Parami Institute of Liberal Arts & Sciences Annual Report 2017 Table of Contents Executive Director’s Letter 1 Timeline 2 2017 Impact 3 Parami Leadership Program 5 Parami Talk Series 13 Evening Classes 17 Future of Parami 19 Finances 20 Donors 21 Staff 22 Executive Director’s Letter Dear Parami supporters, The most common question I am asked is ‘Why are you doing this?’ to which I always give the same answer: ‘I want to create and share educational opportunities similar to those that I once fortunately received in college.’ Behind my crafted answer lies an understanding commonly shared among many young Myanmar repatriates who have studied abroad. We know that we are the lucky few who have had a chance to earn a high quality education abroad, usually because of our family’s f nancial capital, social capital or a combination of both. The majority of Myanmar youths across the country have not even dreamed of receiving such an opportunity. If we, the lucky few, do not create educational opportunities for Myanmar’s youths, then who will? I set foot on the rewarding journey of helping to shape the future of education in Myanmar soon after I defended my dissertation at Yale University in 2014. Not once have I regretted my choice. This journey would have been very rough had there not been strong f nancial and in-kind supporters. I am truly grateful for the generosity and faith of several foundations, such as Child’s Dream, Brighter Future Myanmar, B.K. Kee Foundation and City Love & Hope Foundation. I am professionally and personally indebted to supporters such as Mr. Hitoshi Ikeya and Ms. Abby Pratt, who never expected anything back in return for their giving. In addition, I would very much like to give thanks to our in-kind supporters, such as Myanmar Net, Mangosteen Public Relations, City FM Radio Station and Frontier Myanmar for their continued support of Parami Institute. International and local academic institutional supporters have offered us great advice as well, including Bard College, Ashoka University, Centre College, Yale-NUS College, Thabyay, Cetana and Mote Oo. Bard College, in particular, has played an instrumental role in lending immense credibility to our initiatives; the President of Bard College is committed to awarding Bard bachelor’s degrees to graduates of Parami University, expected to open in 2020. U Ba Win and Dr. Ian Bickford, Vice Presidents of Bard College, have been invaluable mentors regarding strategic activities at Parami Institute. Our advisory board members are also deeply committed to Parami’s success and have contributed concrete suggestions to our strategic step-by-step actions. Last but not least, I am truly thankful to a great team of faculty members and staff, who are very dedicated to the students’ excellence and well-being. Parami Institute off cially turned one-year-old on January 9, 2018! Last year was a great success. For this year, I am excited to develop new commitments and achieve projected milestones towards our goal of making quality education accessible to those who have a will to learn and achieve excellence. Will you join me in pursuing our shared values and endeavors to create a better future for Myanmar and our world? Dr. Kyaw Moe Tun Executive Director of Parami Institute 1 Timeline 2017 Impact January 7, 2017 January 9, 2017 January 27, 2017 May 27, 2017 Parami Institute holds The institute welcomes Parami Institute invites A graduation ceremony its opening ceremony its frst PLP cohort. Of Daw Thet Thet Khine, is held for the frst 2 32 17 on January 7. U Ba Win, the 17 participants, 53% donor and the Dagon PLP cohort in May. Number of PLP Future Leaders Female Students advisory board member are on full scholarship Township member of U Nay Oke, advisory and vice president of and 29% are female parliament, as the frst board member and Cohorts (PLP) (PLP) Bard College, gives a students. Students Parami Talk Series founder of Institute of speech at the ceremony. participate in a writing (PTS) speaker. English, delivers the and thinking workshop commencement speech. led by Dr. Joan DelPlato from Bard College at Simon’s Rock. 20 2 20 Full Scholarships Partial Scholarships Living Stipends June 15, 2017 August 1, 2017 August 14, 2017 December 30, 2017 (PLP) (PLP) (PLP) The insitute begins to Parami Institute rents Parami welcomes Parami Institute holds a offer evening classes for another offce space PLP second cohort, graduation ceremony for working professionals. in Yuzana Tower for as well as fve new the second PLP cohort. The frst class—“Skills evening classes and faculty members: Vicky Bowman, advisory for Complex Problem administrative staff. Michael Dunford, board member and Solving”—is taught by Dr. Carol Fujimura, director of the Myanmar Dr. Kyaw Moe Tun and Andrey Tolstoy, Vincent Centre for Responsible U Win Yu. Autexier, Joe Decker Business, delivers the and Alina Sidorova. commencement speech. This time around, 80% of the participants are women; 73% are on 50% 3 11 full scholarship.