LibGuides: UNAI: About

What is UNAI?

In 2021 the United Nations Academic Impact Program (UNAI) acknowledged LaGuardia Humanitarian Initiative’s contribution to global learning and global awareness by welcoming LaGuardia Community College to join 1,400 institutions from 145 countries in becoming an United Nations Academic Impact Program (UNAI) member.

Being an institutional member to the UNAI means supporting and strengthening the UN goals (as manifested in both local and global contexts) through both curricular and experiential learning activities. Membership also includes access to the UNAI Bulletin Board which lists professional development and publishing opportunities, along with multilingual seminars on special topics.

Want to get involved?

As an UNAI member, students, staff, and faculty are eligible for UN scholarships, contests, and publication opportunities, and can take advantage of this membership to network and share research. Part of being a members means the college sends in an Annual Activity Report. The report demonstrates how LaGuardia Community College is addressing the UNAI Principles or the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and provides participants an opportunity to become connected with similar efforts worldwide.

If you have a project you would like to submit please use this form. The deadline for submissions to the 2023 Activity Report is December 22th, 2023.

Thomas Cleary (Library, tcleary@lagcc.cuny.edu) and Stefania Dinu (Institutional Advancement , sdinu@lagcc.cuny.edu) are the UNAI focal points at LaGuardia. Aside from organizing and writing the Activity Report, they can help with any questions.

UNAI Principles

UNAI lists 10 goals that support broader UN goals and initiatives:

Addressing Poverty - A commitment to addressing issues of poverty through education;
Capacity Building - A commitment to building capacity in higher education systems across the world;
Education for All - A commitment to educational opportunity for all people regardless of gender, race, religion or ethnicity;
Global Citizenship - A commitment to encouraging global citizenship through education;
Access to Higher Education - A commitment to the opportunity for every interested individual to acquire the skills and knowledge necessary for the pursuit of higher education;
Human Rights - A commitment to human rights, among them freedom of inquiry, opinion and speech;
Intercultural Dialogue - A commitment to promoting intercultural dialogue and understanding, and the "unlearning" of intolerance through education;
Peace and Conflict Resolution - A commitment to advancing peace and conflict resolution through education;
Sustainability - A commitment to promoting sustainability through education; and
United Nations Charter - A commitment to the principles inherent in the United Nations Charter.

For Further Reading

UN Sustainable Development Goals

UNAI also includes work supporting the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals as part of the initiative's mission. For more information about these goals please visit https://sdgs.un.org/goals

Activity Reports

Each calendar year the college is required to submit an report detailing the activity or activities undertaken by the university that advance the goals and mission of the United Nations, particularly in the area of the Sustainable Development Goals.