Anna Stenport Receives Education Impact Award from United Nations Association-Atlanta Chapter at the UN Day Celebration

Posted October 29, 2019

The United Nations Association-Atlanta Chapter hosted its UN Day Celebration on Georgia Tech's campus Tuesday, October 28th. The event, co-organized by the Atlanta Global Studies Center (AGSC), focused on how climate change impacts various industries and the solutions being implemented. Panelists discussed the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) from various perspectives, including private companies, nonprofits, universities, and K-12 students. 

Anna Stenport, chair and professor of School of Modern Languages and founding co-director for the AGSC, was one of the keynote speakers and received an “Education Impact Award” for her contributions to education for sustainable development, along with Beril Toktay, another keynote speaker and AGSC-affiliated Georgia Tech professor at Scheller School of Business.

Anna Stenport received the award for her innovative scholarship on global climate change and her service to the campus, Atlanta and the Southeast region through the work of the AGSC, which she co-founded in 2018. AGSC, the first U.S. Department of Education Title VI National Resource Center in the Southeast region that focuses on global studies, has become a higher education hub advancing global education and public outreach on critical international issues.

“I am honored and excited to receive this award, which represents the collective efforts of many individuals in the School of Modern Languages and the Atlanta Global Studies Center. Our interdisciplinary emphasis in cross-cultural education, leadership, and research enhances a range of global sustainability efforts and fully supports the ethos and principles of the UN-SDGs. We are thrilled to partner with the United Nations Association’s Atlanta Chapter as a key part of our public engagement priorities. Thank you,” said Stenport.

This event was a prime example of how AGSC executes one of its core missions of transforming education and society through university-community partnerships. The Center strives to create opportunities to reflect diverse perspectives and a wide range of views and generate debate on critical global issues, such as global sustainable development. This event brought together university researchers and educators, K-12 community including administrators, teachers and students as well as representatives from private companies and nonprofits. Also, students from the Greater Atlanta region middle and high schools as well as colleges/universities presented posters on UN SGDs. The event also included a performance featuring songs about global sustainability by Harmony: Atlanta’s International Youth Chorus, who sings in 40 different languages! The AGSC partnered with the United Nations Association-Atlanta Chapter, the United Nations University Greater Atlanta Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development (RCE) as well as other Georgia Tech units to organize this public event.

The AGSC is a U.S. Department of Education Title VI National Resource Center and Foreign Languages and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship program established in 2018. Its mission is to build international awareness, global competence, and advanced language capacity in higher education, the private & public sector, and the K-12 community to empower the region’s and the nation’s global agenda. The Center integrates and emphasizes principles and practices of Education for Sustainable Development and UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) in its programming and initiatives.”