Aligarh Muslim University signs an MOU with Brooklyn College in New York, USA

Aligarh: The Vice Chancellor, Prof Tariq Mansoor was invited to Brooklyn College, City University of New York (CUNY) on Wednesday, July 19th 2017, to sign a Statement of Shared Interest between the two institutions for the establishment of an Early Intervention Education Training Program at AMU. He met with the President of Brooklyn College, Michelle JAnderson to formally sign the document and exchanged ideas and policies to facilitate the process.
The memorandum is signed to promote collaborative academic opportunities and explore
possibilities in exchange of information, faculty and students between the two institutions with focus on the Early Intervention Education. The program provides students with means to explore questions regarding child development and the contributions of educational, social and cultural environments on the child’s growth and learning. It offers a multidisciplinary approach to an evidence-based, family-centered practice and research opportunities to working with infants, toddlers and pre-school kids where the parents and family members are actively involved in their child’s development and education. It lays special emphasis on the autistic or developmentally challenged child.
The Vice Chancellor said that through this program the faculty and students at Brooklyn College will be exposed to a lot of cases and educational ideas in an entirely different clinical setting. He reiterated the fact that Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College provides healthcare to the deprived and poorest of the poor and so the focus of this project should be on that community. ‘Without going into the nitty gritty details of the proposal, I offer my support to the collaborative effort’, he said.
President of Brooklyn College, Michelle Anderson said that they were ‘very excited at the
prospect of learning everything about this area from different perspectives and academic
traditions from around the world’. She noted that Brooklyn College was a public institution
serving people regardless of their background just like AMU, turning out citizens committed to making an impact in the world. She was impressed by the commitment shown by the alumni present there and promised to provide the resources to ‘make a difference’.
The meeting concluded with the Vice Chancellor extending an invitation to President Anderson to visit our prestigious institution in Aligarh. Those present at the meeting included the Dean of the Department of Education, April W Bedford; Early Childhood Education expert and Ex Dean, Mary De Bey; Director of the Early Childhood Center, MaryAnn Moran; members of Aligarh Alumni Association of New York (AAANY)- Shaheen Usmani (who proposed the initiative), Tanvir Ahmad, Kausar Usmani, Irfan
Beg and members of AMAANA- Dr Kohkan Shamsi and Dr Tazeen Beg.
Earlier in the day, the Vice Chancellor met with Dr Mohamed Amin, President, iTtech USA Inc to look into the possibility of a joint venture or a strategic alliance with the company. iTtech USA Inc is an innovative IT company providing software, web based, or mobile based, creative designing solutions and services especially in the healthcare field. Dr Amin was introduced by Dr Intazam Khan, a JNMC alum and ex-President of AAANY. He proposed systems and programs for the university including an online interactive educational system, web-based data and analytics platform, on-demand educational materials and real-time classroom broadcasting.
The Vice Chancellor showed interest and requested a detailed document and to schedule another meeting in the future to look into the specifics of the proposal.