Are you interested in the intersection of mental health and culture, global health, and community engagement? Do you want to gain field research skills and learn about indigenous communities in South India’s beautiful and fragile Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve? If so, the Cornell-Keystone Nilgiris Field Learning Program might be for you! Join Faculty Director, Andrew Willford, and the Office of Global Learning to learn more about the Cornell-Keystone NFLP Summer Program in India!

Are you interested in the intersection of mental health and culture, global health, and community engagement? Do you want to gain field research skills and learn about indigenous communities in South India’s beautiful and fragile Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve? If so, the Cornell-Keystone Nilgiris Field Learning Program might be for you! Join Faculty Director, Andrew Willford, and the Office of Global Learning to learn more about the Cornell-Keystone NFLP Summer Program in India!

The Lingua Mater competition invites students to translate Cornell's Alma Mater into a different language and submit a video of the performed translation. The inaugural Lingua Mater student competition took place in 2018 as part of Cornell's Global Grand Challenges Symposium. The top three videos received cash prizes.

2022 competition details

Can you translate Cornell’s Alma Mater into your mother tongue (or a language you are learning/have learned at Cornell) and sing it? We invite you to translate “Far Above Cayuga’s Waters” and submit a video of you (and your friends!) performing it somewhere on any of Cornell’s campuses.

Translations do not need to be exact or perfectly in meter but should capture the feel and tune of our university’s Alma Mater. As is customary, include the first verse, refrain, second verse, and refrain in your video submission (for guidance, listen to a performance and read the lyrics).

Video submissions need to be MP4 files at 1920 x 1080 (1080p), in landscape mode with an aspect ratio of 16:9. Please ensure that you have copyright permission for any images/videos you use.

Entries will be reviewed by a panel of judges. Submissions will be judged equally on the translation, the musical quality, and the creativity in visual presentation.

The top three entries will win cash prizes.

Winners will be announced during International Education Week (November 14-18, 2022) and the top three videos will be posted online that week.

Entries may be submitted by any registered Cornell student or group of students.

Submission deadline: Sunday, November 6, 2022

SUBMIT YOUR VIDEO AND LYRICS HERE

Please contact Angelika Kraemer, Director of the Language Resource Center, if you have any questions.

The Lingua Mater competition is co-sponsored by the Language Resource Center and the Office of the Vice Provost for International Affairs.

The Lingua Mater competition invites alumni to translate Cornell's Alma Mater into a different language and submit a video of the performed translation. The inaugural Lingua Mater alumni competition took place in 2018 as part of Cornell's Global Grand Challenges Symposium. Winners included the Cornell Club of Thailand in 2018, Cornell Club of Gaeta, Italy in 2019, and alumni in Argentina in 2021. They received financial support for a local alumni event.

2022 competition details

Can you translate Cornell’s Alma Mater into your mother tongue (or a language you learned at Cornell) and sing it? We invite you to translate “Far Above Cayuga’s Waters” and submit a video of you (and your friends!) performing it, wherever you may be!

Translations do not need to be exact or perfectly in meter but should capture the feel and tune of our university’s Alma Mater. As is customary, include the first verse, refrain, second verse, and refrain in your video submission (for guidance, listen to a performance and read the lyrics).

Video submissions need to be MP4 files at 1920 x 1080 (1080p), in landscape mode with an aspect ratio of 16:9. Please ensure that you have copyright permission for any images/videos you use.

Entries will be reviewed by a panel of judges. Submissions will be judged equally on the translation, the musical quality, and the creativity in visual presentation.

The top entry will receive financial support and Cornell swag for a local alumni event.

Winners will be announced during International Education Week (November 14-18, 2022) via Noteworthy, and the top video will be posted online that week. Be sure to subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay in the know of this competition and international alumni activities.

Entries may be submitted by any Cornell alumni groups outside of the United States and Canada.

Submission deadline: Sunday, October 30, 2022

SUBMIT YOUR VIDEO AND LYRICS HERE

Please contact the International Alumni Relations team if you have any questions.

The Lingua Mater competition is co-sponsored by the Office of International Alumni Relations, the Language Resource Center, and the Office of the Vice Provost for International Affairs.

