This series of events dedicated to the celebration of phenomenal women aims to fill the Great Hall of Danubius University with people who aim in life to fulfill not only their childhood dreams but also all the professional plans that take shape, especially during adolescence. Dr. Gabriela Mustață Wilson has taken on a very important role for her students from all over the world - to share publicly how much courage is needed to be transformed, by life, by society, by people around you, even by her own family, to exclaim, one day: YES! I did it!

The presentation given to the audience by Ms. Wilson was like an imaginary journey through her life; the slides were full of memories that made her parents, who were seated in the first row of the Great Hall, wipe their tears several times. It is not easy to remember your past from the communist period, but it can be an incentive for anyone to start listening to history, as it is, to understand it. Gabriela Mustață Wilson's childhood dream was clear: The United States of America! And with a lot of perseverance, enthusiasm, courage, desire for transformation, joy, strength, and a lot of power, she succeeded. She learned. She studied. The secrets of chemistry were discovered in Romania. Then, in Belgium, she continued her studies in molecular biology for two years. The University of Houston gave her the opportunity to pursue a PhD in computational biochemistry. The rest is history! The pharmacological industry, molecular modeling, and drug design, followed by health informatics, specializations that have revealed her strength to succeed in any field. Now her academic home is at the University of Texas at Arlington, where she inspires her students of all nations as a professor and co-director of the Multi-Interprofessional Center for Health Informatics (MICHI).

The wish of this phenomenal woman for all of us is as simple as it is profound:” Trust in your abilities more than anybody else. Life is full of challenges and hardships, and you will always have people around you who will try to slow you down or even stop you.”

The lesson learned and generously shares with all her students is inspired by former US First Lady Michelle Obama: “Success is not about how much money you make. Success means the difference you make in people's lives.

Chapeau-bas, Gabriela! See you next time!

Oana Draganescu,

PR&MEDIA Director

Danubius University celebrates 30 years of excellence in higher education in Romania.

Our students, masters, graduates, trainees, professors, our partners are, in these 30 years of our existence, what today we call the DANUBIUS ACADEMIC COMMUNITY!

The President-Founder of Danubius University, Professor and

Magistrate BENONE PUSCA wrote, on the first page of one of his books, the following lines:

I LEAVE YOU SOMETHING FROM MY LIFE, NOT AS A WILL,

BUT AS AN ARGUMENT TO LIVE BEAUTIFULLY. EVERYWHERE, IF YOU REALLY WANT TO DO SOMETHING, YOU SUCCEED.

THE FUTURE IS YOURS!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DANUBIUS!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DANUBIEN COMMUNITY!

Phenomenal Women Series is one of the events that are being organized throughout 2022, under the auspices of "30 YEARS OF EXCELLENCE IN UNIVERSITY EDUCATION, in which the entire Danubian community celebrates 30 years of Danubius University.

In February 15, even on the Day of Celebrating the 30 Years Anniversary, an extraordinary woman will be present on the stage of the Great Hall, an example for the young generation, for the ambition, determination, courage and strength to take it from the beginning to fulfill her greatest dream. We will be honored to give the floor to Ms. Gabriela Mustata Wilson, a professor at University of Texas-Arlington, USA, but also a member of the Danubius International Advisory Council.

