On 11 June 2009, Prof. Vilas Wuwongse, Vice President for External
Relations; Prof. Peter Haddawy, Vice President for Academic Affairs;
and Dr. Pritam K. Shrestha, Head-External Relations and Communications
Office (ERCO) welcomed a delegation from the Ford Foundation
International Fellowships Program (IFP) to AIT.
The purpose of the visit was to explore future collaboration with AIT
on the new directions of the Ford Foundation activities. The IFP
delegation was comprised of Dr. Mary S. Zurbuchen, Director for
Asia/Russia Programs, IFP, New York; Dr. Lourdes G. Salvador, Executive
Director, Asian Scholarship Foundation; Ms. Minh Kauffman, Director of
Center of Educational Exchange with Vietnam and Mr. Jaruwat
Kiatiwongse, Program Officer, IFP, Thailand. Also present at the
meeting was Mrs. Naina Shakya, Coordinator-Partner Relations and
Development, ERCO.
IFP expressed their interest to further explore ways to support joint
programs between AIT and IFP's other partner institutions in the
region. The program actively seeks candidates from social groups
and communities that lack systematic access to higher education, and
supports them through local partner organizations in 22 countries. IFP
has supported over 40 students to study at AIT since the beginning of
the program in 2001. In the past two years, two of IFP's scholars
graduated from AIT with distinctions in research and academic
excellence.
There were discussions on the possibility of fund sharing of the
scholarships to enable students to study at AIT from IFP support and
other foundations in the region. Guided by IFP’s wealth of experience
in effective and efficient ways of selecting and monitoring qualified
candidates, AIT is enthusiastic to continue its strong ties with the
Foundation in other ventures. IFP is also keen to share their proven
selection mechanism/module with AIT which can aide the institute in its
future endeavors.
Read feature story on an IFP-AIT alumnus: Mastering mind over
body
Related link: www.fordifp.org