Bliss Institute Receives $280,000 to Develop Program in South Africa

Akron, Ohio, April 23, 2008 ― The University of Akron's Bliss Institute of Applied Politics has received a $280,000 grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to develop a Leadership and Applied Politics program at the University of Pretoria (UP), South Africa.

The project is being launched this week as UP faculty member Dr. Roland Henwood visits the UA campus to consult on the development of the program, which will be designed around the Bliss Institute's applied politics curriculum.

“Political science faculties at both institutions will develop and deliver applied politics courses to Pretoria students much like those in Akron, but modified to the unique political environment of South Africa,” says Stephen Brooks, associate director of the Bliss Institute. “In addition, UP students will take applied politics courses at UA during the summers and take part in our summer internship program at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus.”

Five South African students will come to Akron for classes and internship experiences in 2009, 11 in 2010 and 15 in 2011.

The University of Pretoria noted in its project proposal that “South Africa, and indeed the South African region desperately needs a carefully crafted program that teaches the theory of civic participation with an emphasis on issue advocacy and offers students the opportunity to apply it in a practical setting.”

The new program, it continued, “. . . will learn from a proven and highly regarded academic framework to build the necessary human and institutional capacity at tertiary and grassroots levels, and use academic and practical experience to forge responsible, ethical and accountable political leadership.”

The program will also be available to national and community groups and political parties, labor organizations, activist groups and local, provincial and national government entities.

Brooks will be the Bliss Institute academic coordinator and will consult at Pretoria in the summers of 2008-2010. Gail Garbrandt, Bliss Institute internship manager, will be the program's internship coordinator and will consult at UP this summer.

For more information about the program, call 330-972-5182 or e-mail bliss@uakron.edu.

The University of Pretoria is the leading research university in South Africa and one of the largest in the country. It has more than 50,000 students and has become one of the leading higher education institutions on the continent.

UP offers courses in English and Afrikaans and has evolved from a mainly white, Afrikaner institution to a multicultural, multiracial university that offers quality education to South Africans from all walks of life. There are six campuses and several other sites such as the Pretoria Academic Hospital.

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