With International Development Week just around the corner commencing on Tuesday January 29th, one of the large players in the planning of this week is Frank Ferris. Who is Frank the Tank you may wonder, Frank is a third year Development student with a minor in Business Administration. Although, his original plan at the University of Ottawa was to graduate with a Business degree he switched into Development after travelling to Mali and Nepal for a year realizing it was international development that he had a strong passion for. Frank is currently doing a co-op term at CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency) and is working on the finance and statistics team.
Frank is very involved throughout the uOttawa campus as he is the VP Academic for International Development and Globalization with PIDSSA as well as the VP Finance for Engineers Without Boarders uOttawa. Frank first got involved on campus with EWB, which then lead him to join the PIDSSA team. As VP Academic Frank organizes events for DVM students throughout the year, including International Development Week and various activities with the DVM student committee. He is also in charge of conducting an annual program review for all of DVM. In EWB, he is the one who handles all of the funding and promotes different important initiatives such as, getting our campus Fair Trade certified along with pushing the Canadian government to adapt more effective foreign aid.
So you may be wondering what is International Development Week and do you have to be a DVM student to participate? IDW is a 3-day series of workshops, speakers, and interactive networking events that focus on informing and engaging students with different international development issues. It also promotes global citizenship, which increases cultural awareness and further understanding and is open to all students. This year will be the fifth annual IDW at Ottawa U kicking off with a great networking wine and cheese event, which allows students to socialize with each other and development professionals. Some of the keynote speakers that will be on campus this IDW are EWB CEO and co-founder, George Roter, our UNICEF club is bringing in UNICEF Canada’s President and CEO, David Morley, and the IDW executives even found a way to get the very well-known author and activist, Maude Barlow, to agree to speak at the closing event. The best thing about all of these events is they are free to all students and many of them are offered in both languages!
Finally, Frank is responsible for chairing the planning executive for uOttawa’s IDW, this means he is working with a team of six other incredible students who are committed to making this week an engaging event that students will enjoy and benefit from. From handling the cash with EWB, chairing IDW and fulfilling his duties as VP Academic DVM Frank Ferris is bringing his passion for international development to help impact the uOttawa campus.
If you are interested in IDW you can find more information at http://pidssa.ca/?p=1917 as well you can RSVP for the wine and cheese at http://idwwinecheese.eventbrite.com.
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