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Emma Cush, centre, in red skirt, at the Closing Ceremony
Source for photo: Higher Colleges of Technology, United Arab Emirates
http://www.hct.ac.ae/hctweb/index.asp
20 March 2007
Two first year International Studies program students in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Emma Cush and Gyongi Horvath were awarded travel scholarships to the United Arab Emirates to attend the Fourth Biannual ‘Education Without Borders Conference’ on 25 to 27 February 2007 with over 1,000 high-achieving students and eight-hundred professionals from more than one hundred countries. In order to earn this privilege, they had to go through rigorous preliminary academic contests, that included the submission of essays, research papers or project proposals. Most of the delegates were postgraduate and PhD students.
Approximately 350 students from 63 countries made submissions to the Conference and 36 were chosen by an expert panel to formally present their work to one of the four Conference Tracks which included ‘Inequitable Access to Education and Technology in a Knowledge Economy’, ‘Responding to Natural Disasters as a Global Community’, ‘Harnessing Education and Technology to End Poverty’, and ‘Media: A Tool for Social Impact’. Emma Cush and Gyongi Horvath were two of those chosen to present to the Conference. Both presented in the Media Track, and following peer review, their papers are to be published by the Higher Colleges of Technology of the United Arab Emirates in mid-2007.
The Conference, held at the impressive Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi, boasted such eminent speakers as Professor Muhammad Yunus, winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, Dr Sashi Tharoor, a United Nations Under Secretary General, and noted author Nicholas Negroponte. The Conference attracted considerable international media attention including CNN, the BBC and The Australian newspaper, in addition to local Emirate media.
Just prior to the close of official events, at an impromptu visit from Prince Charles, Emma and a handful of other student presenters were introduced to the Prince of Wales, who joked with Emma about perhaps cooking an Aussie barbeque in the ‘backyard’ of the palace. He took a great interest in the topic of her paper, ‘The Restructuring of Media: Emphases to Instigate Social Change’, and was passionate about other issues raised at the Conference.
At the Closing Ceremony Emma was awarded the Etisalat Prize for Best Paper and Presentation in the Media Track, for which she received a laptop computer and a further scholarship. She will return to the Emirates Palace in October of this year to attend round table discussions as part of the Festival of Thinkers.
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