Submitted by: Mr. Sunday Gbajobi
Secretary General
Egba National Association of the USA and Canada
Contact Information: 703-296-9535
King (Oba) Michael Adedotun Aremu Gbadebo, the Alake and Paramount Ruler of Egbaland, Ogun State in Nigeria, presented Chief Professor Bessie House-Soremekun with the Egba National Award of Excellence at the Awards Ceremony held in Greenbelt, Maryland on September 3, 2012 during the annual conference of the Egba National Association of the United States and Canada. In his presentation of the award, His Royal Majesty, King (Oba) Gbadebo commended Professor House-Soremekun for her outstanding work in the area of internationalization, with particular emphasis on her efforts to build better ties and understanding between the United States and Nigeria through her work in Egbaland, Nigeria.
The President of the Egba National Association of the USA and Canada, Mr. Olutoyin Oladipo and Mrs. Bisi Fajimi, who read the formal citation for the award, praised the tremendous contributions that Chief Professor House-Soremekun has made to Egbaland in Nigeria in the areas of business, education, and research. Additionally, she was recognized for her efforts to build an international partnership and collaboration between Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) and the Federal University of Agriculture in Abeokuta, Nigeria (Ogun State). This collaboration will encompass many areas including co-hosting international conferences, providing business training assistance to Nigerians under the umbrella of the Center for Global Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Development which she directs at IUPUI, and having faculty and student exchange programs in the future. House-Soremekun has made several visits to Nigeria over the past few years. During these visits, she made public presentations at the Federal University of Agriculture in Abeokuta (Ogun State); Adekunle Ajasin University in Akungba-Akoko (Ondo State); the University of Ibadan (Ibadan, Nigeria); and the 2nd Annual Toyin Falola International Conference on Africa and the African Diaspora held in Lagos, Nigeria. At these events, she discussed the need to build entrepreneurial capacity in Nigeria and the importance of promoting economic and sustainable development in the country. House-Soremekun was praised highly during the Awards Ceremony for continuing to invest time, energy and money in the human capital development of Egba and Yewa indigenes in her quest to build stronger ties between the state of Indiana and Ogun State, Nigeria.
In her acceptance remarks, Chief Professor House-Soremekun thanked His Royal Majesty, King (Oba) Gbadebo for presenting her with this prestigious award on behalf of the Egba National Association of the USA and Canada, and for his tremendous support for her efforts and the Olori. House-Soremekun also thanked her husband, Chief Dr. Maurice A.E. Soremekun, for his longstanding support, their children, and grandchildren. She accepted the award with all humility and indicated that whatever efforts she has made, whether big or small, have been done to assist the human community. "I do it because it is the right thing to do and it brings me so much joy," she stated. This is the third award that House-Soremekun has received this year and this is the very first time in the history of Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis that one of its faculty members has been presented with an award by a reigning monarch.
Chief Professor House-Soremekun is the Director of Africana Studies, the Public Scholar in African American Studies, Civic Engagement, and Entrepreneurship, Professor of Political Science, Professor of Africana Studies, and the Founding Executive Director of the Center for Global Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Development at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis. She is also an award-winning author, inventor and entrepreneur, as well as an internationally-recognized scholar, expert, and advocate on entrepreneurship and sustainable development. She has three chieftaincy titles which are Erelu Bada Asiwaju of Egbaland which was conferred on her by His Royal Majesty, King (Oba) Michael Adedotun Aremu Gbadebo; the Erulu Mayeigun of Keesi, and Iyalaje of Bakatari.
House-Soremekun's accomplishments in the area of internationalization are exemplary. She convened the highly successful 1st Public Scholars in Africana Studies International Conference on Globalization at IUPUI in 2009 that brought African Royalty, Oba (King) Michael Aremu Gbadebo, to the Indiana University Campus for the first time, as well as scholars from Africa, Europe, North America and South America. Also in attendance were students, entrepreneurs, public policy advocates, community leaders, and members of the public at large. The theme of the conference was "Rethinking Economic Development in the Context of Globalization: Entrepreneurship, the Knowledge Economy, and Sustainable Development."
Under the umbrella of the Center for Global Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Development at IUPUI, she recently created a new model for academic conferences which is the development of a multi-legged format in which a common conference theme will be discussed by leading scholars, students and policy makers in different countries and continents of the world at different time periods. The creation of this model is a major paradigmatic shift in terms of how academic conferences are held and organized as some of the most important issues of our times will be discussed in different political, economic, and geographical environments. The multi-legged conference model will be initiated next year in 2014 when the first leg will be convened at the Federal University of Agriculture in Abeokuta, Nigeria. Leg 2 will be held at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis in 2014 and leg 3 will be held at Moi University in Kenya in 2015. The theme of the conference is [Re] Imagining, [Re] Formulating, and [Re] Mapping Communities in the Era of Globalization: Education, Technology and Sustainable Development.
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