[Captions Auto-Generated] Greetings from the university of Nebraska and welcome to the closing ceremony of
the university partnership and exchange program.
Nebraska was proud to host the UPX program and it was a privilege to connect
with leaders from top universities in Rwanda.
Do you PEX fellows demonstrated resiliency as the world navigated challenges
related to COVID-19. They were great ambassadors for their universities.
As they engage with content experts from a number of higher education
institutions and organizations in the United States and Africa,
this virtual ceremony is dedicated to their accomplishments.
Before we begin,
I would like to thank our partners at the U S embassy in Kigali,
especially Jotto Haki Ramana and Fonda Kimpton at Berkshire.
Wanda Nebraska also appreciates the content experts from a number of
universities in the United States and Africa that contributed to the training
frameworks,
content experts from the big 10 academic Alliance represented the university of
Iowa Northwestern university and Michigan state university.
Nebraska was also privileged to engage with colleagues from the university of
Tennessee,
Kansas state university and the university of Arkansas Clinton school of public
service. Additionally,
we would like to thank our colleagues from the African leadership university for
your guidance and contributions.
This program would not have been a success without each of your investment
and effort.
We will now hear from our colleagues at the U S embassy in Kigali and bird
Shawanda.
Hello,
my name is Jamie drag and I'm the deputy public affairs officer at the embassy
of the United States to the Republic of Rwanda making connections between two
organizations or institutions can be difficult in the best of times and
developing organizational relationships with the two parties are different
countries is an even greater challenge.
The university partnership initiative has created a cohort of international
education leaders in Rwanda that possessed the knowledge and skills to
initiate and foster new partnerships between Rwanda and U S educational
institutions did the 10 fellows that were trained in this initiative.
And you are now in power.
That's the future of international education administrators in the U S mission
to Kigali is committed to supporting and expanding partnerships between colleges
and universities in Rwanda and the United States international partnerships in
higher education opportunities and benefits to both American and Rwandan
institution.
I congratulate each of you on completing the program and hope to hear if many
future educational partnerships that are born from the synergies that have
already started. Thank you.
Hi, my name is Dale Dawson. I'm the founder and CEO of Bridgestone Rwanda,
and I'm a member of president [inaudible] presidential advisory council.
I want to congratulate all of the UPX fellows on their successful
completion of the program. This year.
Also want to remind you that a hallmark of Rwanda's
fast development of the last two decades is the deliberate and
relentless effort by Rwanda's leaders,
both in the government and in the private sector and the social sector to build
Rwanda's global network of friends.
You should remember that Rwanda has one of the most inspiring stories in the
world,
and when people hear that story and they are,
many of them are compelled to get involved and to help
as an ambassador and a representative of Rwanda and the universities.
You have a great opportunity to share the story of
Rwanda and as universities with universities and higher
education supporters all over the world.
I want to challenge you to use what you've learned in the
UPX program this year to work together,
to work with your friends around the world,
and to build your own network of friends in order to advance the
universities in Rwanda and to make higher education in Rwanda,
a new standard for Africa. Good luck.
And God bless as you start this adventure.
Alright. The participants,
all of the universities professional exchange program,
my name is [inaudible] faculty for entrepreneurship.
I need international business and trade at the African leadership university
and, uh, e-commerce programs lead. Uh,
it was certainly a pleasure to collaborate with you all, to work with you,
to facilitate workshops and to coach you, as you went through that program.
I think such a program is feeding as education continues
to evolve, especially at the higher education level,
and there are many problems to be solved.
So you all coming together across different institutions to think about ways to
so this problems and to,
to increase the effectiveness of your institutions.
I was certainly a delight to see,
and I want to encourage that you keep being on the edge of improving the quality
of education, especially higher education, right? And I want to say as well,
we have the opportunity to do the centered design workshop
together.
I love that many of you enjoy that process of actually creating
for the user, which is a student in this case.
And I believe as long as we as educators and you'll continue to put the
learner at the center of the innovation process,
we won't get it wrong with education. Um,
rather we will continue to unlock more opportunities to skill quality
education, because what we're going to have after all is going to be the learn.
Now, um, after all is said and done,
the methods might change or have the learner. So once again,
congratulations on being part of this amazing program.
