Annual Report 2010

LASPAUAcademic and Professional Programs for the Americas | Affiliated with Harvard University

Our Vision

LASPAU’s efforts are guided by the vision of

social and economic development in Latin

America and the Caribbean achieved through

long-term investment in education. We see

the ability of a society to empower its citizens

through education and professional development

as a necessity in today’s global context. A central

tenet of our vision is that high quality academic

preparation and training in the Americas should

be available throughout society and not a reserve

of privileged elites. LASPAU therefore gives

special priority to regional, socio-economic and

ethnic diversity in order to broaden opportunities

for underserved populations.

L ASPAU can look back on 2010 as a year of solid accomplishment and of transition. We initiated

several important new programs in the area of scholarship administration, broadened our dynamic and very successful initiatives to strengthen teaching and learning at the university level in the region, and continued to place special focus on high-priority fields such as science, technology and innovation in education. As governments and the private sector in Latin America and the Caribbean dedicate increased attention and resources to education at all levels, LASPAU is well-positioned to play an important role in assisting such efforts. During the year, we increased the size of our portfolio by enlarging the number of administered scholarships in existing programs such as the Fulbright Faculty Development Program and the Colciencias Program and by incorporating new initiatives, such as the Fulbright-Itaipú Program to support the scientific and academic advancement of professionals and faculty in Paraguay and the Fulbright-Becas Caldas Program created through a collaboration of the Colombian Fulbright Commission and the government of Colombia. The Organization of American States selected LASPAU to continue its nearly 10-year relationship to manage the OAS Fellowship Program. In total, LASPAU managed the scholarships of over 1,200 individuals studying in 35 countries during 2010. Our record of obtaining financial awards for grantees also remained exceptionally strong, averaging $20,000 per grantee entering an academic program in the United States.

LASPAU’s Initiative for the Development of Academic Innovation (IDIA) designed and carried out a series of customized programs aimed at stimulating greater public–private partnerships to strengthen teaching and learning in the region. One outstanding example was the seminar held at Harvard for the Foro de Presidentes organization of Colombia, which is helping to forge strategic alliances between business, government and university leaders to promote academic innovation. Working with the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, IDIA created a program to

Letter from the Chair of the Board of Trustees

strengthen teaching in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields in the Americas. In partnership with the Chilean Ministry of Education’s MECESUP Program, over 20 Chilean universities have participated in teaching innovation workshops and seminars. Through IDIA, LASPAU offers targeted, yet highly flexible, programs to institutions in the region dedicated to innovation in a wide array of professional and academic fields, especially in science, technology, and education.

On October 15, 2010, LASPAU bid farewell to its executive director, Ned Strong, who ably led the organization since 1997 and had served in other positions before. Ned’s 27-year dedication to LASPAU played an incalculable role in our success over nearly three decades. Fortunately, Ned has agreed to join the LASPAU Board of Trustees while serving as Director of the Regional Office of Harvard’s David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies for Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Peru and Uruguay. Following an extensive search, we were fortunate to attract former US diplomat Peter DeShazo as the new executive director of LASPAU, to begin in January 2011. Peter is a graduate of Dartmouth College and obtained his PhD in Latin American History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has lived in several countries throughout Latin America during his twenty-seven year long career with the US Department of State, and has been a prolific writer and teacher.

Looking forward toward our 50th anniversary in 2014, LASPAU faces new challenges and a wealth of opportunities. We do so with confidence, based on our record of solid accomplishment, our outstanding Board of Trustees and staff, and faith in our mission. We also rely strongly on the continued support of the many partners and friends throughout the Americas who share our vision that investment in education and human development is key to the future of the region.

