Dear GEP-list: I’m wondering if any on this list have been contacted by an organization based in Vietnam called the "World Climate Change Challenge”. This group is proporting to sponsor scholarships for thousands of people from developing countries to study in the US, funded by the Green Climate Fund. Their website (http://www.wccc-corp.com) implies that they will get $100 million from the GCF (although in other places the website notes that they are in the ‘proposal stage’ only) but there is no sign that they have applied for any money and they are definitely not an “accredited entity” at the GCF (http://www.greenclimate.fund/documents/20182/114261/20151119_-_GCF_List_of_Accredited_Entities.pdf/e09bb9b3-9730-4adc-bca9-ff32739ecae8) since the 20 that are accredited so far are groups like ADB, UNDP, etc. It’s my understanding that the GCF is mainly going to be funding mitigation and adaptation projects; I see no indication that any of the GCF money would be used for educational scholarships, no matter how worthy we might find this idea.
I work in Vietnam and I’m worried that this is a scam to get money from eager Vietnamese (and other students) who wish to study in the US. There is a list of universities on their website that they claim are part of the scholarship program. The list does include some prominent logos like Northern Arizona U, U of Arkansas, U of Wisconson Madison, U of Missouri, Colorado State, and U of Illinois, along with a number of smaller schools. If anyone on the list has been involved in agreeing to have your logo affiliated with this organization, could you contact me offlist? I am going to work with a reporter in Vietnam to investigate this organization further. The main people listed as the heads of this group seem to have no experience in higher education, and most recently were running a chain of coffee shops in Vietnam, which is worrisome and what set off my alarm bells. The organization also has a Facebook page if you want to see what they are promising: https://www.facebook.com/groups/wcccscholarship/ Thanks much in advance, Pam McElwee Rutgers [email protected] Dr. Pamela McElwee Associate Professor, Department of Human Ecology School of Environmental and Biological Sciences Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "gep-ed" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
