Supporting theSchool of International Service

A top-10 school of international affairs, the School of International Service has cemented itself as the destination for service-minded global leaders since its founding in 1957. Thanks to the philanthropic support of the SIS community during the Change Can’t Wait campaign, the school has been able to attract and retain internationally recognized faculty whose work addresses complex challenges of our time, host luminaries, and enroll talented students from a diversity of backgrounds to continue its tradition of critical dialogue and global engagement. With more than 60 years of its founding commitment to “wage peace,” as called for by President Eisenhower at the school’s groundbreaking ceremony, SIS is well-positioned to nurture the next generation of global changemakers.

Change Created

Honored a Legacy in Faculty Excellence by establishing the Abdul Aziz Said Chair in International Peace and Conflict Resolution. This chair recognizes the extraordinary contributions of late faculty member and peacebuilding pioneer, Professor Said, whose distinguished career at AU spanned nearly six decades and cements his legacy of peacebuilding and conflict resolution at the School of International Service.
Advanced Students’ Access to Opportunity through the creation of new need-based and merit-based funds such as the SIS First Generation Fund and the SIS Emergency Fund, sponsorship for American University International Relations Society to help cover travel costs for AU’s Model UN Team (#1 in North America) and facilitate broader student participation, and additional funds for experiential learning opportunities, including unpaid internships, study abroad, and overseas internship opportunities.
Fostered Contemporary Global Inquiry in topics spanning accountability and civic engagement, political economy and security of the Korean peninsula, cybersecurity, carbon removal, climate best practices, and translating research into international policy solutions. With support from international and national foundations and organizations, faculty-driven initiatives such as the Accountability Research Center, Bridging the Gap, Institute for Responsible Carbon Renewal, Research on International Policy Implementation Lab, and the Korea in Global Affairs Initiative, were established or grown, as well as student-driven research initiatives in the US and overseas through the Chung Endowed Fund for Experiential Exchange and the Olson Scholars Program.
Established New Partnerships for Global Impact including with Football for Peace, a UK-based nonprofit committed to global peace and water security through sports diplomacy and youth activation; We Don’t Have Time, the world’s largest media platform for climate action, whose profiles of SIS faculty and student activists during COP 28 & COP 27 reached millions of youth; and the Atlantic Council Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge, focused on building the pipeline for the next generation of cyber policymakers.

SIS is much more than a place to study international relations. We are a community of over 25,000 worldwide alumni, faculty, staff, and students who aspire to improve the world through service. For us, ‘impact through service’ is delivered in many ways—through public sector, private sector, non-profits and faith-based institutions; spanning humanity-relevant research to policy & politics to industry. It requires non-traditional partnerships and collaborations, working across disciplines, boundaries, and perspectives to develop truly novel solutions and innovations. It demands the highest skills in dialogue and diplomacy, in seeing the world from varied interests and perspectives, It means staying agile and responsive to the world we find ourselves in now, to move toward the world we want to be. Thanks to our community’s investment during Change Can’t Wait, we are better able to support generations of global thought leaders ready to serve, ready to lead.

Shannon Hader, Dean, School of International Service