Press Release
Humpty Dumpty Institute partners with Noir Sur Blanc to expand its "Higher Education Alliance" throughout Europe
July 10, 2012- For Immediate Release
New York — The Humpty Dumpty Institute is pleased to announce a new partnership with the Paris-based global communications firm, Noir Sur Blanc, to extend its Higher Education Alliance Program to Europe. Noir Sur Blanc (NSB) is the leading communication firm in Europe specializing in higher & executive education with offices in Paris, Beijing, New York, Sao Paulo and Casablanca. The purpose of this new partnership between HDI and NSB is to expand the Humpty Dumpty Institute’s Higher Education Alliance program to universities and colleges in Europe as part of its continuing efforts to build bridges between the United Nations community and institutions of higher learning around the world.
In 2011, the Humpty Dumpty Institute established the "Higher Education Alliance" (HEA) in order to strengthen connections between academic institutions and the United Nations. The idea behind the program is for participating institutions to advance the globalization of their campuses by enabling their students and faculty to interact with, and gain first-hand knowledge of the United Nations and its family of Specialized Agencies. Thirteen colleges and universities in 9 states across the United States have already joined the HEA program.
For European schools or universities that choose to join the program, the Higher Education Alliance will become a valuable new tool that will help provide students and faculty with a more global perspective. Through this program, senior U.N. officials and U.N. Ambassadors from around the world visit participating campuses to deliver lectures and meet with students. Ambassador Simona Miculescu, Romania’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York and frequent lecturer to HEA schools said "My exciting experience with the HDI program was that of a bridge builder between the U.N. – with its huge array of topics and achievements - and the students from different universities. I really think it is a win-win situation for all of us, while such programs really help both in making people more aware of UN’s work and in opening new horizons of knowledge the younger generation needs in an ever more globalized and complicated world". Students and faculty will also have the extraordinary opportunity to visit one of the 14 major U.N. Centers and Specialized Agencies in six different cities as part of special "behind-the scenes" fact-finding tours. Each U.N. Agency is dedicated to one main issue: for example UNHCR in Geneva is focused on the plight of refugees worldwide; the World Food Program in Rome is focused on international food security. For information on U.N. Agencies based in Europe, click HERE. Moreover, subscribers will be selecting students who will get the chance to participate in briefings at U.N. offices. As the future European program is designed to be customized according to schools’ expectations, HDI is also able to plan extra activities like a trip to U.N. Headquarters in New York for a group of HEA European students and faculty, meetings with Ambassadors and other members of the U.N. diplomatic corps, special briefings by U.N. Secretariat Officials, and the provision of introductions to initiate possible academic exchanges with other HEA universities in the United States.
Ralph L. Cwerman, HDI’s President, said that "Noir Sur Blanc is the perfect partner for HDI as we seek to expand the HEA program across Europe. There are a number of excellent U.N. Centers and Specialized Agencies situated among the great cities of Europe. These international institutions are often overlooked as unique sources of innovative and important global thinking. In some cases, thousands of diplomats and international experts are only a stone’s throw from some of Europe’s best universities, yet there is very little engagement or interaction. With this program, we wish to open the doors of the U.N. Agencies in Europe wide open so that students and faculty from universities across the continent will deepen their understanding of multilateral diplomacy and collective engagement in today’s increasingly complex world."
Michel Dellinger, Managing Director of Noir Sur Blanc said "In Europe there is insufficient knowledge of the institutions of the United Nations. It seems necessary, living in a global world, to give young people a more comprehensive understanding of the largest international organization in the modern world. The best way to do this is to give universities and colleges across the European continent and U.N. Specialized Agencies in Europe the right tools to connect with each other."