The AUA 200 ChangeMakers campaign aims to bring together a group of visionary philanthropists who embrace change and join AUA on the path to achieving our vision of building a stronger, more resilient, and globally competitive Armenia. We believe this can be realized by offering students enrolled at AUA top quality education in multiple disciplines, nurturing a culture of research and innovation among students and faculty, and engaging in our work highly qualified academics and researchers from all parts of the world. The overarching institutional support strategy of the 200 ChangeMakers campaign involves bracing the policies, processes, practices, and tools for achieving the envisioned superior academic and research capacity.
Funds raised through the 200 ChangeMakers campaign are directed to sustain several priority programs and initiatives, among which are: The faculty research incentive, which competitively awards relief from teaching for full-time faculty to devote more time to engage in research; the faculty and staff professional development program, which stimulates and subsidizes publication of research, participation in conferences and specialization training, as well as procurement of research equipment and related materiel; co-curricular student learning activities that ground students’ knowledge and competences through seminars, hackathons, conferences, writing and coding competitions, and similar ventures; and the distinguished visiting professorship program which aim at attracting prominent academics from top universities worldwide to spend a semester or year at AUA, teaching and mentoring students and collaborating with faculty on research and scholarly work.
These new and expanded programs that the 200 ChangeMakers campaign makes possible will further strengthen our human and institutional capital to address the changing priorities of the country, while spurring research and innovation to drive sustainable growth and development and enhance Armenia’s global standing. The 200 ChangeMakers thus serve as the engine of our drive to create an environment that enables pushing the boundaries of knowledge and experiential learning, involving students and faculty in collaborative initiatives and research across disciplines. Our research-anchored curriculum in undergraduate and graduate programs is realized with the support of 200 ChangeMakers who believe and support expanding the scope of AUA research centers to generate new scientific discoveries and innovative solutions to complex challenges geared to taking Armenia to new heights, regionally and globally.
