Category: Blogging

Want to Work in Education Abroad? Here are 10 Useful Things You Can Do.

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Six years ago, I accepted my first position as a study abroad coordinator. Now, as a director of education abroad, I’ve been increasingly approached by people looking to begin a career in international education. 

I wrote this post for you, the young professional. Maybe you’ve just graduated with a bachelor’s degree, and loved volunteering in your university’s study abroad office. Perhaps you’ve just returned from teaching English abroad for a couple of years. Maybe you’re about to start a Master’s degree and are seeking advice for your job search. I’ve compiled 10 useful tips to assist you on your journey.

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When the Future is Uncertain, Blaze Ahead: 4 Lessons Learned After Finishing a Ph.D. at UC Irvine

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Recently, UCI Graduate Division invited me to give the first virtual talk in the alumni speaker series, “Lessons Learned” (you can watch the recording here).

I wrote this for current and former graduate students but also for anyone who may be seeking resilience in terrible times. I believe that if you can survive a Ph.D., you can survive anything; this Chronicle writer agrees.

Let me begin.

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Giving in the Time of Coronavirus. What Can We Do to Help? 

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It was a perfect spring evening in southern California, and I was taking my neighborhood walk when the smell of carne al pastor floated by. I stopped and turned to see my local taco truck. Why not buy a couple?

Then I pondered the possibilities. Would I have to walk home with my plate? The vendor only took cash, so both of us would have to touch something handled by countless people. And what if the vendor or I was sick? Would we even know if we were asymptomatic?

Reluctantly, I decided not to buy tacos. But wanting to support my local economy, I searched for, found, and donated to this fund for LA-based street vendors. Even if I couldn’t buy tacos, I could support the people selling them.

This was the evening I realized we are in a new economic existence.

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What to Do with Your One Wild and Precious Life? Three Positive, Inspiring Stories about Study Abroad.

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Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?

-Mary Oliver, “The Summer Day”

Our lives deserve to be lived as the wild and precious times they are. As the academic year celebratorily closes, I spoke with three women whose own lives have inspired me in the past nine months. Two will return home – to China and Japan – and another will take her first flight abroad.

Some context. Of the 72 international exchange students who studied at Cal State LA in the 2018-19 year, a handful of them actively participated in our weekly meetings and volunteering on and off campus. Natsumi Nishioka from Japan and Yumeng “Sky” Deng from China were two of these students. And of the over 100 students who studied abroad the same year, Debra Lozano is one. She has received two scholarships and will board a plane to Australia this summer.

While each student takes a different path, they all share the same perspective: positivity. Here are their stories. Continue reading →

10 Travel Tips for Conference Season

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It had been a long week at work but I was looking forward to my favorite annual conference, Diversity Abroad, and travel was going smoothly.

Until my suitcase broke on the security screening belt.

“Whose is this?” asked the TSA agent, holding up the stray wheel.

Even the most confident travelers like myself aren’t always prepared. But after decades of travel, including attending multiple conferences, here are 10 tips for students, professionals, and even the better-traveled of us. Continue reading →

What Will the Field of International Higher Education Look Like in 5 Years?

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Every November for the past 100 years, the Institute of International Education (IIE) has been collecting data on international education. The data collected there, self-reported by approximately 3,000 educational institutions, answer these two questions: Who studies in the United States? Who studies abroad?

By writing this feature, I rooted my own experiences – working with international student services for over seven years and managing a study abroad program for nearly five years – in answering the following question:

What will the field of international higher education look like in five years?

Upon reflecting upon trends in international higher education, including trends in immigration and pop culture, these are the three directions I believe our field will take in the next five years:

  • Canada will continue to draw international students. We can learn from this.
  • South Korea and the Korean language will increase in popularity, whether we’re ready or not. Here’s how we can ride the “Korean wave.”
  • Universities in the U.S. will have to hold themselves accountable through assessment; study abroad offices are no different. Consequently, assessment and scholar-practitioners will be more highly valued and sought after. I’ve listed a few things we can do.

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Remembering a Genocide: A Monumental Educational Trip to Turkey and Armenia

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It was the last day of traveling. We had begun the morning in Istanbul with a typically decadent breakfast buffet of bread, cheese, olives, and tomatoes. The 14 of us – UC Irvine students, faculty, and administrators – continued with a tour of the old city Sultanahmet, its ancient walls filled by three thousand years of empires and republics.

Now we were at our final destination: the Hrant Dink Foundation. Here, we talked and had copper-colored çay with Rober Koptaş, newspaper editor, and Delar Dink, daughter of Hrant Dink, Turk-Armenian and former Agos editor who was assassinated by a Turkish nationalist. Our visit included a stop at the site of Dink’s untimely 2007 death, marked by a plaque in the sidewalk. The foundation has carried on Hrant Dink’s mission, including hosting dialogue programs between Turks and Armenians.

Dialogue. This word had followed us on the two-week tour through the South Caucasus countries of Turkey, Georgia, and Armenia where we studied the genocide of 1915. A dictionary would define “dialogue” as an “exchange of ideas” and “discussion … aimed at resolution.” But our many conversations never reached a resolution and were unsettling, uprooting generations of pain in our own group.

Was peaceful resolution ever possible? Was justice within reach? Continue reading →

New Beginnings and Adventures: The Impactful First Few Weeks at Cal State LA

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It’s now the midpoint of the fall semester at Cal State LA. But as anyone who works at universities knows, this is the fullest time of the year: orientations, commencement, and welcome-back events. While the end of the spring term is a season of bittersweet goodbyes, the beginning of the fall is marked by the elation and anxiety of the new.

What beautiful chaos.

I highlight these new beginnings and adventures by featuring three people in my life whose study-abroad orbits are fundamental parts of my fall semester: Karyos Tyus, who is currently abroad; Alesia Miles, who has recently returned; and Dr. Leonor Vazquez, who is about to leave.

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Why I Believe that Difficult Roads Lead to Beautiful Destinations: A Story of a Yosemite Hike

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Yosemite had been on fire since July. Now it had reopened, yet its riverbank was still dotted with dozens of fires like a grove of neglected campfires. My friends and I silently drove past the entrance. Were we really going to hike in this?

A Breakthrough Beginning

April 12, 2018, was a remarkable day.

After three years of unsuccessfully entering the Mt Whitney and Half Dome lotteries, I opened my email to see the opening phrase “In regards to your Lottery Application.”

We were one of the fewer than 20% of applicants who were going to hike Half Dome.

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