Gustavo Herrero Chair, LASPAU Board of Trustees

Board of Trustees

ChairGustavo Herrero Executive Director Latin America Research Center Harvard Business School

TreasurerPeter Bryant Chief Operational Officer Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Hilda Catalina Cruz SolísVice President of Research and Development Tecnológico de Monterrey

John CoburnManagement Consultant Coburn Consulting

Brian FarrellProfessor of Biology Museum of Comparative Zoology Harvard University

Everett EggintonDean International & Border Programs New Mexico State University

William Fulbright FootePresident Root Capital

Merilee GrindleEdward S. Mason Professor of International Development, Harvard Kennedy SchoolDirector, David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies Harvard University

John KnutsonRetired Executive Chrysler Corporation

Felipe MedinaRegional Director for Latin American Private Wealth Management Goldman Sachs

Álvaro Rodríguez ArreguiFounding Partner Ignia Partners LLC

Francisco SanánezPresident Instituto de Estudios Superiores (IESA)

Cristián Shea (Vice Chair)President and CEOLatinvalley, Inc.

Diana SorensenJames F. Rothenberg Professorof Romance Languages & Literature,Professor of Comparative Literature, Dean of Humanities Harvard University

Eugenia WildsManaging Director Atlas Advisors, LLC

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LASPAU Staff

Executive Office Ned D. Strong, Executive Director*Alina Salgado, Executive Assistant

AdministrationJocelyn Sierra, AdministratorMichael Picone, Department Coordinator

CommunicationsMary Helen Y. Johnson, Communications OfficerElizabeth Mackie, Web CoordinatorJalil Mendoza, Online Communications Coordinator

IDIAAngélica Natera, Program and Development OfficerKate Koehler, Program and Development Coordinator Kimberly Conant, Program and Logistics Coordinator

Information Technology Ellen Kranzer, Manager of Computer Operations

Finance Rodrigo DelaTorre, Associate Director for FinanceMary Anne McDonald, Accounting AssistantOctavio Sierra, Finance AssociateSara Wendell, Finance Associate

PAEP Elba Mireya Vásquez Tenjo, PAEP Specialist

Program and Scholarship AdministrationCraig E. Hastings, Associate Director for ProgramsJudith S. Adler, Senior Program Officer for Communications & DevelopmentSandhya Klein, Program & Development Officer

Lindsey Nicholson, Program Assistant CoordinatorErin Brau, Program AssistantCarla Conejo, Program AssistantKate Rettstadt, Program AssistantAnne M. Sargent, Program AssistantAdrian Velázquez, Program Assistant

Placement Services

Ryan Keane, Manager of Placement ServicesLaila Denise Flores, Placement SpecialistJulie DiBerardino, Placement SpecialistLorraine D. Hanley, Placement SpecialistMegan Murphy, Placement OfficerAmy Whitish-Temple, Selection and Placement Officer

Advising Services

Lisa Mallozzi Tapiero, Manager of Advising ServicesRenee Hahn Burke, Exchange Visitor Program OfficerAndrew Miller, Program AdvisorAna Paola Cueva Navarro, Program AdvisorJamima Rateau, Program AdvisorPaulina Savage, Program AdvisorCarlos Solorzano, Program AdvisorDerek Tavares, Program Advisor

*Executive Director through October 15, 2010

As of December 31, 2010

LASPAU staff members Jamima Rateau and Alina Salgado with Fulbright grantees Karl Remarais of Haiti and José Alberto Barrón López of Peru

Scholarship Management

During 2010, LASPAU´s core scholarship management services continued to flourish.

We continued to work closely with our clients providing a professional array of services to maximize the positive outcomes of their programs and foster more higher education opportunities for talented professionals across the region. Additionally, our ever-growing relationships with and the generosity of US and international universities allowed us to secure impressive financial packages and academic opportunities for our grantees. Throughout the past year, we supported the mission of our partners such as the US Department of State, the Organization of American States, Colciencias, FINCyT and FANTEL through the successful management of their scholarship programs.

During the past year, LASPAU’s scholarship management portfolio grew significantly as a result of increases in existing programs as well as the addition of new programs. The largest programs administered by LASPAU, the Fulbright Foreign Student Program and Colciencias

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Scholarship Program, experienced significant increases in the number of grantees they served. In 2010, LASPAU managed the scholarships of over 1,200 grantees studying in 35 countries worldwide. Our staff placed new grantees in leading institutions in the United States, Australia, Canada, and Latin America and in 10 countries across Europe. LASPAU arranged an average of $20,000 in financial awards for each grantee entering an academic program in the United States.

