The Student Sustainability Initiative from Michigan and INEX from Vienna win the oikos Student Entrepreneurship Award 2009. Congratulations!
Curricula Change
Started by Fabienne Babinsky and Philipp Schöffmann without a budget or other support, INEX has grown into an impressive organisation that runs workshops, summer schools and a range of other projects in their hometown Vienna and in Latin America. They have reached hundreds of students with their challenging in-depth programmes, and work together with leading institutions like the INCAE business school. Building on their programmes abroad, they have spurred cooperation at the universities of Vienna with the INEX Sustainability Challenge.
Starting with backing from the "Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute", Greg Buzzell, Aaron James and Merry Walker from the Student Sustainability Initiative connected the 50 student initiatives that somehow relate to the environment at the Campus of Michigan. 100 students have joined, and decided to focus on creating a central office of sustainability and campus green building standards. When University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman announced new, campus-wide sustainability initiatives on 6 October 2009, she thanks SSI, who had "pushed us to do more throughout the university".
Besides the main winners, the international award jury wants to highlight the following projects as especially noteworthy and inspiring:
Do you have your own student project? Watch out for the oikos Student Entrepreneurship Award in 2010.
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educating the leaders of tomorrow (LOT) for sustainable development. 100