BALTIMORE, Dec. 06, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Laureate Education, Inc. (Nasdaq: LAUR), the global leader in higher education, announced its 2018 Here for Good Award winners and honorees. The annual Here for Good Award recognizes exceptional students, graduates, and faculty who have meaningful positive impact in their communities and the world.

The Here for Good Award is given in two categories, student/graduate and faculty/staff, with a winner and honorees selected in each category. In 2018, there were more than 250 applicants from across Laureate’s network, and the award winners come from Torrens University Australia (student/graduate) and Universidade Anembi Morumbi in Brazil (faculty/staff)

• Melanie Tran from Torrens University Australia in Sydney, Australia, is the winner in the student/graduate category. Currently studying Digital Media at Torrens University Australia, Tran is the co-founder and Lead UX Designer at AbilityMate, which uses 3D printing to create custom-made orthoses. AbilityMate has engaged over 100 individuals with disabilities and their families through co-design workshops and mobilized more than 500 supporters and allies to jumpstart clinical trials and secure regulatory authorization. In addition, she is the UX Designer at Hireup, an online platform for people with disability to find, hire, and manage support workers, which currently has over 27,000 users. She is driven by a deep sense of empathy and a passion for using her talent to make the world more inclusive and accessible for the one billion people living with a disability.
  
  
• Professors Mário Vicente Guimarães and Elaine Peixoto from Universidade Anhembi Morumbi (UAM), Brazil, are the winners in the faculty/staff category. Guimarães is the founder of Medicos de Mundo, a non-profit organization that seeks to provide multidisciplinary care to people living in vulnerable situations. Through Medicos de Mundo, Guimarães and Peixoto began Medicos de Rua, an initiative which brings medical care and other services directly to homeless people living in São Paulo. Every month, they take a team of nearly 40 students to the streets of São Paulo to provide check-ups and medical services to the city’s homeless population. Under the guidance of Professors Guimarães and Peixoto, the team has treated close to 5,800 cases since 2015.

“We are incredibly proud of our winners and honorees this year, as we are proud of the countless examples of incredible social impact and innovation happening across our network,” said Eilif Serck-Hanssen, Chief Executive Officer. “We believe society is best served when our students, faculty, and our entire organization use our collective skills and experience to create positive and lasting change. Our students and graduates are improving lives and making our world a better place. This is what we mean by Here for Good.”

For more information on the 2018 Here for Good Award winners and honorees, please visit the following webpage:

• https://www.laureate.net/Global-Impact/Here-For-Good

About Laureate Education, Inc.
Laureate Education, Inc. is the largest international network of degree granting higher education institutions, primarily focused in Latin America, with more than 850,000 students enrolled at over 25 institutions with more than 150 campuses, which we collectively refer to as the Laureate International Universities network. The institutions in the Laureate International Universities network are leading brands in their respective markets and offer a broad range of undergraduate and graduate degrees through campus based, online and hybrid programs. Laureate believes that when our students succeed, countries prosper and societies benefit. This belief is expressed through the company’s philosophy of being ‘Here for Good’ and is represented by its status as a certified B Corporation® and conversion in 2015 to a Delaware public benefit corporation, a new class of corporation committed to creating a positive impact on society.