In 2010, LASPAU expanded its scholarship management portfolio in several countries, most notably in Colombia. Our strong relationship with the Colombia Fulbright Commission resulted in the opportunity to manage ten programs for Colombian students pursuing graduate studies in the United States. In keeping with our mission and commitment to diversity, several of these programs target underserved or underrepresented populations. One example is the joint Fulbright- Fundación Saldarriaga Concha Program which will provide scholarships to individuals with disabilities

Grantees from the Fulbright and Colciencias programs studying at the University of Connecticut

2010 Scholarship Programs

Fulbright Foreign Student Program, U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs

OAS Academic Scholarship Program, Organization of American States, Department of Human Development, Education and Culture

Crédito Beca Francisco José de Caldas Scholarship Program, Administrative Department for the Development of Science, Technology and Innovation, Colombia

LASPAU Leadership Fellowship Program, W.K. Kellogg Foundation FANTEL Scholarship Program, Ministry of Education, El Salvador

FINCyT Doctoral Scholarship Program, Presidency of the Council of Ministers of Peru

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Testing and Assessment

LASPAU further reinforced its efforts to strengthen higher education in Latin America and the Caribbean by continuing to offer the PAEP exam (Prueba de Admisión a Estudios de Posgrado) in collaboration

with the Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico to institutions in the region. Standardized assessments are crucial to these efforts because they provide both a transparent means of evaluating candidates for admission to graduate programs as well as a method for identifying the academic skills of admitted candidates. During 2010, LASPAU provided the PAEP to 20 program sponsors and Latin American universities who gave the test to 4,241 graduate program and scholarship applicants.

or those who work for the inclusion of individuals with disabilities. The first grantees were selected for this program in 2010 and will begin their academic programs in the United States in the fall of 2011. Programs such as these continue LASPAU´s long tradition of successfully advocating for underrepresented populations and expanding access to educational opportunities. Additionally, in 2010, LASPAU incorporated the newly created Crédito Beca Francisco José de Caldas Scholarship Program into our portfolio. This program marks over 45 years of collaboration between LASPAU and the government of Colombia.

In 2010, LASPAU managed the scholarships of Latin American and Caribbean grantees studying in over 35 countries worldwideArgentinaAustraliaBarbadosBelgiumBahamasBrazilGermanyCanadaChileColombiaCosta RicaCzech RepublicDenmark

Dominican RepublicEcuadorFranceGrenadaGreeceHondurasItalyJapanJamaicaMexicoMalaysiaNetherlandsNicaragua

PeruPanamaPortugalSpainSwedenSwitzerlandTrinidad & TobagoUnited KingdomUnited StatesUruguayVenezuela

Colombian Fulbright grantee Richard Francis with Program Assistant Kate Rettstadt

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LASPAU marked the fourth year of operations for the Initiative for the Development of

Academic Innovation (IDIA) in 2010. During this time, IDIA has become an increasingly important avenue for the organization to fulfill its mission of strengthening higher education in Latin America and the Caribbean. The initiative promotes quality and innovation in higher education through multi-phased programs designed to foster long-lasting institutional change in the culture of teaching and innovation and by facilitating knowledge sharing with universities and professors who are recognized for innovation in their teaching practice. These programs provide university faculty with the opportunity to reflect on their teaching practices and learn concrete ways of improving course design, pedagogical skills and methods for assessing student learning. Last year, IDIA continued to develop pioneering programs throughout the region with a number of institutions and partners in countries such as

Chile, Colombia, Honduras and Costa Rica.

While continuing to focus principally on long-term programs in the areas of teaching and learning, IDIA also created several customized programs that involved new partnerships with both the public and private sectors. In April, IDIA held a program for the Foro de Presidentes, a Colombian organization composed of business leaders and high-level professionals with a strategic focus on the alliances between the business, academic and public sectors. In collaboration with Foro de Presidentes, IDIA successfully developed and implemented a forum for private, public and educational sectors to form alliances that will drive innovation and development in the country. The initiative also created a program for the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs that focused on teaching in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields. Fulbright Faculty Development grantees in these fields of study were selected to participate in this week-long seminar held at Harvard University.

