PARAMUS, N.J. – The flight took more than a day, but the impact could last a lifetime.

Bergen Community College professor Win Win Kyi, of Hackensack, recently travelled to Myanmar – her native country – as an invited guest of parliamentarians and the attorney general to lend guidance for those shaping national legislation combatting a fractured educational system. Kyi provided expertise on the topic of inclusionary education and equality for all learners. The country’s president, U Thein Sein, will receive her findings.

The professor, who began at Bergen in 1987 and serves as the adviser for the College’s Alpha Epsilon Phi chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, the honor society for two-year colleges, believes she made a difference.

“This is the first time in the country’s educational history that it will bring forth a plan for all individuals,” she said. “While it has started as a small step, with information, time and governance, it will blossom into a giant leap for a population with many talents and much patience.”

More than 51 million people live in the Southeast Asia Republic of the Union of Myanmar, formerly referred to as Burma.

Kyi, the 2012 New Jersey Community College Counselor’s Association Award for Counselor Excellence honoree, holds a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Rangoon/London and M.Ed. from Montana State University.

Bergen Community College (www.bergen.edu) based in Paramus is a public two-year coeducational college, enrolling nearly 16,000 students at locations in Paramus, the Philip J. Ciarco Jr. Learning Center in Hackensack and Bergen Community College at the Meadowlands in Lyndhurst. The College offers associate degree, certificate and continuing education programs in a variety of fields.

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