Women’s
Colleges to Address Global Challenges
| |
President
Joanne V. Creighton (left) and Behjat
Al
Yousuf of Dubai Women's College in 2004. |
President Joanne
V. Creighton and Dean of Faculty Donal O’Shea
will join presidents and academic deans of women’s colleges
and universities worldwide in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, January
4–6 for the second Women’s Education Worldwide Conference,
Women’s Dreams and Leadership. The purpose of the gathering,
first held at Mount Holyoke and Smith colleges in 2004, is to pursue
the recommendations of the first conference, to learn about women’s
dreams in the global and technology era, and to discuss women leaders’ global
opportunities and challenges. Dubai Women’s College, founded
in 1989, will host the conference.
“I'm
delighted that the Women's Education Worldwide project continues
to gain momentum,” President Creighton said. “It
is appropriate that Mount Holyoke, as the oldest continuing institution
for higher education for women in the nation—and perhaps
in the world—is a leader in this project. At our inaugural
conference here at Mount Holyoke and at Smith, we laid out an
ambitious agenda of working together to advance the education
of women around
the globe. At the Dubai conference, we will continue our conversations
about the interrelated challenges that so many nations and cultures
face in tapping what I think of as the world's greatest underutilized
natural resource: women. We will also look for ways to reap more
tangible benefits from our colleagueship with these diverse institutions.”
The
keynote speaker on the first day of the conference will be
Lubna Olayan, CEO of Olayan Financing Company in Saudi Arabia,
who will speak about “women’s hopes and dreams.” Olayan
was ranked the thirty-fifth most powerful woman in international
business by Fortune Magazine in 2005 and was also named the
ninety-seventh most powerful woman in the world.
Hafsa Al Ulama,
undersecretary of the Ministry of Economy and
Planning for Planning and Statistics Affairs, is the keynote
speaker on
day two of the conference. In her speech, Al Ulama, the first
UAE female to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, will highlight how
to encourage
women to become entrepreneurs.
“Dubai
Women's College is honored to host the second WEW conference,” said
Howard Reed, director of the college. “After the
first successful conference held jointly by Mount Holyoke
and Smith colleges, the
move to Dubai is of symbolic significance. The fact that
all of our 2,300 students are UAE nationals highlights
the point that
educating young women is a global concern. Educational
leaders from around the world will join us in discussing
the diversity
of aspirations of female students, as well as the challenges
facing female graduates.”
Dubai Women’s College
has asked each institution to submit three issues or challenges
in advance, and these will in large
part shape the discussions at the conference.
“Certainly
we have much to learn from each other, and there are many opportunities
for collaboration,” Creighton
said. “Among
the specific challenges we hope to discuss are how
we can ensure both access and quality as an educational
institution,
how we can
sustain an educational mission that runs counter to
the dominant trends in the higher education marketplace,
how
we can promote
a balanced approach to work and family in women's lives,
and how we can advocate effectively for the unfinished
agenda of women's
education and advancement.”
A group of
Mount Holyoke students will also be traveling to Dubai December
28–January
6 to run a leadership training workshop at the Dubai
Women’s College, which received a grant from
the U.S. State Department's Middle East Partnership
Initiative to sponsor the event. The students, along
with associate director
of student programs Beth Gibney Boulden, will work
with the DWC's student council for four days exploring
opportunities for leadership
within the school and offering a training program
that they can adjust and replicate for their own
students.
The students will
also present at the Women’s Education Worldwide
conference. View
the students profiles....
On the Web:
Dubai
Diaries Blog - Track the MHC Delegation in Dubai
Women’s
Education Worldwide
Dubai Women's College
On the MHC Web:
News & Events Index
|
