Tag: Tulane

Tulane University Highlights International Education with a Week of Celebration

This year’s International Education Week is set to highlight and celebrate the educational impact of Tulane University’s students, faculty, and outreach, according to this press release from the school.

Outside of being a prestigious Louisiana institution, Tulane University is a global university. With students representing over 80 countries and scholars and international students numbering over 1,500, Tulane University has grown increasingly globalized. The school also boasts 140 study abroad programs in 40 countries, approximately 10,000 international alumni, and research taking place across 70 nations all around the world, from Central America to Asia.

This year, Tulane’s Office of Academic Affairs and Provost as well as the Office of International Affairs, which is also known as Tulane Global, will join forces to host this year’s TU International Education Week.

This annual week that celebrates and advocates for Internationally-focused educational opportunities is made possible thanks to Tulane Global’s key partners: the Office of International Students and Scholars, the NTC Center for Global Education, and over 15 schools and units across Tulane’s campus.

Tulane University’s International Education Week is set to take place from November 14 through the 17th, with a variety of programming at both the uptown and downtown campuses. There are internationally-acclaimed keynote speakers, a welcome reception with musical performances, and satellite events on campus. International culinary offerings will be available at The Commons as well.

The theme for this year’s International Education Week is set to be “(Re) Imagining Borderlands & Shared Cultures in Between.” Throughout the week, Tulane aims to celebrate the University’s global community and to spotlight their international research, collaborations, and variety of learning that Tulane faculty, students, and staff are consistently engaged in around the world.

Laila Hlass, associate provost for international affairs and clinical professor of law at Tulane Law School, commented on this year’s event by saying, “International Education Week is an opportunity to celebrate Tulane’s international community and reflect upon our global footprint. This year’s theme is meant to spark deeper thinking about global inequity and racism while we cultivate spaces for global awareness across borders fostering an inclusive international community and encouraging impactful and responsive global learning and research.”

One of the highlights of the week will be an inaugural lecture by the noted Peruvian-American journalist and author Daniel Alarcón. Then, a closing keynote lecture by Pulitzer Prize-winning Mojave American poet Natalie Diaz.

Juan Carlos Alarcón is a Columbian professor of journalism and a 2021 MacArthur Fellow. His work explores the connections between people throughout Latin America through their social, cultural, and linguistic ties.  Alarcón is the author of Lost City Radio, At Night We Walk in Circles, and The King is Always Above The People. He is a contributing writer for “The New Yorker” and a co-founder of the “Radio Ambulante” and “El Hilo” podcasts.  He will speak at 5:30 p.m., on November 14th, in Freeman Auditorium at Woldenberg Art Center.

Alarcón’s multimedia lecture is sponsored by the Center for Inter-American Policy & Research, the Freeman School of Business, the Fulbright Association, the School of Liberal Arts, the Stone Center for Latin American Studies, the Office of Academic Affairs and Provost, and Tulane Global.

Natalie Diaz, who is also a 2018 MacArthur Fellow, is a professor in the English Department at Arizona State University and a co-founder of the Center for the Imagination of the Borderlands. Born and raised in the  Fort Mojave Indian Village on the banks of the Colorado River. Diaz is an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Tribe. Diaz won the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 2021 for her poetry collection “Postcolonial Love Poem.” Diaz’s keynote lecture will take place on Wednesday, Nov. 16 at 5:30 p.m. at Freeman Auditorium. 

The following sponsors sponsored Diaz’s talk: Altman Program for International Studies and Business, Middle American Research Institute, Newcomb Institute, Office of Academic Affairs and Provost, Office of Equity Diversity and Inclusion, and Tulane Global.

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Tulane Expanding its Translational Science Institute

Tulane University’s Translational Science Institute is set to expand significantly thanks to a major investment from the school, according to a recent press release.

The University’s Translational Science Institute (TUTSI) was initially established in 2016 as a Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) that was focused on the training and development of scientists devoted to clinical research that was specifically aimed at helping patients who suffer from high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, and other related conditions. When created, the COBRE was funded by the National Institutes of Health, but thanks to the latest efforts by Tulane University, TUTSI will expand its impact tenfold.

Tulane University is committed to investing $5.7 million to expand its Translational Science Institute into a “university-wide center” that will be focused on finding more effective ways of diagnosing, treating, and preventing a multitude of diseases. In addition to this central aim, they also plan to focus on translating any scientific discoveries made into actual medical practices that will improve both public health and the overall care of patients.