And I wish you all the best as you continue to collaborate across the citizens
and borders. Do you collectively our view,
the future of quality education? Thank you.
Thanks to me.
And I also enjoyed getting to know you all and participating in the human
centered design workshop as part of the new pecs program.
And it was really exciting to see some of the problems that each of you are
finding and your respective space and the ways in which you tried to use this
program to come up with creative solutions and building your grant proposals.
Uh,
we really are excited about the ways in which you were exposed to human centered
design as Demi shared in terms of keeping your user in the center of any
solution that you possibly might design for your universities. Uh,
I also think this program is really powerful because I do think partnerships are
such a key part of problem solving as well.
When we have more minds together to solve respective problems across cultures.
I think there's a lot more potential for us to come up with creative solutions.
So congratulations,
my inspirational message is to keep solving problems with curiosity, creativity,
and confidence, and good luck to you at the completion of the program.
Greetings fellows, I'm Amy Jamieson,
co-director of the Alliance for African partnership based at Michigan state
university in east Lansing, Michigan.
It has been my privilege to participate as a mentor in the UPX program.
And I have really enjoyed interacting with my mentees,
as well as the rest of the fellows throughout your journey.
Congratulations to all of you on your initial selection and then for your
accomplishments and completing the program.
It has been really exciting to see the engagement of fellows and to learn about
the leadership.
Each of you are taking to spearhead internationalization efforts within your own
institutions.
I was energized by the discussions that came out of the mentorship sessions and
the learning that took place across institutions,
both in Rwanda and in the U S congratulations
also to the university of Nebraska Lincoln for their leadership on this program
and for their long-term commitment to partnership with Rwanda and higher
education institutions.
The Alliance for African partnership looks forward to seeking ways to continue
this collaboration with Rwanda,
the university of Nebraska Lincoln and the other mentoring institutions in the
future. Uh,
Hardy congratulations on behalf of AAP for a job well done.
Hi everyone. It's Nicola driver from the Clinton school of public service.
I just wanted to give you a quick shout out and say,
congratulations. And it's been,
it was such a pleasure working with you all, um,
on the program evaluation workshop,
where we learned about logic models and evaluation questions and indicators,
and I hope you all have had, um,
a great experience so far with the program and that you have
found, uh, the skills valuable and useful.
So congratulations again.
Hi, this is Dr. Elaine Johannes at Kansas state university,
and I'm in front of Anderson hall here at our university,
which is our administration,
and it is a building that's over a hundred years old, a lot of tradition,
and a lot of great people have passed this way.
And a lot of great people have passed the way through Nebraska,
the university of Nebraska,
which was the sponsor for the Rwanda and fellow UPX for
2021.
And I'm so appreciative of being involved with each of the fellows being
involved with the UPX program. And I wish you all well,
congratulations to all of the fellows, completing your grant proposal,
as well as learning a lot about grant skills.
I look forward to working with you in the future and carry on and do good work.
Thanks.
Hello friends.
My name is Russ Ghanim and I'm associate provost and Dean of international
programs at the university of Iowa. Just one of the,
to say what a privilege it was for me to be part of the apex program.
I deeply enjoyed the collaboration with our friends in Rwanda and in the
United States special, thanks, go to Blaine,
sharp for keeping us all together and coordinating things.
I'd also like to extend my gratitude to my mentees,
which will include Vistage and DDA CN, uh,
for all of their collegiality and professionalism. I learned a lot from you.
I believe in what you're doing, and I'm here to support you moving forward.
My hope is that we can see each other one day either in Rwanda or in the
United States in any event, let's keep the conversation going. Thank you.
Hello to our friends and colleagues in Rwanda. I'm Josh Davis,
associate vice chancellor for global affairs at the university of Nebraska.
I want to congratulate the apex scholars on completing the leadership and higher
education program.
And thank the us embassy in Kigali for the opportunity to lead this program.
Thanks also to bridge to Rwanda for their support and administering activities
on the ground.
Our hope is that participants came away from this experience with a new
appreciation for the importance and the power of international partnerships in
higher education.