Dr. Gabriela Mustata Wilson is an internationally recognized health informatics expert with a passion for harnessing the power of research and translating it into community action. She is a Professor and Founding Co-Director of the Multi-Interprofessional Center for Health Informatics at the University of Texas-Arlington, USA. With a background in chemical engineering, pharmacoinformatics, health informatics and public health informatics, Dr. Mustata Wilson bridges the knowledge-to-action gap related to integrating public and ecological health to foster resilience. For the past twenty years, she has educated and trained learners in various interprofessional settings conducted research in industry and academia and led partnerships across industry, academic institutions, and the community. Dr. Mustata Wilson has demonstrated her active support to the Health Informatics community by serving in numerous leadership positions within the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). She is currently the co-chair of the HIMSS Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform (TIGER) International Initiative, a global initiative fostering community development and workforce development using an interprofessional approach. Dr. Mustata Wilson is a Fellow Member of HIMSS bestowed in recognition of service, professional participation, job experience, publications, and presentations. She is also a Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), a distinction given to individuals who demonstrate a high degree of innovation through US patents that have brought a real impact on society's welfare. Her most recent activities are focused on addressing racial injustice and health inequity by advancing a community partnership model of outreach to Latino populations that empowers communities through participatory discussion. As a result of her leadership and collaborative efforts, the Coalition of Urban Serving Universities (USU) named the University of Texas-Arlington as its inaugural Racial Justice and Equity Program Award Winner in 2021.

The Phenomenal Women series has the mission to connect and empower women and young girls, through their personal support for professional growth, for the development of leadership skills, through coaching and mentoring.

Danubius University aims to create safe spaces to discuss women's strategies for career and business advancement, to capitalize on the strength of women and young girls across the board. Also, through this series, we aimed to promote interdisciplinary thinking leadership and the exchange of knowledge between women leaders in various spheres of economic, social, cultural and political influence.

The event will start at 1 P.M., in the Great Hall, in Danubius University and it will be broadcasted live on Facebook Page, https://www.facebook.com/DanubiusUniversity.

The official media partner of this series of events is the AGERPRES National Press Agency.

Oana Draganescu

PR & MEDIA Director

A national essay contest for Romanian high school students, organized and sponsored by Danubius University, will begin in March, and operate on a monthly basis.  Students who would like to participate will first view an historic photographic exhibition entitled, Then and Now, which is currently on display at the university.   This important exhibit was originally developed by the US Embassy in Bucharest to display photographs capturing the Communist era and juxtapose them with today.  It illuminates the  benefits of freedom and democracy for all Romanians and serves to remind all, particularly the generations born after 1989, of how communism looked and the oppression, fear, and injustice that defined it.

The theme of the essay competition is, Thoughts and Opinions About Then and Now, and students will submit an essay, in English with a maximum of two pages, that presents their reactions to the exhibition.  There will be two categories of entries, actual and virtual, based on whether the students have seen the exhibit in person, or through the video presentation on the Danubius University website.

Winners of the competition will be selected on the thirtieth day of each month, in recognition of the fact that 2022 is the thirtieth anniversary of the university’s founding, and there will be monetary awards for the three best entries during that month: 200 lei for first place; 150 lei for second place; and 100 lei for third place.  In addition, seven honorable mention entries will also be selected and the authors of those essays will receive a certificate of merit and a tee shirt with the Danubius University slogan: Young, smart and beautiful.

All high school students, first through fourth year, in public and private institutions, are eligible to enter the competition, and the entries will be submitted through a portal on the Danubius University website.  Students must affirm that the work submitted is their own and that they have not received assistance from parents, teachers, or coaches.  Judges for the contest will be high school composition teachers from throughout Romania, and the membership of the review panel will rotate each month to ensure that each section of the country receives representation among this select body.  The judges will be assisted in the operation of the program by faculty members from the School of Communication and International Relations at Danubius University.

Danubius University is pleased to extend this opportunity to the high school students of Romania to express themselves in writing on such an important topic.  As the country emerges from the pandemic and the social isolation that it has imposed on everyone, this competition will be a valuable exercise that will facilitate both the personal and the academic development of young people.  Students will be able to express themselves, to assess their writing capabilities and thought processes, and possibly even win an award for their submissions.  The rules of the contest will allow the individuals who are not prize winners to enter the competition again during the subsequent months, so they will have an opportunity to review, analyze, and improve the essays that they submit for the next review.  As a result, they are certain to be better prepared to be successful when they graduate from high school and they enter into their university experience, either at Danubius or another institution.  In the long run, we are hopeful that the entire country will benefit from this endeavour.