Tulane University President Michael Fitts said of the initiative, “the goal is to expand research across the university and increase the impact of scientific discoveries on the well-being of individual patients and society as a whole. This investment will help Tulane grow in its role as a national powerhouse of clinical and translational research. Better equipping and serving the needs of the university’s research community will translate into better medicines, diagnosis, treatment, and care for patients. This past year has underscored the need for such investment like never before.”

The funding will allow the institute to offer new training programs for clinical research coordinators, new graduate degree programs aimed to develop the next generation of clinical investigators, and a shared research “biobank” freezer farm so that various researchers from across multiple studies and institutions can use various samples stored and preserved by TUTSI. In addition to the new offerings, the investment will also improve infrastructure to support large-scale patient recruitment for clinical trials, data analysis, and the design of research studies.

Speaking on the need for infrastructure improvements, Tulane senior vice president for academic affairs Robin Forman stated, “We have to grow our research infrastructure to keep up with the extraordinary growth in the research activity and ambition of our faculty. This added support for translational and clinical research will help energize all of our health-related research by making more seamless the transition from basic research to translational research to clinical research to improved clinical care.”

Dr. Jiang He, Joseph S. Copes MD Chair and Professor of Epidemiology at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine will lead the Translational Science Institute as its director, and Dr. Lee Hamm, Senior Vice President and Dean of the Tulane University School of Medicine will be serving as Dr. He’s co-director.

After the investment goes into effect, TUTSI will include researchers from multiple schools at Tulane, including the School of Medicine, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, School of Science and Engineering, and School of Social Work.

These researchers from the school will primarily focus on three areas of research: clinical research, translational research, and implementation research. Clinical research can include the administration and analysis of clinical trials for new drugs, surgical advances, or medical devices. Translational research is often referred to as the rewriting or translating of basic scientific findings “from bench to bedside” or into layman’s terms, so that patient health can be improved and understood by those outside the field. Implementation research focuses on integrating evidence-based practices, interventions, and other policies into existing, routine health care and disease-prevention measures.

TUTSI director Dr. Jiang He shared his vision of the initiative’s impact by saying, “the new and enhanced TUTSI core services that we will offer should go a long way in fostering this spirit of collaboration here at Tulane.”

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Tulane to Purchase Electric Shuttle Buses with Awarded Grant

Soon Tulane University will introduce five electric shuttle buses to their campus transportation fleet, as reported by the University’s press.

The United States Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) approved the initiative that was presented by Tulane University. The EERE awarded the school and its partners $737,500 to make the enterprise a reality, and as a result, Tulane will be purchasing five Grande West Vicinity transit buses equipped with electric vehicle technology (EV) along with five private charging stations.

One of Tulane’s partners in this innovative effort is the Southeast Louisiana Clean Fuel Partnership, which works with local fuel providers, vehicle fleets, community leaders, and other stakeholders to not only save energy but also promote the use of advanced vehicle technologies and domestic alternative fuels when it comes to transportation.

The SLCF Partnership’s director, Courtney Young, said of the school, “Tulane was one of the first universities in the region to install EV charging stations on campus for students, faculty, and staff. Similarly, the electric shuttle bus project is the first of its kind in our area, so we’re looking forward to understanding and showcasing results to comparable fleets as a potential replicable solution to replace the older model, highly polluting diesel shuttles in our communities.”

The project is set to begin with the five EV shuttle buses joining Tulane’s existing university shuttle route that links together the school’s affiliate programs with its uptown and downtown campuses. Though the approved project is set to last three years, the ultimate goal is for the University’s staff to monitor the efficiency, operating performance, and general costs of the EV shuttle buses and share their findings with public transportation fleets across the Crescent City and other Universities.

The wide-accepted notion is that clean, electric vehicle technology-equipped transportation is more environmentally healthy and cost-efficient than traditional means; therefore, the project team at Tulane will test that hypothesis to see if using electric vehicles as public transportation would be a more viable option for other campuses and the larger New Orleans area.

Tulane’s initiative to purchase and incorporate the five Grande West Vicinity EV shuttle buses was one of 55 research and development projects accepted by the EERE. All of the selected projects aimed to further advance vehicle technologies in exciting and innovative ways with assistance from the EERE’s Vehicle Technologies Office.

This total collaborative project is between Tulane’s ByWater Institute and University Campus Services as well as local partners, the Alliance Bus Group, Entergy, and the Southeast Louisiana Clean Fuel Partnership. The Southeast Louisiana Clean Fuel Partnership. Shelley Meaux and Liz Davey of the Tulane Bywater Institute are the principal investigators of the project, and Davey expects the project’s short-term effects to involve the elimination of air pollutants that cause local health issues such as heart and lung damage. Additionally, according to Davey, “In the longer term, especially as electricity generation moves to more clean and renewable sources, the use of electric vehicles will also reduce our carbon footprint.”

