■ INSIDE: EDUCATION
A World of News and Perspective
and TRAVEL & HOTELS SPECIAL SECTIONS
EDUCATION ■ A Special Section of The Washington Diplomat
■ October 2015
BUILDING
■ OCTOBER 2015
■ WWW.WASHDIPLOMAT.COM
■ VOLUME 22, NUMBER 10
The University of Maryland University College (UMUC) campus is based in Adelphi, Md.
MIDDLE EAST
World Turns Blind Eye As Yemen Descends Into Tailspin of Need With Yemen mired in civil war, aid agencies warn that an entire generation of children in the Arab world’s poorest nation is at risk of irreversible harm. But their pleas have been met with a resounding thud of nothing. PAGE 6
VIRT UAL INFLUENCE PEOPLE OF WORLD
SOMALIA’S
FRESH START
MIDDLE EAST
U.S. Program to Train Syrian Rebels Runs Into Major Roadblocks Since President Obama appeared on television a year ago to declare his intention to “degrade and ultimately destroy” the Islamic State — and over four years since Syria’s civil war broke out — the U.S. effort to train and equip Syrian rebels to fight the extremist group is a long way from fulfilling its ambitious mission. PAGE 10
Septime Webre continues to expand and innovate the Washington Ballet’s repertoire with “Latin Heat.” PAGE 28
Ex-Senator Chips Away at Nuclear Arsenal Maryland’s UMUC Leads the Way In International Online Education
by Larry Luxner
Continued on next page
October 2015
EDUCATION
The Washington Diplomat
Page17
During 24 years in the Senate, Sam Nunn earned a reputation as a pragmatic lawmaker who helped secure thousands of nuclear weapons in former Soviet states. The conservative Georgia Democrat retired in 1997, saying he no longer had “zest and enthusiasm” for the job. But fortunately Nunn never lost his enthusiasm for eradicating nuclear weapons from the globe. PAGE 4
DIPLOMATIC SPOUSES
Children’s Rights At Work, Raising Teens at Home
culture
‘Latin Heat’ Spices Up Ballet Repertoire
PIONEER
M
easured by enrollment, the University of Maryland University College (UMUC) ranks as one of America’s largest institutions of higher learning. Yet unlike their more famous University of Maryland neighbors over in College Park, UMUC students don’t live in dorms, nor do they have their own football team to root for. Over the next 12 months, Adelphi-based UMUC plans to abolish another staple of college life — textbooks — saving its 85,000 students millions of dollars in the process. “Traditionally, if you were to take a course, you had to buy a textbook. But that’s a very old way of doing things,” said UMUC President Javier Miyares. “Let’s get rid of textbooks and instead ask what are the best open, freely available resources out there.”
As Ahmed Isse Awad becomes Somalia’s top envoy to the U.S., a post that has largely remained vacant since 1991, he is essentially starting from scratch — much like his war-ravaged East African nation. In fact, Somalia’s modest little mission in D.C. was still awaiting furniture when we interviewed the ambassador sitting on packing crates. PAGE 11
After working in the Swedish Foreign Affairs Ministry on issues ranging from security and defense to gender equality and children’s rights, Madeleine Lyrvall is tackling her biggest challenge: raising three teenagers PAGE 29