FIU, a member of the Ashoka University Changemaker Campus consortium, was recognized for its commitment to accelerate changemaking.
The recognition comes from Ashoka U as part of its global #MillionsofChangemakers campaign. Ashoka U is the higher education initiative of Ashoka, the world’s largest community of changemakers.
As part of the campaign, FIU’s Center for Women’s and Gender Studies was recognized for two commitments related to curriculum development and faculty engagement.
One commitment comes from center instructor Vicki Burns. In partnership with six other departments on campus, Burns will launch an innovative academic course in the fall of 2019 focused on violence prevention and social change. The goal is to empower enrolled students to become changemakers and leaders in violence prevention. These students will then train 1,500 peers to do the same.
Sandy Skelaney, instructor and director of the center’s Gender Violence Prevention Program is leading the second commitment — creating a facilitator guide and training presentation for her social entrepreneurial course titled Sex Trafficking: Building Solutions. The goal is to share the course format with other faculty at FIU and nationwide in an academic conference.
These commitments are two of 73 commitments announced by leading academic institutions, ecosystem-building organizations and individuals in 14 countries working together to spark and accelerate more than 200,000 changemakers.
“In an Everyone a Changemaker world, all people have the confidence, skills and freedom to create change for the good of all,” said Ashoka U’s Growth & Partnerships Director Jessica Lax. “With these commitments, FIU is joining Ashoka U’s global community of higher education innovators who are collectively activating and equipping the changemakers the world needs. We’re thrilled to celebrate FIU’s commitments and look forward to sharing them with others through this campaign.”
In addition to the two commitments by the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies, FIU committed to create a global citizenship course as part of the Global First Year program and to embed social innovation and entrepreneurship into the university’s hiring practicefor a total of four commitments.
Click here to see all of the #MillionsofChangemakers commitments sorted by country, institution or focus area.