While the project is still in its early stages by being awarded this opportunity, it’s obvious that Tulane University and its partners have their eyes and well-intentioned perspective set on the future of New Orleans and the planet at large. Tulane University’s Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Patrick Norton shared his hopes, saying, “This is an exciting opportunity for Tulane as we work to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that result from university operations. Tulane’s shuttles are highly visible in the greater New Orleans area and [w]e are confident that the impacts of this project will extend beyond the boundaries of our physical campuses. By sharing our operational, financial, and environmental impact experiences and data, we hope to serve as a blueprint for other institutions in our region.”

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New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane Premieres IDEApitch Competition at NOEW

This year the New Orleans Entrepreneur Week (NOEW) welcomed the New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University as a presenting sponsor alongside its main event, the IDEApitch Winter Showcase, as recently announced in a Tulane University press release.

This inaugural IDEApitch Winter Showcase is a free virtual event that is open to the public with a live broadcast of the event taking place at Commander’s Palace, and it includes exclusive interviews, fireside chats, and its namesake, IDEApitch, a pitch competition featuring three top-notch local business founders competing for a $50,000 investment prize for their individual emerging startup.

The event is produced by The Idea Village, a New Orleans-based 501(c)3 nonprofit, whose mission was “founded on the principle of supporting regional startups and the big thinkers that power them.” David Barksdale, the chairman of The Idea Village, remarked on the enticing mainstage event by saying, “IDEApitch is an annual snapshot of the incredible up-and-coming startups in our region, and we’re excited to support these founders in 2020 by pivoting to a virtual, live-streaming format. We look forward to seeing what these companies have built to date and awarding the winning company an investment prize of $50,000.”

In addition to its competition that’s spiritually similar to ABC Networks’ Shark Tank, The IDEApitch Winter Showcase will also feature an exclusive interviews with Walter Isaacsson and Steve Case. Isaacson is the Leonard Lauder Professor of American History and Values and a co-chair of the New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University.Isaacson will be interviewed as well as internet pioneer Steve Case who is Chairman and CEO of Revolution LLC, co-founder of AOL (American Online) and the author of The Third Wave: An Entrepreneur’s Vision of the Future.

 Following the interviews, viewers will be privy to the 2020 IDEApitch taking place in the courtyard of Commander’s Palace with the three presenting companies being in position for rapid growth in the greater New Orleans region. These three businesses presenting an 8-minute presentation of their business are DOCPACE, Gilded, and Unlock’d, and all three had been selected from The Idea Village’s VILLAGEx 2020 accelerator program.

 In addition to the enticing interviews, there will also be a fireside chat with Ti Martin, co-proprietor of Commander’s PAlace on how the landmark New Orleans culinary institution pivoted during the COVID-19 crisis. In a similar pivot, the NOEW, which was supposed to be held earlier in the year, back in March, had altered its plans to be a December-based virtual event. This change from the annual, week-long in person event to a virtual one was done so that The Idea Village could ensure that the three participating founders in the IDEApitch Winter Showcase would still have the opportunity to do so before 2020 ended, thus keeping the spirit of competition alive.

Just before NOEW opened its live-streamed gates, The New Orleans Book Festival had begun the weekend prior to NOEW, and due to the fact that both iconic New Orleans events shared an overlap in incredible thought leaders, the partnership between the collaboration between the two was a natural fit.

Founder of The New Orleans Book Festival and co-chair of The New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University, Cheryl Landrieu told Tulane Press, “The New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University is delighted to partner with NOEW for this exciting IDEApitch experience. The mission of our book festival is to connect quality authors on a variety of topics to the local and national literary communities.”

In addition to this Winter Showcase, The New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane has set its 2021 dates for March 18-20, with the New Orleans Entrepreneur Week following on March 22-26, 2021.

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Tulane Introduces Louisiana Promise Program

Louisiana high school students attending Tulane University next year from low and middle-income families will be doing so without the burden of student loans, with the introduction of the Louisiana Promise Program, as reported by Article from WWLTV.   

These students admitted to Tulane as full-time freshmen will be meeting the school’s “full financial need,” a program with an income threshold of $100,000 in adjusted gross income. However, this is not simply to say that Tulane University, the New Orleans-area private research institution, will be giving each freshman who meets the threshold a “full ride.” Instead, this achievement traditionally means that the families of those qualifying will only pay the amount determined by FAFSA, the Free Application For Federal Student Aid.

The amount that families of those applying will be expected to pay is determined by the family’s income, as each year families fill out the FAFSA, listing their adjusted gross income, obligations, and assets. A formula determines the amount that a family can afford to pay toward a college tuition, with the cost being as low as $0 in some cases.

