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AMID Young Professional wins the internationalisation award 2022!

AMID Young Professional is this year's winner of the Internationalization Prize. This prize is for initiatives that promote the internationalization of education at Radboud University and/or contribute to a more inclusive, international academic community.  Representatives of the AMID Young Professional program will receive the prize worth 10,000 euros during the Opening of the Academic Year.

 

 

Educate young professionals in their role as change agents

AMID focuses on young professionals who want to contribute to a fair, sustainable, inclusive society. The program, founded in 1998, aims to empower, facilitate and inspire these professionals in their role as change agents. Alumni of the program work in a variety of organizations, including NGOs, governments, companies, consultancies and knowledge institutes. Participants in the AMID Young Professional program work four days a week in an organization that is involved in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, such as clean drinking water and gender equality. One day a week they follow an (online and face-to-face) educational program.
 
Since 2021, the program has opened its doors to young professionals working all over the world. 53 students are currently following the programme, including from Kenya and India. To realize this internationalization strategy, AMID works closely with the Institute of Development Studies, of the University of Nairobi.
 
Programme director AMID Young Professional Dr Sara Kinsbergen: 'To achieve the sustainable development goals, we need education in which people from different perspectives learn, work and, above all, learn to work together. That's what we aim for with our AMID Young professional online, international class. I see that class as a breeding ground for young talents from all over the world, working on new innovative ideas that make the world more inclusive, fairer and greener. The Internationalization Award recognizes the work of the international AMID team, which is walking a fairly untrodden path and a great boost to make this class thrive. We could never have achieved this without the collaboration with the University of Nairobi, IDS and the trust of all our trainees, our partner organizations where our trainees work and Radboud University, who have embarked on this adventure with us.' In ANS she further explains her vision on the training (article in Dutch).
 

International learning experience, societal impact, new forms of education and diversity

The jury was unanimously very impressed with this initiative and found that it scored highly on each of the criteria set for the prize. Among the qualities of the program mentioned by the jury were the international (learning) experience for both students and staff, the social impact and the attention that is paid to new forms of education and diversity. Much praise was given to the fact that the program focuses on students from countries with which we as a university do not yet work closely together, such as Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and India. With this, the program really has a different focus than, as is often the case, exclusively or mainly focused on Europe or America. The jury also found it very special that the program is linked to the Sustainable Development Goals.
 

Prize money

An amount of 10,000 euros is attached to the Internationalization Prize. With this, the initiators of the AMID Young Professional program want to help improve the learning experience of the online participants of the aforementioned pilot for countries such as Uganda and Ethiopia.
 
Interested in joining AMID Young Professional as a trainee, or as organisation? Please find more information here.