The Institute of International Education today awarded a Centennial Medal to Keith David Watenpaugh, director of Human Rights Studies at UC Davis. The presentation took place at the institute’s Centennial Summit in New York City.
Many college-age refugees around the world have been denied access to higher education, often because they have no way to document their academic background. Article 26 Backpack, which uses face-to-face counseling and cloud-based technology to help refugees document and share their educational accomplishments, has been created to assist them. The international consortium behind the project is led by Keith David Watenpaugh, a professor and director of Human Rights Studies in the College of Letters and Science.
When Liz McAllister transferred to UC Davis in 2016, she didn’t expect that she would be able to study human rights, much less go to Lebanon to work with Syrian refugees.