Winners represent Fanshawe in Abu Dhabi

While most students be will on their couch during Spring Break, two students will be flying to the Middle East to represent Fanshawe at the 2007 “Education Without Borders” International Student Conference in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Kathryn Weiler, an International Business Management student, and Leigh Cooney a Hospitality Management-Hotel student, both wrote papers defending their innovative solutions to global challenges for the International Studies Division at Fanshawe last semester. Their unique approach to international matters awarded them the opportunity to attend the conference.


“I want to know what other young people out there are doing,” said Cooney about the opportunity to learn from students and speakers at the conference. “I need to see that there are people who manage to keep a positive attitude in a world with so much pain suffering and ignorance.

Education Without Borders is a biennial international student conference creating networks across cultures in order to understand, and generate solutions for some of the world's greatest challenges. This is achieved by engaging the world's most innovative students and leaders of business, technology, education, and the humanitarian sector in a collaborative forum that culminates with commitment to action.

“Hopefully we can learn something from speakers like 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Professor Muhammad Yunus, who is also known as banker to the poor. He is the founder of the Grameen Bank - a bank that loans money to people with no collateral for the purposes of self-employment,” Cooney said. “If it wasn't for people like Yunus, I would never have formulated my idea for internet based entrepreneurs in third world countries.”