Perspectives in Global Development Seminar Speaker: Ashish Bajracharya, deputy director at Population Council Location: Emerson 135 and Zoom. In recent years, the garment industries of countries in South and Southeast Asia, including Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Vietnam have grown to provide economic opportunities to millions and become significant contributors to their economies. The workforce in the garment sector across the region is dominated by women, typically under the age of 30, who have significant unmet need for sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and family planning (FP) information and services. There has recently been a growing recognition of these needs and the vulnerability of women from development actors, governments, donors and industry stakeholders. In this talk, I will share the experience of the Population Council and our work on improving the health and wellbeing of women working in the garment sectors of Cambodia and Bangladesh, with support from the United States Agency for International Development. Between 2013-2019, the Population Council conducted rigorous implementation science research, and engaged with government and industry stakeholders to co-lead the implementation of one of the most comprehensive women’s health focused interventions in the garment sector. Our worked combined policy advocacy, improved service delivery and rigorous research to drive prioritization of women’s health in the garment sectors of these countries. I will discuss lessons learned through the evidence we that we generated and ways forward for this work. About the speaker Dr. Ashish Bajracharya is the Deputy Director for Country Strategy in the International Programs Division at the Population Council, and its Regional Representative for South and East Asia. Dr. Bajracharya is a social demographer and behavioral scientist who specializes in issues related to gender, transitions to adulthood, maternal, sexual and reproductive health, family planning and HIV & AIDS outcomes of vulnerable populations, and rigorous evaluations of health financing and health systems strengthening interventions in low- and middle-income countries. Over the last decade, Dr. Bajracharya has lived and worked in South and East Asia, with bases in Hanoi, Vietnam, Phnom Penh, Cambodia and Dhaka, Bangladesh, where he is currently based, with research engagements in Lao PDR, Myanmar, Nepal, the Philippines, Tanzania, Tajikistan, and Vietnam among others. Between 2015 and 2019 co-led WorkerHealth, a $3.8 million USAID initiative aimed at improving access to reproductive health and family planning services among female garment factory workers in Cambodia. Dr. Bajracharya received his Ph.D. in Policy Analysis and Management from Cornell University in 2008 where he specialized in social demography and human development. He was also a Bixby Postdoctoral Fellow at the Population Council in New York. He is a native of Nepal. About the seminar series The Perspectives in Global Development seminars are held Wednesdays from 12:25 – 1:15 p.m. eastern time during the semester. The series will be presented in a hybrid format with some speakers on campus and others appearing via Zoom. All seminars are shown in Emerson 135. Students, faculty and the general public are welcome to attend. The series is co-sponsored by the Department of Global Development, the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, and the School of Integrative Plant Science as part of courses IARD 6960, NTRES 6960, PLSCS 6960 and AEM 6960.

Join us virtually this spring to practice your language skills and meet new people. Conversation Hours provide an opportunity to use the target language in an informal, low-pressure atmosphere. Have fun practicing a language you are learning! Gain confidence through experience! Just using your new language skills helps you learn more than you might think. Conversation Hours are are open to any learner, but are probably most useful to those at an intermediate level or above. Open to the public. Join Urdu Conversation Hour on Zoom!

Guest Speaker:

Fatema Sumar, Vice President of Compact Operations, Millennium

Leveraging her expertise in international development, foreign policy, diplomacy, and advocacy, Fatema Z. Sumarleads efforts to fight poverty by transforming global systems in reaching vulnerable populations. As Vice President of Compact Operations at the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), Ms. Sumar oversees all compacts which are MCC’s signature grant investment vehicle to reduce poverty through economic growth. In this role, she manages all of MCC’s technical and regional divisions working on infrastructure, the environment and climate change, the private sector, gender and social inclusion, human and community development, land and agriculture, procurement, financial management, strategic partnerships, and contracts and grant management globally.

She previously served as MCC’s Deputy Vice President for Europe, Asia, the Pacific, and Latin America whereshe managed all MCC compacts in these regions. Ms. Sumar returned to MCC after working in civil society as the Vice President of Global Programs at Oxfam America where she oversaw regional development and humanitarian response to fight the injustice of poverty. Her work contributed to initiatives on gender justice, climate justice, local humanitarian leadership, strategic monitoring and evaluation, digital rights, and grant management systems.

Ms. Sumar has a distinguished career in the U.S. government in both executive and legislative branches. She previously served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia at the U.S. Department of State where she led U.S. efforts to expand regional economic and energy connectivity and as a Presidential Management Fellow (PMF). In Congress, she was a Senior Professional Staff Member on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee focused on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the broader region.

Ms. Sumar sits on Advisory Boards for Princeton, Cornell, and Indiana universities. Her work has been published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, The New Republic, The Hill, and other outlets. She is a frequent guest speaker and has testified before the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate. Ms. Sumar graduated with a Master of Public Affairs from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs, where she received the prestigious Stokes Award, and a Bachelor of Arts in Government from Cornell University. She studied abroad at the AmericanUniversity in Cairo.