Three members of the University of New Mexico community who made outstanding contributions to international programs and education in the last year will be honored at a ceremony Wednesday, April 14, 3-4:30 p.m. in the History Department Commons, Mesa Vista Hall 1106 on the UNM campus. The event is free and open to the public.
Professor Michael Campana, Earth & Planetary Sciences and director of the UNM Water Resources Program, will receive an International Excellence Award for his efforts to improve water resources throughout the developing world. Campana has worked with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and a number of other international agencies to promote sustainable development of water resources in regions from Central America to Central Asia.
For a number of years he has taken groups of UNM students to work on water development projects in rural Honduras.
“The Honduras program is one of the best international opportunities available to UNM students. The participants live and work with local people in rural villages, learn real problems and solutions for sustainable development, and make a great contribution to improving people's lives. What they learn in Honduras they can apply in their eventual careers in New Mexico or other parts of the world,” said Ken Carpenter, associate director of International Programs & Studies.
The staff recipient of the International Excellence Award goes to Robyn Côté, program coordinator, Latin American & Iberian Institute. Côté, who has bachelor's and master's degrees from UNM, is responsible for a number of international exchange and intensive language programs for UNM students in Spain and Latin America. She also works as an administrator with the Brazilian Studies Association, housed on the UNM campus, the Guanajuato Summer Law Institute, and a number of other UNM programs in Spain and Latin America.
William Stanley, interim director of the Latin American & Iberian Institute, said, “She provides outstanding service in her advising and support for international students as well as our domestic students on study abroad programs, her promotion of international collaborations for faculty members, and her contributions to UNM areas studies.”
A third International Excellence Award will go to Jason Ben-Meir, a doctoral candidate in sociology. Ben-Meir came to UNM in 2000 after serving in the Peace Corps in Morocco and working and studying in Israel. While at UNM, Ben-Meir received a grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development to coordinate a rural forestry project for several Moroccan communities.
He has also worked with homeless women and at-risk teenagers in Albuquerque and Taos. Ben-Meir teaches an undergraduate sociology course, “Participatory Community Development,” which compares efforts to improve communities in New Mexico to those in developing countries around the world.
For more information contact: Ken Carpenter, International Programs & Studies, 277-4032, E-mail: carpenk@unm.edu .
Contact: Carolyn Gonzales (505) 277-5920
Posted by kwentworth at April 8, 2004 09:37 AM