Category: Uncategorized
Jonathan Reckford ’84 Describes His Path to a Purpose-Driven Career
November 7, 2016Nearly two billion people around the world live in slum housing, and more than 100 million are homeless, but Habitat for Humanity is determined to change that. Its vision: to help create a world where everyone has a decent place to live. In 2015 alone, Habitat, which counts nearly 1,400 U.S. affiliates and many more abroad, provided assistance to nearly two million people around the world. And in 2016, the organization was named the No. 1 private homebuilder in the U.S. by Builder magazine. Habitat for Humanity CEO Jonathan Reckford ’84 is at the helm of it all. Reckford, a native of Chapel Hill who graduated … Read more
Student-Developed App to Link Refugees with Reproductive Health Services
November 7, 2016mAdapt is a new app currently being co-developed by an alumna and two students of the Department of Maternal and Child Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health. The mobile app uses cell phone technology to provide refugees with fast answers to questions about pressing reproductive health needs. Users can search for information by location and language, and the app will connect them with accessible health-care services near their current location. The developers from the Gillings School are Rebeccah Bartlett, a recent alumna, and second-year graduate students Zainab Alidina and Hannah Rackers. … Read more
New Study Considers Overlooked Immigration Issues in Higher Education
November 7, 2016In a recent study, researchers investigated how youth in North Carolina can be “locked out” of educational opportunities through complicated immigration policy. According to the Migration Policy Institute, more than 2.3 million undocumented youth in the United States are eligible to apply for DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals). DACA is a complex immigration status issued through an executive action by President Obama after comprehensive immigration reform failed to pass in Congress. The status protects youth from deportation, but does not guarantee them legal residency. Youth covered by the policy are not eligible for federal financial aid to attend college … Read more
Richman to Serve as Associate Dean for International Programs
November 7, 2016Jack Richman has been appointed associate dean of international programs for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Social Work. The professor and former dean of the school began this position Nov. 1, 2016. “We have a number of global activities underway — the expectation is that we expand our global reach,” Dean Gary Bowen said. “Jack Richman is exactly the right person to lead this expansion.” Bowen added that Richman is traveling this month with faculty members Gina Chowa and Rain Masa to South Africa, one of eight countries where the School of Social Work has introduced … Read more
Claudia Yaghoobi Expands Persian Studies with Support from Roshan Institute
November 6, 2016For Claudia Yaghoobi, a passion for learning and education was instilled in her from a young age. Now an assistant professor of Persian studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Yaghoobi grew up in an Armenian family in Tehran, Iran. Yaghoobi’s family was therefore part of a small ethnic and religious minority in the predominantly Muslim community. However, her parents never let the challenges of their minority status interfere with their children’s education, enrolling Yaghoobi and her siblings in a variety of extracurricular activities, including English language schools. Yaghoobi eventually earned her master’s degree in English language … Read more
CGI’s Iyman Gaspard Answers Questions About Applying for Fulbright Awards
November 6, 2016The Fulbright Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is robust and nationally recognized: between 1973 to 2015, more than 250 students from UNC received Fulbright Student Awards grants to research, study and teach abroad. In 2014-15, UNC was ranked 10th among research universities in Fulbright Student Awards. The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. It is managed nationally by the Institute of International Education and through the Center for Global Initiatives at UNC. The program operates in more than 160 … Read more
Go Global! Apply for a Passport at UNC, Nov. 15-16
November 4, 2016Take advantage of an easy on-campus opportunity to apply for or renew your U.S. passport at the FedEx Global Education Center from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. on Nov. 15 and 16 during UNC Global’s annual Passport Drive. Students, faculty, staff and their families are invited to attend. Officials from the U.S. Department of State will be on campus both days to accept new passport applications and renewal applications. Application forms will be available at the event. During the 2015 Passport Drive, over 330 students, faculty, staff and their family members submitted passport applications. “The Passport Drive has proven to … Read more
UNC Scientists Named to European Union-Funded Global Zika Research Consortium
November 4, 2016Two researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have been named to a global consortium for Zika research and vaccine development. Aravinda de Silva, professor of microbiology and immunology, and Stefan Metz, a postdoctoral research fellow in de Silva’s lab, make up one of only two U.S. teams to be named to the European Union-funded worldwide initiative. Sponsored by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Programme, the consortium is investing $49 million in Zika research across the globe. Metz described the consortium as a collaborative method to tackle the Zika virus, which the World Health … Read more
SILS Alumna and Student Recognized for Work with New Roots/Nuevas Raíces
November 3, 2016University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Information and Library Science (SILS) alumna Jaycie Vos (MSLS ’13) and current master’s student Maria Ramirez presented their work with New Roots/Nuevas Raíces: Voices from Carolina del Norte at the Oral History Association Annual Meeting on October 14, 2016, in Long Beach, California. At the meeting, Vos, Ramirez and Hannah Gill, New Roots director, accepted the OHA’s 2016 Elizabeth B. Mason Project Award, which recognizes outstanding oral history projects. New Roots is a research initiative of UNC that documents the migration, settlement and integration of Latino communities in North Carolina through oral history. Founded in 2007, the project … Read more
UNC Provides Recommendations to Stop Violence Against Chinese Physicians
November 2, 2016Chen Zhongwei, the retired Director of Oral Health at Guangdong General Hospital in China, was attacked this spring and killed by a patient whom he treated more than two decades earlier. The former patient, who claimed that he should receive compensation for a discolored tooth, followed the dentist home where he stabbed him over 30 times. This tragic story is the latest of a number of episodes in which Chinese patients kill health professionals. Responding to the endemic mistrust between patients and physicians in China, Joseph D. Tucker, assistant professor in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School … Read more