A lifetime in academia

When Anita Nowak, GrDip 99, studied in the graduate diploma program of Concordia’s Department of Communication Studies, she says “a whole new world of cultural studies opened up to me.”

Upon graduation, she helped launch the Social Economy Initiative (SEI) at McGill’s Desautels Faculty of Management, serving as its integrating director for two years. The SEI was launched to integrate social entrepreneurship and social innovation into the faculty’s teaching, research and outreach.

She was then invited to become director of operations for the Social Learning for Social Impact Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) that was produced by McGill’s Teaching and Learning Services and launched last fall by the non-profit open-source provider edX. Co-designed by Henry Mintzberg, BA 62, LLD 01, Leslie Breitner, Carlos Rueda and Nowak, she describes the course as “the ultimate opportunity for like-spirited people who want to work together to change the world.” She adds, “When a group of strangers meet online and successfully launch a crowdfunding campaign to create a mobile school for a Syrian refugee camp, you have to just step back and say ‘wow’ to the power of online collaboration.”

Read full article: Concordia University News, 11 February, 2016