November 14, 2002
UW gets World Citizen Award
The UW received the 2002 World Citizen Award from the World Affairs Council of Seattle this week in recognition of the University’s “longstanding leadership in research and education on global issues.”
Booth Gardner, former governor and ambassador, presented the award and praised UW global involvement in everything from AIDS research to undergraduate exchanges, from global-health initiatives in Mozambique and Thailand to lectures in response to Sept. 11.
“The University of Washington has been an innovative leader in making global connections,” Gardner said.
More than 500 people — including foreign diplomats, student-essay contest winners, international traders and Nobel Peace laureate Oscar Arias — attended the council’s annual awards banquet at the Seattle Sheraton.
Arias, in the banquet’s keynote address, called for increased U.S. participation in curbing arms sales and increasing aid to the developing world.
“No one can have a safe country without a safe world,” said the former president of Costa Rica.
The World Affairs Council of Seattle was founded more than half a century ago by the late Jackson School director George Taylor to promote greater understanding of global affairs through public events, education activities and international visitors.
Also honored by the council, as World Educator, was Mary Ellen Cardella of the Seattle Public Schools’ Office of Minority Affairs High School.
Past recipients of the World Citizen Award include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Herb Ellison, professor of international studies at the Jackson School.
Accepting the 2002 World Citizen Award on behalf of the university was outgoing UW President Richard L. McCormick and Cathy Lindenberg, widow of Marc Lindenberg, dean of the Evans School of Public Affairs who died of cancer last May.
In his five years as dean, Lindenberg left a legacy of increased academic exchanges, internships and humanitarian projects in developing nations. The UW center established in his memory already has begun to expand those initiatives by offering grants for faculty and researchers to take students on international research projects.
Arias called Lindenberg “the paradigm of the global citizen.”
“Marc was an extraordinary human being — principled moral, honest, true to his word, strong in character,” Arias said.
A UW-produced video highlighted international projects and featured excerpts from a speech Lindenberg made shortly before his death, in which he called upon the UW to prepare its 35,000 students to be multilingual and capable of acting constructively on global issues.
Cathy Lindenberg noted that her late husband was a strong believer in negotiation and cooperation to address world problems, and she quoted him as often posing the question, “Have you ever had a problem solved for you that you were not a part of the process?”
