Career Development Grantee Carrie Ellett teaching at Instituto (or ISPEDIBSHA), a multicultural and bilingual school in the Schuar territory in Gualaquiza
This week has been full of news about the Clinton Global Initiative, initiated in 2005 by former President Bill Clinton “to inspire, connect, and empower a community of global leaders to forge solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges.” Specifically, the New York Times ran an article about the Teach for All program, modeled after Teach for America and dedicated to an ongoing effort to recruit teachers internationally. Teach for All was founded at the 2007 CGI meeting, a collaboration between Clinton and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
This news has made me consider my role as the new AAUW Fellowships and Grants intern. I’ve known AAUW as a multifaceted organization supporting the further empowerment and education of women in the United States. I now realize that there is also an outstanding global component, as seen by the work of the extraordinary fellows and grantees that I am just getting to know. Education — the cornerstone of AAUW — has opened many doors of opportunity for women, and global education facilitates the growth of women’s empowerment on an international scale.
Career Development Grantee Danna Lomax working with her students at Anacapa Middle School in California
At AAUW, fellows and grantees have a passion for the field of global education with multiple and unique areas of specialization. Many recipients in the 2011–12 class demonstrate the complex nature of this field. Here are a few notable examples:
- Carrie Ellett has spent a decade promoting gender equality through her nonprofit work. She is now pursuing a master’s degree in international and multicultural education, emphasizing human rights education.
- After completing her master’s, Fulbright recipient and bilingual educator Danna Lomax hopes to create a curriculum that fosters global youth education. She has been featured in PBS’s Innovation Awards Gallery for her engaging teaching methods.
- Patience Fielding investigates women who overcame patriarchal barriers to pursue careers in engineering and science fields. Her work focuses on higher education and gender in developing nations.
- Lifang Wang, who is researching her dissertation in China, is focusing on the barriers faced by rural Chinese women who attend urban Chinese universities. Lifang has previously worked with the U.N. Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.
International Fellow Lifang Wang in rural China
These extraordinary women are impressive for their scholarship as well as their passion for women’s empowerment globally. As I continue my work at AAUW, I look forward to seeing the outstanding work they and all AAUW fellows produce.
This post was written by AAUW Fellowships and Grants Intern Elyssa Shildneck.
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