GoAbroad reveals Innovation Awards winners
Innovative new programs focusing on study, volunteering and teaching joined a healthcare project in Fiji and a social media campaign promoting study abroad in claiming victory in GoAbroad’s Innovation Awards 2019.
At a reception held during NAFSA, GoAbroad handed out awards to 13 winners selected from over 300 nominations by the GoAbroad Innovation Awards Academy.
“We’ve been consistently impressed by the calibre of entries”
The GoAbroad Innovation awards seek to recognise innovative programming, initiatives, campaigns, and individuals in international education that are being carried out are doing day in and day out, GoAbroad COO Kayla Patterson explained.
“We’ve been consistently impressed by the calibre of entries and this year was no different,” Patterson told The PIE News.
“The 2019 GoAbroad Innovation Awards were our ninth annual and consisted of several unique, engaging, and innovative entries. As with most years, we only wish we could name more than five finalists”
Two new categories were introduced since the 2018 edition, with awards recognising innovation in cultural immersion and innovate new programs for teaching abroad and TEFL.
“Both categories were chosen based on identifying an opportunity to highlight nominations that fall into these categories,” Patterson noted, while the Innovation in Cultural Immersion category was conceptualised in partnership with GoAbroad’s 2019 Platinum Sponsor, StudentUniverse.
API, which was awarded the People’s Choice, was founded by four women – the Founding Mamas – with a mission to make going abroad as safe and accessible to as many US students as possible, and its 140 staff across the globe are still driven by its mission, CEO and Founding Mama Jennifer Allen noted.
“Nothing is more illustrious of our achievement and exciting than hearing that our partners, parents and students voted us as GoAbroad’s People Choice winner for a second time in the past five years,” Allen said.
“On behalf of all of API we are elated and it means the world to us.”
The full list of winners is:
- Innovation in Cultural Immersion: Global Vision International – Volunteer Healthcare Project in Fiji
- Innovation in Alumni Engagement: Diversity Abroad – The Diversity Abroad Global Student Leadership Summit
- Innovation in Diversity: Howard University – #StudyAbroadSoBlack
- Innovation in Marketing & Digital Media: University Of Minnesota Learning Abroad Center – Avatar Campaign
- Innovative New Program, Intern Abroad: African Impact – Social Development and Entrepreneurial Internship in South Africa
- Innovative New Program, Study Abroad: InterExchange – Sustainable Action Costa Rica
- Innovative New Program, Teach Abroad / TEFL: Greenheart Travel – Teach English in Costa Rica – Skills For Life
- Innovative New Program, Volunteer Abroad: GoEco – Thailand – Eco Clay Community Construction
- Innovation in Philanthropy: African Impact –The African Impact Foundation’s 10 Year Birthday Campaign
- Innovation in Sustainability: Human Connections – Carbon Neutral Students Programs
- Innovation in Technology: Center for Intercultural Learning, Mentorship, Assessment and Research, Purdue University – The Intercultural Learning Hub (HUBICL)
- Innovative Student Video: “What it means to be a Global Citizen” by Julia Schroder, CAPA: The Global Education Network
- People’s Choice: API Abroad
For more information on the winners click here.
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