SRF Chairman and IIE Trustee, Dr. Henry Jarecki’s closing remarks to Iraqi Visiting Professors

Institute of International Education January 8, 2010
By SRF

On January 8th SRF Chairman and IIE Trustee Dr. Henry Jarecki addressed Iraqi Visiting Professors at the Columbia University Middle East Research Center (CUMERC) in Amman.

To begin the year, the Iraq Project coordinated an event unprecedented in size and scope when over 55 Iraqi scholars assembled in Amman, Jordan for a week of professional development workshops and training sessions. Scholar Rescue Fund scholar-grantees on fellowship and SRF alumni based in the Middle East/North Africa region were invited to these workshops from January 4-8 in order to broaden and sharpen their skill sets by participating in specially tailored training sessions.

Introduced by Dr. Safwan Masri, the Director of CUMERC, Dr. Jarecki delivered the closing remarks of the workshops. Dr. Jarecki discussed the IIE’s legacy of scholar rescue and the events that led to the foundation of the Iraq Scholar Rescue Project.  As well, Dr. Jarecki spoke about what SRF has been doing to meet scholars’ requests encouraging them to form an association that would effectively serve the Iraqi scholar community.

The assembly at the Columbia University Middle East Research Center (CUMERC) included SRF Board members HRH Princess Ghaida Talal, Mr. Leo Melamad, and Mr. Julian Johnson. Also attending was the Iraqi Minister of Higher Education, Dr. Abid Al-ajeele.

Dr. Jarecki traveled to Amman, from Jordan January 7 to 10th with a delegation of SRF Board Members, IIE staff and guests, including his son Tom Jarecki, Mr. Leo Melamad, SRF Board Member, Mr. Julian Johnson, SRF Board and Selection Committee Member, Mauro De Lorenzo, representative of the famous John Templeton Foundation, IIE Vice President for Strategic Development, Daniela Kaisth, SRF Executive Director, Jim Miller, and SRF Iraq Rescue Project Director, Nada Al-Soze.  Highlights of the trip include meetings with members of the Jordanian Royal family and discussions with the Iraqi Minister of Higher Education, Dr. Abed Al-Ajeeli. In addition, members of the delegation met with the SRF scholars and recent program alumni who attended the workshops.   

SRF would like to thank Dr. Jarecki and the board for visiting the scholars at the workshops as well as everyone who made the professional workshops possible, including the 55 scholars who attended the workshops.   Our thanks especially go out Dr. Safwan Masri and the staff at CUMERC for hosting the workshops and offering their facilities for more of our meetings.  

To read a full transcript of the speech please click here

To read the speech in Arabic please click here

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