USD President's Report 2014

Leading Change The Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice brought another cohort of extraordinary Women PeaceMakers to USD’s campus in 2014. Robi Damelin (Israel), Nimalka Fernando (Sri Lanka), Ashima Kaul (India/Kashmir) and Margaret Arach Orech (Uganda) shared their life story with the campus community. Part of their eight-week residency included participation in the IPJ conference, “Defying Extremism: Gendered Responses to Religious Violence.” In 2014, the second group of Summer Changemaker Fellows completed their research projects. Topics included raising greater awareness of environment and sustainability habits; teaching young girls in Tijuana computer coding; improving student spirit; creating a Changemaking approach to office space and innovation via architecture; developing a Hearts of Hope program; and enhancing an anti-bullying program that equips bystanders with both confidence and the information they need to prevent it. The university’s April 2014 Earth Day celebration featured a celebration of USD’s sustainability efforts and successes, including the Electronics Recycling Center, a “green” move-in and move-out initiative in residence halls, designation as a bicycle-friendly campus, noteworthy transportation programs, and a gold rating from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. The annual event also showcased student winners from the USD Changemaker Hub’s Changemaker Challenge. The fourth annual Social Innovation Challenge, held in May 2014, awarded its top prize to student engineering entrepreneurs (pictured below left) who designed the “Rice Pollution Solution,” a project that developed a solution for China’s rice contamination problem. The system was formulated in a Sustainability in Engineering elective class, taught by Industrial and Systems Assistant Professor Truc Ngo.