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Award for Advancing the SDGs through Education Abroad

The Forum’s Award for Advancing the UN SDGs through Education Abroad honors member institutions and organizations whose education abroad programs promote economic, environmental, and social sustainability. By recognizing members who have made significant progress towards the SDGs, The Forum hopes to inspire the field as a whole to contribute to a more sustainable future for all. Award recipients will be acknowledged at The Forum’s hybrid Annual Conference.

2023 SDGs Award Finalists

AIFS Abroad 

“AIFS Abroad recently created a new, comprehensive mission and vision statement to reflect their internal purpose and their commitment to external impact relating to global education abroad. They have thoughtfully created and rebuilt their global education programs to ensure their activities, internally and externally, align with the SDGs. Their public commitments and transparent reporting on Access, Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity (AIDE) and their Green Initiative demonstrate leadership and accountability and should be applauded.” 

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IES Abroad 

“IES Abroad’s Global Good Commitment integrates the UN’s SDGs across all aspects of their organization, including: People & Equity; Academics & Career-Readiness; Engagement & Resources; Sustainable Operations & Services. IES Abroad is dedicated to developing courses, curriculum, experiential learning, and co-curricular programming rooted in sustainable practices in alignment with their three Global Pillars: Sustainable Living, Equitable Living, and Human Wellbeing. They introduced a Designing the Sustainable City course, which provides students the opportunity to engage in a multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural learning community that addresses a global issue. IES Abroad is innovating in the field of study abroad, sustainability literacy, and the ability to find innovative solutions to tackle global concerns.” ​

Big Pond Education 

“Big Pond has dedicated their work to local, sustainable efforts, engaging students deeply in their host community. This is echoed throughout their program development, including vegan, locally sourced meals, partnerships with local, sustainable organizations, heavily reduced paper consumption, refurbished equipment, environmentally friendly buildings, tree planting initiatives, carbon off-setting for all flights where travel by more environmentally friendly alternatives is not possible, and carbon literacy micro credentials that all students and staff receive. Big Pond is a true champion of environmental sustainability within international education and has worked to educate others on this topic.” ​

Intercultural Outreach Initiative (IOI) 

“Intercultural Outreach Initiative (IOI) is creating a foundation of sustainability and UN SDGs through education, conservation, and the social development of isolated communities. IOI should be recognized for promoting human and environmental well-being through the development of the regenerative agriculture program which improves food security and reduces the carbon footprint of life in the Galapagos, protects the environment and restores degraded lands, and increases socio-economic benefits to the whole community. IOI engages students in programs that allow them to study and contribute to projects that provide long-term impacts in the community they are growing and learning in, a sustainable dynamic of give and take in academia.” ​

Temple University

“Temple University strives to incorporate UN SDG goals in their study abroad and overseas campuses. Launching Temple Global Green Grants, leveraging institutional partnerships, sharing resources and partnering with the Center for the Advancement of Teaching are some of the well-rounded strategies used to develop programs with sustainability being the key priority. Temple encourages students to participate in share out events, as student ambassadors and peer advisors from the Office of Sustainability.” ​
The award winner will be announced on March 7, during the virtual portion of our Annual Conference, and acknowledged on-site in Boston during the Lunch Plenary on March 22. ​
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Award Information

Criteria
Nominees for the Award will be judged on their implementation of the guidelines for Advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals through Education Abroad over the past academic year. 

​To be considered for the award, applicants must be Forum member institutions or organizations in good standing.

​Self-nominations are welcome and encouraged.
Rating
Nominations are rated (on a scale of 0 to 5) on effective application of the guidelines’ sections.
​
Section Clause Description of Evaluation Criteria
Guiding Principles Mission and Goals How well does your mission statement align with SDGs?
Collaboration and Transparency Between Partners How well do you embed sustainability into your study abroad partnerships?
Ethics How do you incorporate ethical considerations such as wellbeing, education, equality, responsible consumption and production into your programming?
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion How do you address systemic biases and enhance equity, diversity and inclusion at every level: internal (students, faculty, staff) and external (partners, local communities)? 
Administrative Framework Operations How do your operational policies and practices reduce your programs’ carbon footprint on campus and abroad?
Program Planning and Development How do your program designs impact student learning outcomes around SDGs and improve medium- and long-term wellbeing of local communities? 
Personnel How do you engage, upskill and reward personnel on the basis of their SDG awareness and contributions?
Partnerships and Collaboration What partnerships have you developed and how do you engage with them to enhance progress towards SDGs?
Community Engagement How do you engage with local communities to promote awareness and achievement of SDGs?
Student Learning and Development Before Program How do your programs integrate sustainability topics and sustainable practices into program design & promotions?
During Program How do your programs try to understand sustainable development within the local context and include sustainability-related curricular / co-curricular activities?
After Program How do you encourage post-program reflection on sustainability issues? How do you reward, recognize and encourage students championing sustainability?
As the members of the selection committee read your entry, they will be asking:
  • How effectively do your programs and/or operations meet the criteria?
  • Is there evidence of measurable, sustainable change as a result of your efforts?
  • Do your efforts exceed standard sustainability practice(s)?
  • What were the challenges your office had to overcome?

Past Winners and Finalists

2022 Award Recipient

​The recipient of the 2022 Award for Advancing the UN SDGs through Education Abroad is Dickinson College.

“This acknowledgement of Dickinson’s leadership in fostering connections between sustainability, global and intercultural learning, civic engagement, and diversity, equity and inclusion work is truly humbling,” said Samantha Brandauer, Associate Provost and Executive Director, Center for Global Study and Engagement. “The UN SDGs provide a guide to our collaborative work happening both on campus and across our external international education, sustainability and community engagement networks through workshops, presentations, and publications. Dickinson’s campus centers and offices dedicated to these critical areas are partnering to create more just inclusive and sustainable communities.”

​Dickinson was celebrated during the virtual Award Presentation of the 19th Annual Conference on March 15, 2023, and at the in-person event in Seattle on Friday, March 24, 2023.

The Forum also congratulates the 2022 finalists:

2021 Award Recipient

The recipient of the 2021 Award for Advancing the UN SDGs through Education Abroad was Penn State Global.

Penn State Global is proud to partner with academic units and the Sustainability Institute to implement curricular integration, programmatic updates, and operational changes to continue its mission of advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals. They incorporate the SDGs into all areas of their work, including:
  • ​They have invested in faculty development workshops and a new sustainability scholars award for students.
  • Their online program pages information include the SDG icon related to the curriculum and activities of that study abroad program.
  • For events and marketing, they make informed decisions on reduction of plastic waste and shipping impacts and have prioritized local vendors for all material and catering needs.
  • They feature one SDG at each weekly staff meeting and now include reference to sustainable practices in all job postings.
Penn State Global was acknowledged as the inaugural award recipient during The Forum’s 18th Annual Conference, “Globally Interconnected: New Opportunities and the Challenge of Change”,  March 21-25, 2022 in Chicago and online.

​The Forum also congratulates the following finalists for 2021:

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