IES Abroad will be exhibiting at the 2014 Forum Annual Conference (Booth 78) and the Diversity Abroad Conference next week in San Diego. We invite you to stop by our booths in the exhibition halls to learn more about IES Abroad, our Diversity Initiative, or to just say "hello".
Our staff is also involved in several presentations and workshops:
Diversity Abroad
Monday, March 31, 8:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Pre-Conference workshop:
Strategic Marketing: Developing Principled Outreach Efforts to Reach a Diverse Audience
Gretchen Cook-Anderson, Director of Diversity Recruiting and Advising – IES Abroad
Attracting diverse and underrepresented student populations to international education opportunities is a challenge that requires us to review each aspect of the education abroad process, including marketing. As a result, many campuses have initiated marketing campaigns aimed at students from diverse backgrounds. This type of marketing may pose ethical concerns and begs the question are there approaches to marketing to diverse student groups that cross real or perceived ethical boundaries? How can education abroad offices collaborate with campus marketing departments to create approaches to diversity outreach that inspire broader participation in education abroad programming, while maintaining solid ethical principles? This session will explore the ethics of marketing to underrepresented students and offers innovative, principled marketing solutions that participants can utilize to reach targeted segments of their student populations.
Monday, March 31, 12:00 – 1:15 p.m.
Networking Lunch Sponsored by IES Abroad
Tuesday, April 1, 10:30 – 11:45 a.m.
Dipping a Toe in the Water to Inspire an Embrace of Self & The World: An Impact Case Study of Short-Term Study Abroad and 39 Underrepresented Students in Beijing
Dallawrence Dean, Ph.D. Student – The University of Texas at Austin; Gretchen Cook-Anderson, Director of Diversity Recruiting & Advising, IES Abroad
Increasingly, study abroad professionals are looking to program innovations that “speak” to hard-to-reach students. Short-term, faculty-led programs have become, unquestionably, a means to broaden access and inspire greater study abroad participation among underrepresented students by getting their proverbial “feet wet.” For many, such programs are also proving to positively influence their sense of self, world view, overall attitude toward academic and professional pursuits upon return, college retention, and likelihood they will study abroad again. Learn adaptable best practices from one school and its first-generation students who spent 5 weeks in Beijing, and the provider that facilitated this novel, recurring program.
Forum
Booth 78
Thursday, April 3, 10:45 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
The Big Think: Crazy Like Us
Brian Brubaker (IES Abroad); Ann Hubbard (AIFS); Leslie Ray (IAU College); Scott Manning (Susquehanna University); Stephan Anagnostaras (University of California, San Diego)
Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche by Ethan Watters (New Press, 2010) speaks directly to an evolving challenge faced by professionals working with U.S. students: the increase in students studying abroad with diagnosed mental health issues. Crazy Like Us examines how various mental health conditions are diagnosed and treated differently across cultures, and proposes that the U.S. often imposes its conceptions of mental illness in (and on) other countries. Watters' work has implications for understanding the context of mental illness abroad, especially when working collaboratively with resident staff when student issues arise. This session features a panel of colleagues and experts to address the issues and assumptions in the book, and encourages broad-ranging participant discussion.
Friday, April 4, 8:45 - 10:00 a.m.
Adopting Individualized Institutional Standards for Student Health, Safety and Crisis Management that Go Beyond the Field's Minimum Requirements
William P. Hoye (IES Abroad); Susan Popko (Santa Clara University); Julie Friend (Northwestern University)
This session will explore the idea of adapting health, safety and crisis management standards that go beyond the field's minimum requirements by creating augmented individualized guidelines to help colleges, universities and providers review, identify, articulate and personalize and enhance their own approaches to health and safety standards.
Friday, April 4, 10:45 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
New Avenues to Access: Leveraging Short-Term Programs to Cultivate Greater Participation of Underrepresented Students in Education Abroad
Gretchen Cook-Anderson (IES Abroad); Ahmad Refky (IES Abroad); Giancarlo Taylor (University of Texas, Austin); Monya Lemery (University of Texas, Austin)
Qualitative studies and anecdotal evidence suggest underrepresented students are more likely to venture abroad for the first time on shorter term or faculty-led programs than traditional term-length programs. Panelists will discuss examples of successful program design strategies that boost their participation by addressing barriers these students often face.