However, starting with next year’s incoming class, these families will be paying toward their freshman’s education without applying for or taking out student loans, which many in the state rely upon.

Louisiana Promise No Loan Assistance Scholarship is the name of Tulane University’s comprehensive plan to make higher education institutions more accessible to all Louisiana students. In addition to the financial aid commitment, the initiative also establishes a new college prep center in New Orleans as well as access to Pre-College Summer Programs. Said programs provide 50 full scholarships to select students who have been nominated by a counselor, teacher, or community-based organization to attend the two-week residential program.

Applicants to the Louisiana Promise program need only be Louisiana residents who have graduated from a Louisiana high school and whose families make less than $100,000 a year. Those applying will have to first be admitted as a first-time, full-time freshman for a Fall Semester, beginning in Fall 2021, and they’ll need to qualify for Tulane need-based Scholarships by April 15th.

In addition to the scholarship aspects of the program, Tulane University is also expanding its reach in the New Orleans metro area by establishing a new college prep center aimed at engaging first-generation students as well as those who have been underrepresented, never considering attending Tulane or other selective universities as a viable option for them.

This center will run a free program directed at teaching students about the college application process, navigating the financial aid process, and preparing students to take standardized tests, such as the ACT and SAT. The center will also educate interested parents about the university application process while connecting them to other families who are new to the process and well-versed in what is required.

Highlighting the program’s mission, Tulane President Michael Fitts said, “Louisiana Promise is a commitment to our state and community to make higher education more accessible, if a Louisiana student’s dream is to come to Tulane, we don’t want financial concerns to be a barrier for them to become a part of the Tulane family. These programs will help keep the state’s best and brightest students in Louisiana.”

As only 11 percent of all Tulane undergraduate students come from Louisiana, the program is also an effort to raise that number by expanding the school’s reach to new demographics.

New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell celebrated this effort made by Tulane to bridge the gap between the University and low income Louisiana students by saying, “I want to applaud Tulane University for its launch of the Louisiana Promise program, which will create pathways for Louisiana high school students to attend Tulane. This builds upon their investment that I have the honor of committing to through the Mayoral Scholarship program.”

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Tulane Donation Drive Raises Over $1 Million in 24 hours

For the past three years, Tulane University has hosted an annual “Giving Day,” but this year’s event was certainly for the record books as fundraising records were broken by nearly 45% when thousands of donors came together to celebrate the historic university. As detailed fully in a press release from the university, the 24-hour “Give Green: A Day for the Audacious” was an event held on June 25, after having been postponed twice by the university out of respect for the challenges faced by members of its community.

This year, over $1.1 million was raised from a collection of more than 2,700 gifts, according to the preliminary numbers. In the recent history of Tulane university, the “Giving Day” event stands as a celebratory watermark for the school, but with such a challenging year as 2020, many perceived the event as an outstanding achievement and a powerful vote of confidence in the Tulant institution at large.

“Given the uncertainty of the past few months and the multiple postponements of Give Green, I was absolutely overwhelmed by the astounding generosity of our Tulane community. I know that Tulanians everywhere have dealt with extraordinary challenges this year — so to see them come together in support of the university was even more powerful than in the past,” said Jenny Nathan Simoneaux, executive director of Annual and Leadership Giving at Tulane.

Contributions for this year’s “Give Green” event were from all reaches of the country and world as the gifts came from all 50 states and from 12 countries during this remarkable 24-hour event. Donor momentum was kept high during the day thanks to over two dozen challenges and matching gifts that further boosted the impact of generosity to schools, units, and initiatives all across the university.

On Give Green Day, the grand prize, The Carol Lavin Bernick Big Green Grand Prize, lightly takes advantage of the “winning nature” of Tulanians near and far, fostering friendly rivalries between schools and participants by offering bonus funds for the highest number of gifts donated. Tulane Athletics, Newcomb Institute and the School of Professional Advancement each won an extra $5,000 because they received the highest number of gifts in their respective categories. Tulane Law School, the School of Liberal Arts and the Center for Public Service won $2,000 each. The A. B. Freeman School of Business, the School of Science and Engineering, and the Tulane University Marching Band also received a bonus $1,000.

Alumni with reunions in 2020 (those whose graduation years end in 0 or 5) were also offered a special challenge — the largest one this year — with an anonymous reunion celebrant matching up to $50,000. Overall, those classes more than tripled that challenge — bringing in $234,317 toward their class totals.

The event was a resounding success across various social media platforms throughout the day as Tulanians shared their excitement about the university with friends, family and colleagues.

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