Kennesaw State University has presented its International Achievement Awards this year to a wide range of recipients including an authority on classical architecture and urban planning, three entrepreneurial sisters from Cartagena, Colombia, a member of the faculty of the university’s business school, and a vice chancellor of a university in Ghana.
Rodney Mims Cook Jr., founder and president of the National Monuments Foundation, which organized and implemented the construction of the Millennium Gate Museum at Atlantic Station, received the Global Public Service Award for the university’s ‘Year of Russia.’
Since 2003, Kennesaw State has organized special programs focused on an individual country for each academic year. The university hosted the “Year of Russia” from 2016-17. In 2017, Mr. Cook spoke on the role of new media technologies at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. He also has given lectures at the Kremlin Armory, the Tolstoy Estate at Yasnaya Polyana, Russia and at the Open Society Institute of the Soros Foundation in Moscow.
Mr. Cook has collaborated with Kennesaw State in the past. For instance, when the Millennium Gate Museum held a retrospective of the origin of the Olympic Games to celebrate the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, it developed a replica of the ancient statue of the god Zeus with the university’s Center for Additive Manufacturing and the 3D Center.
He is a member of many museum-related and educational boards of directors and currently is involved in the renovation of a park to be named after his father. The park is to honor the legacy of Atlantans who played important roles int he Civil Rights movement. The Rodney Mims Cook Sr. Park is to be located on 16 acres in the Vine City neighborhood of Atlanta, adjacent to the Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Mr. Cook Sr. served for more than 20 years as a city of Atlanta alderman and a member of the Georgia House of Representatives.
Karen, Daniela and Stephanie Carvajalino received the Sheth Distinguished Alumni Award. The sisters are founders of The Biz Nation, an educational-tech company that trains youth with technology skills, entrepreneurship and financial education. The social enterprise has been named by the World Economic Forum and The World Bank as one of the 50 companies reshaping the future of Latin America.
Dr. Kamal Fatehi, received the Sheth Distinguished Faculty Award for International Achievement who joined the faculty of Kennesaw State’s Coles College of Business in 2000 as chair of the Management and Entrepreneurship Department. He is the recipient of six Fulbright awards and currently is a Fulbright specialist at Sultan Hassan II in Casablanca, Morocco.
The Sheth awards are from the Sheth Foundation which was established in 1991 by Dr. Jagadish (Jag) N. Sheth, the Charles H. Kellstadt professor of marketing in the Goizueta Business School at Emory University.
The Distinguished International Community Partner Award went to Prof. Joseph Chartey Ampiah, who is a professor of science education at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana. Kennesaw State hosted the “Year of Ghana” in 2013-14 during which time then-President Ghana‘s President John Dramani Mahama, called for closer ties between his country and the university.
Two scholarships for international travel also were announced at the evening awards ceremony held at the Marietta County Club the evening of April 14. Hazel Lika, a first year student at the university from Atlanta, received the Emerson Scholarship for the Advancement of International Education and Samantha Rudd, a junior, received the Takada Scholarship for the Advancement of International Education. Ms. Lika is to go to Peru, the country that was featured in the ‘Year of…’program for 2011 and 2012, and Ms. Rudd to Russia.
Dr. Lance Askildson, vice-provost and chief international officer, served as the master of ceremonies. Dr. Kathy Schwaig, dean of the Coles Colleges of Business, provided the opening remarks and Dr. Robin Dorff, dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, delivered the closing remarks.
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