* Minority Students* Evening Classes Parami Talk Series Events * A second cohort student who received full scholarship was not able to complete the PLP program. He has not been included in the fnal fgures, including the number of full scholarships and living stipends awarded to students. * This fgure includes non-Bamar and mixed ethnic students. 3 Parami Leadership Program Parami Leadership Program (PLP) is designed to provide current students and graduates of Myanmar universities with an intensive introduction to the liberal arts and sciences. The semester-long program selects 16 to 18 outstanding candidates from across the country’s socioeconomic and cultural spectrum. Academics Interpersonal Skills Community In line with a liberal arts and PLP students are encouraged to As participants of the program, sciences education, PLP build life-long relationships with PLP students automatically join engages students in a wide their peers, and to listen and a wider network of academics, breadth of subjects such as the collaborate with each other in a professionals and change humanities, social sciences, thoughtful and respectful manner. agents in Myanmar and natural sciences and the arts. Students work within teams on abroad. PLP students are given Faculty members nurture three various research projects and opportunities to connect with major skills—critical thinking, group presentations throughout CEOs, senior-level executives, the semester. activists, government offcials interdisciplinary analysis and and researchers through group articulate communication— feld trips, weekly guest speaker using a curriculum developed series and our monthly Parami among the professors. Talk Series. 5 From Our Students Our PLP students come from various educational, socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds. Throughout the semester, they work closely with each other in and outside of the classroom on activites ranging from group presentations to week-long feld trips. May Thant Cynn in terms of [health] education and development. it’s fast, sometimes it’s very sweet, and sometimes experience in many situations. In Kalaw, education B.A. English, Yangon University; [But] one or two villages that were quite close to it’s kind of like...dangerous. We go deeply into and language. [In Yangon], child labor. We also B.B.M. (Northampton University), Myanmar the town, I saw some kind of development. They our feelings and we fnd a way to express it again wrote a lot of research papers. When we bring Imperial College have some kind of clinic, medical offcers, and into words. I don’t really care about the grammar everything together, I can defnitely apply it in my infrastructure. We also learned how traditional because I just want to write down what I feel right future career.” “The most amazing thing is that I got to meet people medicine is still used by the villagers [along with] now, what I think right now. It makes me more open from every part of the country. If I didn’t come here, Western medicine.” to myself.” Thu Zar Linn I wouldn’t know people of my age from different B.A. English Candidate, Dagon University parts of the country like Shan State, Chin State Zwe Pyae Yan Naung Myint [and] Bago. When I got together with all these “[The career workshop] was really helpful and I am B.E. Electrical Engineering, Myanmar Maritime B.E. Civil Engineering, Technological University people from all over the country, I got to learn their glad that [Parami Institute] helped me. Ko Win Yu University of Pakokku goals, dreams, ambitions, and how they paved their taught me how to write a cover letter and resume, way to work towards their goals.” “[Anna and I] started the flm club. The mission of “During the Kalaw trip, we stayed in Palaung village. and then [Gems] edited it. At frst, I was like, ‘How the club is to share flms outside of the mainstream, Actually there was no shower room for men. So many times are you going to edit it? One time, two Ei Phyu Kyaw and if we have enough time to prepare, we invite Joe, Zwe and I went to a place where we could times, three times?’ And then I realized it was really B.A. English, Mandalay University of Distant independent flmmakers to show their flms take a bath. It was in the forest. We thought that important not to have a mistake on a cover letter or Education or documentaries. We’ve invited three people. there would be no one and we took a bath freely CV. I’m really glad that I got the opportunity to learn [One flmmaker] is Aung Phyo. He is a Burmese and at that time some women were crossing and how to do such professional writing.” “Our teacher Mike took us to do research for a flmmaker and he lives in India, but last year, he the women were really [embarrassed].