Nebraska was excited to connect you PEX participants with content experts from
the big 10 academic Alliance and other partners from leading public universities
in the United States.
These experts offered insights into best practices to develop and lead
international partnerships. During the program.
These participants learn from higher education leaders across cultures about the
core competencies and knowledge areas necessary to become an effective
administrator to the scholars that participated.
I want to challenge you now to put what you've learned to use.
The essence of leadership is the willingness to act.
This means that no matter your formal role in an institution,
you can be a leader by taking action.
Maybe this looks like identifying a potential solution to a challenge that your
institution is facing or being the, to raise your hand,
to volunteer for that critical task.
That just has to be done as a senior international officer.
I've observed that this willingness to step forward and take action combined
with an entrepreneurial approach to problem solving and an ability to create
and nurture partnerships and collaborations is really what it takes to be
effective in this kind of role.
You all are well positioned to become such leaders.
And I can't wait to see the big things that you'll do for your universities in
the future.
The U pegs fellows invested significant time over the last year to connect with
mentors and training materials that highlighted best practices and international
programs.
They studied applied research and participated in a number of workshops on
managing international partnerships through this effort,
each of the UPX fellows develop their professional skills as leaders at this
time,
please join me in recognizing the accomplishments of each of the
UPX fellows.
So my name's Jennifer,
I'm the head of software engineering department at Adventist university of
central Africa, Africa, American universities should, uh, consider working with,
uh, rundown universities, uh, because, uh, first of all,
I'll say that [inaudible] willing to learn. Uh, yeah,
so Rwandans can really benefit a lot from that.
Uh, another thing is that, um, Rwanda is a secured, uh,
country. So, uh, the country is so secure in that, um,
working with them, uh, uh, we'll be, will be easy. Uh,
another thing is that, uh, Rwanda is, um, like open to, uh,
global opportunities and it's well positioned in that global market
in that, uh, uh, Rhonda is ready to, um,
have foreigners come into the country and, um,
to help Rwandans, um, um, um,
to help run and maybe expand their, um,
that knowledge.
Um, uh,
I'm working on the politically at Britain
college where, um,
[inaudible],
uh, technology,
the senior international officer as I've
seen is the person always wanting to
take those partnerships in third at 12 big
institution
and the other state and local, they can be international.
They can leave probably agencies.
And I find that it is a very important role and they,
we saw it in universities. Also can have those people,
every country has some histories because each time
it's on its own priorities.
And of course we are different levels of, uh,
technology, uh,
different levels of [inaudible]
Science or social scientific DVDs.
So those partnerships are very important. People say, I won't,
while they're sharing,
I went to all those countries to share all they have.
[Inaudible], uh,
I work for the university of Rwanda and the [inaudible] a division manager in
charge of, or resource memorization and more
federal. And this project to the team, we are,
we are well walking on the bridge to Rwanda.
We learned too that having international office, uh,
for the university is very helpful because it creates connection with other
international universities, higher education institutions,
and other global partners.
So the university of Rwanda has an existing and operational, uh,
international office. The international office is evaluative Anthony Twanda,
uh, it is creating green cages. Uh, we will [inaudible],
it creates it in cages with other institutions. And then from there,
we're able to write some successful grants that we manage with some foreign
institutions, as well as 14 universities,
and have even going beyond that. Uh, we started, uh,
partnering with institutions to ensure that they can also establish an
international office for which we kind of leverage on.
And for more as strong, a global partnership with other foreign institutions.
[Inaudible], I'm working.
With the Adventist university of central Africa in Kigali Rwanda.
I'm walking here as the director of marketing and communication.
Now for the universities in Rwanda,
we need these things and you needed to think outside the box and
lend to share SPS with others, learn from others,
what they're doing in the way they send me, they can also learn from us,
but partners, partnerships are very important, especially in this age.
No, we are in like,
the world is dynamic and now it's the trends are that no one can live for
himself in decision. They cannot stand only for itself.
So it's a trend that we have now that had to be working with
others. Learning is Shakespeare learning, Chinese peers,
and also working together to see that the decisions
profile is at least a Swede that the profile
of the incisions meets the trends, the current trends.
So this is why, this is why I say we need this more and you need to work
day after day to see that we have more of
more of the, more of the global partnerships.
