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International Conference Brings Global Perspective

Submitted by: John Warner on Mar 23, 2007 at 1:00 pm Tagged with: Academia, Events Source:

International Conference on Metropolitan
Communities will be held at USC Upstate in March

Spartanburg, S.C. - On Friday, March 23, the University of South Carolina Upstate will hold an international conference titled, "Metropolitan Communities in Transition: Lessons from Spartanburg and the World." Community leaders from the Upstate, other U.S. cities, China, Germany, South Africa, Ukraine, and India will gather to discuss challenges and solutions related to three topics: community health, global education, and community development. Outstanding speakers and panelists from government, academia, nonprofits, business, and the World Bank will focus on what metropolitan communities in transition can learn from each other. People interested in health, globalization, education, community development, nonprofit administration, and governance will want to attend this conference.

The keynote speaker is Mr. Coetzee Bester, a former member of the South African Parliament who worked with former Presidents Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk to end apartheid and usher in South Africa's new democracy. Bester will also join a distinguished panel at the conference to talk about community development in Spartanburg and other cities around the world.

Other political figures will play prominent roles in the conference as well. Mayor Bill Barnet will open the conference and chair the panel discussion on community development. Dr. Stephen Ndegwa of the World Bank will discuss the Bank's community development projects around the world. Mr. Jun Fang, First Secretary for Education at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., will discuss changes in the Chinese educational system. And the lunch speaker will be the Honorable Harold Mitchell, who represents South Carolina House District 31.

"This will be a very exciting conference," said Dr. York Bradshaw, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at USC Upstate and chair of the organizing committee. "The list of speakers is an all-star line up of health-care professionals, academics, educators, CEOs, political leaders, and nonprofit organizers. The quality of the local and global speakers is extraordinary."
To learn more about the conference, please see the conference web site at: www.uscupstate.edu/international. Information on speakers, topics, and how to register is available on the site.

The night before the conference - on March 22nd - USC Upstate's College of Arts and Sciences will host a special internationally-oriented "Evening of Great Conversations" that will feature the international speakers for the conference. Residents of the Upstate will have the opportunity to eat dinner with these distinguished guests while discussing such topics as China's future, South Africa's democracy, global education, the future of Islam, Europe's continuing transformation, and youth leadership in international perspective.

For more information on the Great Conversations event or the international conference, contact Dr. York Bradshaw at (864) 503-5700 or ybradshaw@uscupstate.edu.