UPEI joins Academics Without Borders Network
The University of Prince Edward Island has recently joined the Academics Without Borders (AWB) Network, and Dr. Ann Braithwaite, professor of Diversity and Social Justice Studies at UPEI, has been elected to the AWB board of directors.
AWB is a Canadian nonprofit that works with universities in the most disadvantaged countries, building their capability to educate the professionals and leaders essential to the strong societies they justly desire. AWB does this by sending professional staff and academics who donate their time to work on projects that originate with its partner universities, reflecting the most pressing needs of their communities.
Dr. Greg Naterer, UPEI’s vice-president academic and research, welcomes the addition of UPEI to the AWB Network. “It’s an honour for UPEI to join this network of Canadian universities and colleges in support of global development in low- and middle-income countries. Through this network, UPEI faculty and staff will have volunteer opportunities through AWB’s existing relationships with institutions abroad and an ability to develop projects with AWB's post-secondary partners in these countries.”
Dr. Braithwaite is pleased to see UPEI join the AWB Network, and to have been elected to the board. “I’m excited to be part of an organization that is so clearly and unequivocally ‘demand-driven’ and based on a ‘train the trainer’ model, one whose work believes—as I do—that higher education can be central to the social good, and one that enacts the belief that we all have much to learn from and share with each other.”
The AWB Network is a consortium of Canadian universities and colleges that support AWB’s mission to work with volunteer academics to help low and middle-income countries build the capacity of their post-secondary institutions to drive development and improve the quality of life in communities around the world.
Membership in the Network will provide UPEI with enhanced recognition for its international work, as well as new resources to support and coordinate this work. By building capacity at post-secondary institutions across the developing world, UPEI and AWB look forward to changing lives both at home and abroad.
“It is a real pleasure to welcome UPEI to the AWB Network of Canadian universities and colleges. The knowledge and experience that UPEI’s faculty and staff can offer as volunteers is invaluable to the colleges and universities we collaborate with in the developing world—it will make a real difference. In addition, the AWB Network links the campus to like-minded institutions across Canada and builds connections in other parts of the world that will enrich its programs and the student experience,” said Dr. Nancy Gallini, AWB’s Executive Director.
Members of the UPEI community are encouraged to sign up for emails from AWB by sending a message to inquiry@awb-usf.org or filling out the form at the bottom of any page on the AWB website
