LOWELL — There are virtually 3,000 miles between the immigrant metropolis and the Emerald Isle, however at an awards occasion hosted by Lowell City of Learning Nov. 10, that transatlantic distance was bridged by friendship and the written phrase as native winners of a writing contest have been honored for his or her work.
The nonprofit shares the imaginative and prescient of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Global Network of Learning Cities mannequin, which believes that lifelong studying lays the muse for sustainable social, financial and environmental growth.
Board President John Wooding stated in his opening remarks that “a studying metropolis is an announcement about what we care about in Lowell — that studying is happening very many locations. We be taught from one another.”
Included within the celebration, held at Middlesex Group Faculty’s Richard and Nancy Donahue Tutorial Arts Heart on Central Road, have been former Lowell Mayor William Samaras and former City Solicitor Christine O’Connor.
Samaras was given the first-ever Patrick J. Mogan Studying Metropolis Award, named in honor of a former superintendent of Lowell Public Colleges who helped spearhead the profitable effort to create the Lowell National Historical Park.
O’Connor acquired second prize within the UMass Lowell alumni class for her brief story, “Annie’s Bike, Brian Friel, and Translating Loss.”
A second-generation Lowellian whose grandparents immigrated from Eire, O’Connor graduated cum laude from UMass Lowell with undergraduate levels in historical past and English.
Wooding stated the collaboration between Cork, Eire, and Lowell initially took place by shared educational pursuits, however was strengthened by Cork’s UNESCO Studying Metropolis Award in 2017.
“For the final 20 to 25 years, UNESCO has had a really massive program referred to as Lifelong Studying and Studying Cities,” Wooding stated. “There are some 200 nations concerned. They’ve an annual convention, and so they exit and hand out awards. In 2017, Cork received that award. They invited me to the convention. The convention had greater than 650 folks from 120 completely different nations.”
The US is a founding member of UNESCO, and the federal government was an essential a part of its creation in 1945. The Trump administration suspended U.S. membership within the worldwide group in 2018, and that standing has not but been restored.
Wooding recommended that if the federal government rejoined UNESCO, “the town of Lowell might be the primary studying metropolis in North America.”
Within the meantime, the group is increase Lowell as a lifelong studying metropolis by organizing cross-Atlantic writing competitions with the group and University College Cork.
In 2019, writers related to the 2 cities have been requested to contribute fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, criticism, experimental and mash-up kinds on any topic. Greater than 40 authors had their submissions printed in an anthology, “Atlantic Currents: Connecting Cork and Lowell,” revealed in 2020 by the Amesbury-based Loom Press.
Pandemic-related delays precluded a follow-up anthology till this yr. Judges within the U.S. and Eire chosen 18 prizewinners from greater than 90 submissions who have been grouped into alumni and present college students from College Faculty Cork and UMass Lowell.
The winners have been revealed in a follow-up anthology, “Atlantic Currents II: Connecting Cork and Lowell.”
A veritable who’s who of Lowell educators and civic and political leaders attended the ceremony, together with UMass Vice Chancellor John Feudo, Middlesex Group Faculty President Phil Sisson, Lowell Superintendent of Colleges Joel Boyd, state Rep. Vanna Howard, state Rep.-elect Rodney Elliott, Mayor Sokhary Chau and Metropolis Councilors Paul Ratha Yem, Vesna Nuon and John Leahy.
The Lord Mayor of Cork Deidre Forde and University College Cork President John O’Halloran provided prerecorded greetings.
O’Halloran stated he had walked the streets of Lowell and the UMass campus, and famous that that is the sixth yr of a “robust and productive relationship” between the 2 cities.
“Our collaboration is to make the world a greater place,” he stated. “And that work is sealed with the publication of ‘Atlantic Currents’ I and II.”
He signed off by saying, “Beir bua, or ‘finest needs,’ as we are saying in Irish.”
Cecilia Idika Kalu, who not too long ago earned her doctorate in international research at UMass Lowell ,stated she is an instance of the lifelong studying embodied by UNESCO and Lowell Metropolis of Leaning.
“Training adjustments us,” she stated. “I got here right here from Nigeria as one in all six youngsters. I knew the journey to a Ph.D. was going to be powerful. Once we say ‘Metropolis of Studying,’ for me, it isn’t theoretical, it’s a lived expertise. Once we discover alternatives to spend money on or give of ourselves on this method, we develop.”
O’Connor’s second-place win got here with a $300 prize, which she joked would “purchase plenty of Guinness” on a deliberate journey to Eire.
“The publication (‘Atlantic Currents II’) is a good accomplishment,” O’Connor stated after studying from her work. “However the actual prize is but to be received — the official recognition of Lowell as a UNESCO Studying Metropolis, and I thank all of those that have been engaged in efforts to make that occur, most notably, in fact, professor Wooding.”
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