 7:00 pm
Location: 20G Cafe
Mr. Simone Galimberti, an Italian NGO worker based in Nepal, will lead a three-day workshop designed to help understand and promote the real significance of volunteerism and civic participation in daily life. The workshops will also explore practical ways for enhancing participants’ contributions to their communities.
Date: March 28, 29, 30
Time: 5:00 - 7:30 pm
Location: 20G Cafe
Professor Kathy Pike is a psychologist who specializes in eating disorders and is on the faculty of Temple University at its Tokyo campus. She is also on the Board of Directors of the AUW Support Foundation and the Chair of the Academic Advisory Committee.
Date: March 25
Time: 5:00 pm
Location: 20G Cafe
Mr. Marc Kadish, a former Clinical Law Professor, in Chicago, Illinois, is currently the Director of Pro Bono Activities and Litigation Training at Mayer Brown LLP. Mayer Brown is the 1800 lawyer international law firm with offices throughout the world. Mayer Brown has represented AUW pro bono since its formation. Mr. Kadish will talk about the role of pro bono in a large international law firm.
Date: Monday, March 22
Time: 5:00 - 6:00 pm
Location: 20G Cafe
The Asian University for Women will host a special screening of the award winning film, Time for School, to address the growing need for better employment and education of women in Asia.
Acting Vice-Chancellor Hoon Eng Khoo writes about the linkages between educating girls and eradicating poverty in the 2010 issue of the UN Chronicle.
AUW Patron Cherie Blair gave a speech at an event to support AUW in Kuwait. The video is available on AUW's YouTube channel.
Sunita Basnet discusses changing society through media, using examples from her own country of Nepal, at the One Young World 2010 summit in London.
The AUW Community Service Club (AUWCSC) invites interested AUW affiliates to attend an introductory presentation. The club was inaugurated in June 2008 by the first batch of Access Academy (AA) students-- now first-year undergraduate students--with support from the administration and the former AA teachers. Since November 2008, the club has been implementing a project in UTSA Slum School in Pahathuli, Chittagong.
The Club presentation is on March 2 at 5 pm at the 20/G rooftop.
Binny K. Babu (first row, right), Jyothi Nair (first row, second from left), and Renjini A. Thomas (first row, left) were selected to attend the Youth Unite for Voluntary Action (YUVA) Meet in New Delhi. The two-day event brought together 120 young people from Bangladesh, Europe, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia and Philippines, all of whom wrote about the impacts of climate change.
Read the report written by Binny, Jyothi, and Renjini
About the speaker: Professor Karma Lekshe Tsomo is an Associate Professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of San Diego, where she teaches Buddhism, World Religions, and Comparative Religious Ethics. She is also the President of Sakyadhita: International Association of Buddhist Women, and the director of Jamyang Foundation, an initiative to provide educational opportunities for women in developing countries. She is currently in Nepal on a Fulbright Research Grant for a project on Buddhist Ethics and Society: Women’s Perspectives in Nepal and Bangladesh.
Please click on the "E-Newsletter" link to the left.
The founder of AUW answers the questions posed by Valeria Fraschetti about women's education and the University. ResetDOC (Dialogues on Civilization) is an international cultural association based in Italy.
Read the article on resetdoc.org
Mrs. Blair's visit to Bangladesh to launch the Cherie Blair Fellowships at AUW receives extensive media coverage. Below are the links to the online news articles about Mrs. Blair's trip:
Leading business publication Forbes covers "leadership lessons" at AUW in its Global Women section.
Read the article on Forbes.com
Note: Student numbers in the article represent data from the 2008-2009 academic year.
Mowmita Basak Mow's article about the conditions endured by slumchildren in Bangladesh, and Kaushalya Ruwanthika Ariyathilaka's piece about dowry violence, have been published online at Dispatches International, the quarterly publication of the International Partnerships Foundation (IPF) in Canada.
Read "Deprived: Slum Children in Bangladesh"
Read "A Wife's Darkest Hour: Dowry Violence in Bangladesh"
We are grateful to the Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) and Chittagong Development Authority (CDA), who have assured AUW of their support for the proposed construction of the main campus.
Dr. Dipu Moni, Foreign Minister of Bangladesh, reiterated her government's full support for AUW during her speech as the chief guest at an event with our distinguished international supporters.
Congratulations to Sunita Basnet, a first year in the undergraduate program, who has been selected to represent the inaugural group of World Pulse Voices of Our Future Correspondents. World Pulse is a media enterprise covering global issues through the eyes of women.
Ms. Basnet was previously selected as one of 30 "Voices of Our Future" correspondents from a pool of 600 applicants. Due to her excellent work since then, she was one of 3 chosen from those 30 correspondents to receive the "Media Award."
In the Fall of 2010, Ms. Basnet will go to the United States to share her experiences, along with the two other selected correspondents.
Read the World Pulse announcement
AUW was honored to have Ambassador Firdaus give a talk entitled "Sky is the Limit: Breaking Barriers," on Sunday, 22 November 2009.
Ambassador Firdaus served as Bangladesh’s first career female Ambassador to the Republic of Indonesia, Ambassador to the Arab Republic of Egypt, Ambassador/High Commissioner to the Republic of Cyprus, and Papua New Guinea. She was also the first Bangladesh Ambassador to be appointed in 2003 to East Timor after the country’s independence. She was also promoted as a Secretary--the highest possible rank--to the government of Bangladesh.
We extend our warmest thanks to Ambassador Firdaus for sharing her time and experiences with us.
Melanne Verveer, appointed by U.S. President Barack Obama as Ambassador-at-Large for Women's Issues, spoke highly of the progress made by Bangladesh in integrating women in the economy and in education during her three-day visit there.
The Office of Student Affairs cordially invites members of the AUW Community to the Student Government Officers' Elections. Below is the voting schedule:
Students will vote to elect the President, two Vice Presidents, Treasurer, Secretary, and Assistant Secretary. Each candidate will give a two-minute speech.
Time and Venue: 5:30 pm, 20/G M.M. Ali Road
Results will be released on 18 October.
Students will vote for a Country Representative from each country. Each candidate will give a two-minute speech.
Time and Venue: 5:30 pm, 20/G M.M. Ali Road
Please direct questions to Ms. Fabiha Naumi, Student Affairs Officer.
