The Office of International Education honored several UGA faculty and community members April 4 at its annual International Education Awards Reception. The awards recognize those who have made outstanding contributions to the university’s internationalization and advanced international education through instruction, research and service.
A team of three UGA faculty and staff was awarded the Richard F. Reiff Internationalization Award, which honors a tenured or tenure-track faculty member who has made major contributions to the overall internationalization of UGA. Miguel L. Cabrera, George Vellidis and Victoria C. McMaken worked together to establish the first dual degree program in sustainable agriculture between UGA and the University of Padova in Italy. Cabrera and Vellidis are both professors in the crop and soil sciences department, and McMaken is associate director of global programs for the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor William Finlay received OIE’s Study Abroad Award, which honors faculty or staff members who have made significant contributions to the university’s study abroad efforts. Finlay teaches in the sociology department of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. He founded what is now the School of Public and International Affairs’ study abroad program in Verona, Italy, and founded and co-directs UGA’s Stellenbosch study abroad program in South Africa.
Scott and Kelly Horn received the Mary Ann Kelly Open Arms Award, which honors one or more people in the UGA community who have gone above and beyond their formal duties in facilitating the presence of international students or scholars at UGA. The Horns provided physical and emotional assistance for Yanzhou Zhang, an international faculty member, after she was severely injured in a traffic accident while performing field work.
Zhang’s husband was out of the country when the accident occurred, and the Horns provided the airline ticket that brought him to Athens to help care for Zhang while she was in the hospital. Kelly Horn took leave from work to help Zhang understand the medical procedures and paperwork related to her injuries, and the Horns provided Zhang’s family with a hotel room close to the hospital.
Awards were presented to those making major contributions to the programs housed in UGA’s international residential centers. UGA Costa Rica presented its Costa Rica Adelante Award to Scott Connelly, an assistant professor in the Odum School of Ecology. UGA at Oxford presented its Friends of UGA at Oxford Award to Jessica Hunt, assistant director and major scholarships coordinator for the UGA Honors Program. UGA Cortona, Italy, presented its Dedicato a Cortona Award to Melissa Harshman, professor and area chair of printmaking and book arts in the Lamar Dodd School of Art in the Franklin College.