My name is [inaudible].
I hold a PhD in electrical engineering from the university of Cape town.
I'm currently a technology innovation editor, director,
property analyst at the national council for science and technology in Rhonda.
However, I'm also a,
[inaudible] at the university of Rwanda where I teach in the
department of computer and software engineering.
And I also teach in the African center of excellence in internet of things.
One of the most valuable lesson I learned from the apex program
is about the grant writing skills,
where they taught us how to write grant proposals. And in that,
uh, listen,
I managed to write a proposal from scratch myself and I
also learnt tips on how to write the grant proposals
specifically on the monitoring and evaluation section. We, uh,
one of my mentor and my trainee has told the,
told me how to write, uh, monitoring and evaluation,
using metrics metrics,
where we have to define indicators and how to, uh,
monitor those indicators.
So that one has also helped me to write a grant proposal,
which I submitted to us embassy.
And I was very happy that our proposal was successful so that it was selected
for funding 80. Now we have started implementation of that project.
Um, there is Muranga, um, uh,
OPEX fellow working for the university of Rwanda and, um,
um, internationalization specialist.
I quite learned a lot in Julian, the OPEX program,
but my most interesting lesson was the
partnership negotiation.
It was a course that was offered by Dr.
Michelle and UK to learn a lot in terms of how we should
negotiate with our partners.
How do we attract patterns from different part of
the world, that one is going to help us. And, uh,
I think we are not going to have [inaudible] that are just
dormant, that are not active.
It's going to help us to have the,
the MOS that we can implement the MOU that, uh, you know,
um, align with our mandate,
but also the Mo that I want to help our country and the university in
particular.
My name is a somewhat reasonable manner.
I am fundraising and industry relations specialist here at the
university of Rwanda.
There are international orifice that the university like universal Wanda
is,
are about ensuring that the university engage,
engage, and collaborate with the outside world.
And I mean,
the task is networking and partnerships in
negotiation. Uh,
another is follow up on or palate generalization
of existing agreements.
You do monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the
existing agreements.
Um, Dr. [inaudible], um,
the activity data of the URL set of postgraduate studies.
I'm also a lecturer in the crop sensor department of the corner
of agriculture and veterinary medicine, global partnership.
It's something that is very important for the university,
the university of Rwanda, because true partnership,
we are working with other universities. Um, we can do, for example,
exchange of students who will send our students there.
And they have students who can come here.
We can work together on a proposal proposal that will generate also incomes to
the university of Rwanda. And also we, we have,
[inaudible] not only X percent of students,
but also staff. We're doing an exchange of stuff,
and we can implement many projects through those, uh, um, the partnership.
So it's really something that is very important for the university of Wanda and
for the staff and for this to data as well.
The dossier you stash, Jennifer Ferdinand,
JC Samuel Darious, Jamali, and Noella.
Congratulations. Congratulations on your growth.
Congratulations on your ideas on your networking.
Congratulations on the relationships that you have built over the last year.
The goal of all of this has been partnerships and exchange to
things that are not finite,
but we'll continue to grow and expand over the years to come.
And what you have poured in over this last year,
I know began to be more and more fruitful over the years of speaking to you,
both personally and professionally, you have grown and I have as well.
And I want to thank you for that. I've learned new ways to share ideas,
new ways to communicate and new ways to solve issues just by working
together with you. And I know that together,
we've done that in a way that will make us better in the future,
the commitment and the discipline that you have to put into the last 10 or 11
months of this project have been outstanding.
And we appreciated it greatly. We've definitely had some challenges,
but that commitment and discipline has built a strong foundation for how you
can move forward in your fellowship together as a team together,
networking and continuing to build partnerships,
not only here in your small group,
but globally and internationally with others,
that you've met people that you've worked with over the last year,
This fellowship I know will continue to build and grow.
And I think the one thing that I'm most proud of,
and the thing that I want to honor you for is the time that you've put in that
will influence it, impact the students that we all work to serve.
Congratulations.
This concludes our closing ceremony. Again,
congratulations to our UPX fellows.
Please know that you are members of Nebraska's global community.
We wish you all the best and look forward to your successes.