On October 22, 2010 Dr. Dennis A. Ahlburg was inaugurated as the 18th president of Trinity University with students, faculty, staff, alumni, benefactors, and former colleagues taking part in an investiture ceremony in Laurie Auditorium at Trinity University. Ahlburg pledged to integrate the arts, humanities, sciences, and business practices into new ways of defining a liberal arts education in the 21st century.
Tahira Firdous (Photo Credit: Yayori Award website)
Earlier this 2010, EWC Scholarship Program Specialist, Kim Small (IEP 90-95, PIDP 95-96), nominated EWC Alumna Tahira Firdous (EP 07-09) from India/Kashmir for the 2010 Yayori Award.
The Yayori Award focuses on women activists, journalists, and artists who work at the grassroots level with socially marginalized peoples in order to create a 21st century free from war and discrimination against women. Younger activists are especially encouraged to apply so that the Yayori Award can support future leaders. Each year an individual or a group is selected from mainly the Asian region and offered an award certificate and a prize amount of 500,000 yen.
Tahira Firdous is the 2010 recipient of the Yayori Award.
Craig Gima (Jefferson Fellow 01, EWSem 08), co-leader of the EWCA Media Alumni Chapter, was named one of 2 national Members of the Year at the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) national convention on August 2010.
Craig is Assistant City Editor at the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. He co-won with Lisa Chun from San Jose, CA for their work in helping to free detained U.S. reporters Roxanna Saberi from Iran and Euna Lee and Lisa Ling from North Korea.
Source: University of Hawai’i at Manoa website.
Chhany Sak-Humphry (OG: 79-81, 92) is among the 12 recipients of the 2010′s Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Teaching from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. The Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Teaching is awarded by the Board of Regents as tribute to faculty members who exhibit an extraordinary level of subject mastery and scholarship, teaching effectiveness and creativity and personal values that benefit students.
Chhany is an associate professor in the Department of Indo-Pacific Languages and Literatures at UH Manoa. Sak-Humphry believes that the benefit of learning any foreign language is immeasurable.
Source: website of the Governor-General of New Zealand.
The Governor-General of New Zealand, Honorable Sir Anand Satyanand, and Lady Susan Satyanand, hosted two investiture ceremonies at The Canterbury Club in Christchurch on Friday 26 March, 2010.
Sources: East-West Center: Fifty Years, Fifty Stories; The RVR Award 2010 Program, The Philippine Starweek VOL. XXIV No. 27.
Development banker Jesus P. Tambuting and agribusiness manager Senen C. Bacani are the recipients of the 1st Ramon V. del Rosario, Sr. Award for Nation Building, sponsored by the Junior Chamber International Manila (Jaycees), and the Asian Institute of Management’s RVR Center for Corporate Social Responsibility.
Senen Bacani (ISI: 66-68, Assoc: 02, OEA: 08) was inspired by the work of his father to shift policies and programs in the agribusiness sector in the Philippines to alleviate poverty in rural areas and provide better employment opportunities.
The EWC/EWCA 50th Anniversary International Conference concluded with the biennial alumni conference’s traditional Aloha Dinner and alumni talent show. The dinner capped a four-day conference and reunion that brought together more than 800 EWC alumni and friends from 35 countries.
On Friday, participants were welcomed by an opening ceremony of taiko drumming, hula dance and welcome addresses from Center and Hawai‘i officials, before boarding buses for a joyful homecoming afternoon at the EWC campus.
Maya Soetoro-Ng, daughter of two EWC grantees and currently an education specialist at the Center, conveyed a message of welcome from her brother, President Barack Obama. “My brother is grateful to all of you for your important contribution over the last 50 years in building bridges and working collaboratively throughout the countries of the Asia Pacific region,” she said. “He thanks you for all the grassroots diplomacy you do so well, and that makes his job much easier.”
EWC Board of Governors Chairman Puongpun Sananikone, himself a Center alumnus from the 1960s, called the conference “a great homecoming for the worldwide EWC ‘ohana (family).” He said that “as alumni, we have a responsibility to tell the East-West Center story and share its legacy with the world.”
Center President Charles E. Morrison said that a solid foundation has been laid by the “open book” of the EWC’s half-century of history. “Gazing toward the future of enhanced needs in U.S.-Asia-Pacific research, education, and exchange,” he said, “a challenging but rewarding agenda lies ahead. We have, we can, and we will make a difference.”
Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann said the city and its people are “eternally grateful for the East-West Center and all that you do.” Hawai‘i governor Linda Lingle called the Center “an essential institution of our world going forward” and a integral part of bringing the APEC summit meeting to Honolulu in November 2011.
Over the next the next three days, the conference featured more than 50 expert discussion panels on a range of key regional issues, including climate change, U.S. foreign policy, education issues, governance challenges and more.
Participants, many of whom had not seen each other or returned to Hawai‘i since they were students at the Center, also enjoyed a variety of social festivities, including the EWC homecoming open house; a dinner honoring Hawai‘i Senator Daniel K. Inouye with the East-West Center Association’s Makana Award; a luncheon recognizing distinguished alumni and exceptional volunteers and alumni chapters; an Independence Day reception with the Royal Hawaiian Band and the Aloha Dinner.
At the final dinner, the alumni association presented a special tribute to EWC Alumni Officer Gordon Ring, who has served the Center in a variety of capacities since he first arrived as a student in 1963.
EWC President, Charles E. Morrison’s Address
EWC Board of Governors Chair, Puongpun Sananikone’s Address
Special Publication – “East-West Center: Fifty Years, Fifty Stories”
Congratulations!!
Grand Prize Winners of the
EWCA Email Update Drive drawing:
One round trip ticket to the 2010 Conference:
Dr. Victor Yano (OG 71-74) – Palau
One free 2010 Conference registration:
Mr. Stanley Robert Munro (ISI 61-64) – Canada
These winning East-West Center Association (EWCA) members updated their contact information with the EWCA and as a result were entered in the EWCA Email Update Drive drawing!
Also, every month from July to December 2009, 3 EWC alumni were selected to for a Amazon.com gift certificate. Each winner received a gift card code via e-mail that they could use to redeem for items of their choosing at Amazon.com.
Links:
Five East-West Center alumni have been selected to receive the 2010 Distinguished Alumni Award from the East-West Center and the East-West Center Association. This award recognizes outstanding accomplishments, including significant contributions to the promotion of better relations and understanding among the peoples of Asia, the Pacific, and the United States; significant achievement in your career field and continuing support for the goals and objectives of the Center.
On February 4, 2010, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake succeeded Sheila Dixon as mayor of Baltimore. It has been reported that Stephanie, at age 39, is the second youngest mayor in the city’s history; second only to Martin O’Malley, who was 36 at the time he entered office.
In November 2007, Stephanie participated in the East-West Center’s 17th New Generation Seminar, when she was Council President at the Baltimore City Council.
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