Asia University for Women, launched in 2008, is an audacious project in Chittagong, Bangladesh, that is aiming to develop the region's future leaders.
It has graduated two classes and, despite teething problems, looks to have a bright future in a country best known for poverty and natural disasters. It currently has 535 students from 12 countries, extraordinary young women who have learned about socioeconomic problems, conflict and violence firsthand.
Seeing AUW at work, as I did in 2009, is to believe in its mission and the empowering role of education. It recruits young women who are almost all the first in their families to pursue higher education. They receive full scholarships to cover tuition, room and board, books, health insurance and travel expenses totaling $15,000 per year.