Professors from the Universidad de Costa Rica attending “The University in the 21st Century: From Teaching to Learning” Seminar

Initiative for the Development of Academic Innovation

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Program on Teaching for Effective LearningUniversidad Adolfo Ibañez, Chile

The University in the 21st Century: From Teaching to LearningUniversidad de Costa Rica, Costa Rica

Fulbright Workshop on Effective University Teaching in STEM FieldsU.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Program on Effective Teaching and LearningUniversidad Diego Portales, Chile Faculty Development Program 10,000 Women Initiative, Goldman Sachs Foundation The Innovation, Science, and Technology SeminarForo de Presidentes, Colombia

Seminario de Evaluación TALBOK Universidad Autónoma de Honduras (UNAH), Honduras

Workshop on the Case Method Universidad Tecnológica Centroamericana (UNITEC), Honduras

2010 IDIA Programs

Strengthening Student Learning in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Fields

Fulbright Workshop on Effective University Teaching in STEM Fields, U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs

The Fulbright Workshop on Effective University

Teaching in STEM (science, technology, engineering,

and math) Fields offered participants practical and

interactive sessions led by faculty experienced with

effective university teaching in STEM fields. The

main objectives of the program were to provide

participants the

opportunity to reflect

on their teaching

philosophy, examine

leading practices in

STEM fields at the

university level, and

provide a conceptual

framework to

facilitate the process

of pedagogical

improvement including

specific tools and

techniques that could be readily applied and

incorporated into their classrooms.

In 2010, IDIA further established itself as a leader in the field of teaching, learning and innovation at an international level through new activities and partnerships. IDIA’s valuable work in this area led to LASPAU’s official acceptance as a collaborating institution of the Worldwide CDIO Initiative. CDIO, which is named after the core concepts of Conceiving, Designing, Implementing, Operating, is an innovative framework for engineering education that has been implemented in acclaimed institutions throughout the world. In October, IDIA presented on the panel “Transforming Universities for the 21st Century” at the Science and Technology in Society Forum in Kyoto, Japan.

Throughout 2010, IDIA also continued providing support and monitoring the progress of the many institutions that began programs in the previous year. Two notable examples were the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala and the Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá. Both institutions were participants in the 10,000 Women Faculty Development Program, part of the 10,000 Women Initiative sponsored by the Goldman Sachs Foundation, which benefited 140 professors from these universities.

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AssetsCash and Cash Equivalents Receiveables from funding agencies Other AssetsFixed assets net Total Assets Liabilites and Net AssetsLiabilities Accounts Payable Other Liabilities Deferred Revenue Total Liabilities

Net Assets Unrestricted Total Net Assets Total Liabilities and Net Assets

Financial StatementsAs of December 31, 2010 and 2009

$ 9, 420,467 1,125,055

1,714,451 84,334

$12,344,307

2010 2009

Statement of Financial Position

Statement of Activities

Unrestricted Revenue, gains and other supportGrants ReceivedLess: Amounts designated for specific grantees Total grantee revenueTesting ServicesSeminarsInterest IncomeOther Total revenue, gains and other support

ExpensesU.S. Government funding agenciesOrganization of American StatesOther funding agenciesManagement and general Total Expenses Change in net assets

$ 12,101,828 1,095,042 1,655,053 57,969 $14,909,892

$ 607,721 258,900 11,041,260 11,907,881

$ 1,303,442 401,417 12,914,37014,619,229

436,426 436,426

$12,344,307

290,663 290,663

$14,909,892

$ 16, 101,663 (13,013,452)

3,088,211 150,207

978,598 749

12,650 4,230,415

$ 15, 562,169 (12,664,583)

2,897,586 174,309

1,229,65038,670 22,997

4,363,212

1, 498,265432,850474,815

1,746,3424,152,272

210,940

1,614,466602,995

1,111,108756,083

4,084,652145,763

LASPAU wishes to thank all those who supported

and partnered with us in 2010 to strengthen higher

education in Latin America and the Caribbean.

25 Mount Auburn Street, Suite 300Cambridge, MA 02138-6095 USA Tel. +1 617-495-5255 Fax +1 617-495-8990www.laspau.harvard.edu

LASPAU