AIRC’s Rising Professional Award
The Rising Professional award recognizes an individual from a member organization with less than five years of experience in the field who has already achieved excellent results in the field of international education and who demonstrated strong commitment to the AIRC mission and quality standards by volunteering time and resources to the organization. Mackenzie Zak is not only as a fierce advocate for international education and student recruitment but also as a very vivid voice within AIRC. As a membership committee member, she has always been quick to lend a helping hand, volunteer for tasks and share her knowledge. She has brought new and innovative solutions in her agency role and also as an AIRC volunteer. Congratulations to Mackenzie Zak!
AIRC’s Agency of the Year Award
The Agency of the Year award recognizes a certified recruitment agency that stands out for its noteworthy contributions and demonstrated commitment to the AIRC mission by volunteering time and resources, leadership, innovation and more. Edwise International demonstrated focused attention on student applicants to engage them during the pandemic with outreach about options to keep their study abroad dreams intact. The CEO of this agency contributed to over 15 covid related news articles and is a recognized leader in the field, including service on the AIRC Board of Directors. Congratulations to Edwise International from Mumbai, represented by Sushil Sukhwani!
AIRC’s Institution of the Year Award
The Institution of the Year award recognizes a member institution that stands out for its staff innovation, commitment to the AIRC mission, excellence in the field of international education. During covid this year, Northeastern University launched an effort to provide access and reassurance to enrolling students during a time that provided little besides questions and uncertainty. Northeastern has worked diligently to provide opportunities that meet students where they are through different parallel learning models; from hybrid learning where international students are projected into classrooms with video and audio in synchronous time-zone friendly instruction modules to asynchronous online sections where students are learning alongside their fellow students in the hybrid classrooms. All international students were offered the opportunity to start their programs online in courses subsidized fully by the institution. Congratulations to Northeastern University, represented by Kirsten Feddersen!
AIRC’s Reviewer of the Year Award
The Reviewer of the Year award recognizes an individual who has volunteered a significant amount of time to serve AIRC as an external reviewer or a Certification Commission member during the last year, thus strengthening the quality standards in international education as upheld by the AIRC. Dr. Patrick Colabucci has conducted many agency reviews for AIRC and brings a high level of knowledge and expertise to the Commission. He is a team player and volunteers for assignments readily. Congratulations to Patrick Colabucci!
Dr. Patrick Colabucci, AIRC External Reviewer
AIRC’s Distinguished Service Award
The Distinguished Service award recognizes a seasoned individual from a member organization with more than ten years of experience in international education whose dedication, leadership, and wisdom have made an indelible difference to the field of international education and who made noteworthy contributions while at the same time demonstrating commitment to the AIRC mission throughout their activity. For many years Mark Lucas has been a leading light in the global development and best practice in the use of agents. In particular, his work with AIRC has assisted the organization develop its profile and procedures to better serve the US education community and agency businesses promoting the USA as a destination country. Mark’s balanced approach has no doubt led to much better cooperation between education providers and agencies, whilst simultaneously ensuring the highest standards of ethics, standards and business success. His many years of experience as both an education provider and agency partner, combined with his frequent and enthusiastic sharing of his experience(s) through presentations, information sharing and cooperation (often in leadership positions in organizations such as AIRC) has helped develop the entire agenda of institutional-agency partnerships. Congratulations to Mark Lucas!
Mark Lucas
Director/Chief Corporate and Business Officer, iae Global