The Mulert Award on Mutual Understanding 2014 is bestowed to Oksana Buzhdygan and her project “Environmental Education and Outreach for School-Age Students”. Ms. Buzhdygan receives the award for her enrichment seminars with school teachers in rural areas of her home country, the Ukraine. Ms. Buzhdygan, an eco scientist and assistant professor at Chernivtsi National University, started her project in direct response to massive ecological changes and the lack of educational measures to raise public consciousness for environmental quality.
Together with faculty members Ms. Buzhdygan organizes practical training courses for school teachers, focusing on areas of the Ukraine where resources for education are scarce and where the impact of deforestation to the inhabitants is immediate. The purpose of the long-term project is to connect professional ecologists with the community in order to heighten awareness of the science of ecology and local environmental issues. Seminar participants share their experience with colleagues in their schools as well as from adjacent villages and use their experience in class in order to provide knowledge beyond the conventional curricula.
While her undertaking is a major challenge in the Ukraine, Ms. Buzhdygan also provides opportunities for teachers and students to access expanded sources of information and exchange through the project’s website. It is her hope that the ecological education she provides will act as a catalyst to create a new and much needed discourse on the environment.
Ecological Education in the Ukraine – Project Images
Short Biography of Oksana Buzhdygan
| 2004 – 2005 | Master (Ecology and environmental management), Dept. of the General & Experimental Ecology, Chernivtsi National University, Ukraine |
| 2005 – 2008 | Ph.D. (Ecology), Dept. Ecology & Biomonitoring, Chernivtsi National University, Ukraine |
| 2010 – 2011 | Fulbright Grantee (Fulbright Faculty Development Program), Odum School of Ecology & Faculty of Engineering, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA |
| 2011 – 2012 | Post-Doc. Odum School of Ecology & Faculty of Engineering, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA |
| 2007 – Present | Present Assistant-Professor. Dept. Ecology & Biomonitoring, Chernivtsi National University, Ukraine |
| 2013 – Present | Post-Doc. (Erasmus-Mundus Grantee), Institute of Biology, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. |