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I will be departing for the Forum on Education Abroad’s Annual Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina (USA) in one short week.  I am looking forward to this conference – it is much smaller than the NAFSA Annual Conference and will provide a different dynamic, perhaps with more depth in content.

According to their web site,  The Forum conference theme, “Vision and Value in Education Abroad” takes up the central importance of creating and maintaining a compelling vision for education aboad while communicating its value.  The conference will focus on articulating the vital nature of education abroad and the many benefits that it brings to students, organizations, institutions, communities and societies.  This theme is especially important as we address the challenges brought on by the current global economic crisis, when both the vision and the value of education abroad may be called into question.

I will be blogging from this conference – recognizing that many university budgets will not permit travel during this difficult economy.  I will also be blogging for those in international education who have been laid off or are underemployed, in recognition of their unique challenges. I hope to give you all a bird’s eye view of the dialogue, best practices and hot topics.

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NAFSA (Association of International Educators) is running the Academy program again in 2010.  For those of you who don’t know NAFSA, it is one of the primary professional associations for international educators. Headquartered in Washington DC, it offers a massive national conference that attracts educators and 3rd party providers/partners from around the world.  NAFSA also offers regional conferences each fall, which are more intimate gatherings with colleagues from a several state region.

The Academy is the training program for those who are interested in exploring the field of international education. This is an excellent opportunity for those who are relatively new to the field and who would like exposure to various career tracks under the umbrella of international education.  Those who are accepted into the Academy must commit to a 9 month program and develop learning goals. They will be paired with a seasoned mentor who will work closely with them to work toward their learning plan goals and to assist in networking within the field so that they are pulling from the most appropriate resources for their own learning paths.  Having served as a mentor in this program,  I have seen the added benefit of Academy participants bonding with a cohort of peers who will become friends and “go to” colleagues down the road.

Academy participants learn the basics of International Admissions, International Student Advising, Education Abroad and Management. They are expected to attend a training in the Spring in Atlanta, Georgia (US)  and then to attend the national and their local regional conferences. Membership to the organization is given for up to 18 months as part of the program and mentoring is continuous throughout the 9 month period, although it typically takes place by phone and email during the bulk of the program.  Participants will also have access to NAFSA’s online manual during this period.

Applications for the Academy are due by December 1st, 2009.  There is a fee of $1649 to participate, but this typically  includes membership and registration fees for the 3 face to face meetings/conferences (although the region determines whether to discount or waive the regional conference fee).  Travel costs to conferences are additional, but many employers will contribute to the program fee and travel costs.

If you know anyone interested in the field of international education, please do tell them about the NAFSA Academy. And if you’re a seasoned professional and would be interested in volunteering your time as a mentor, it is a very rewarding experience and offers a tremendous opportunity to give back to our field, which has given us so much.

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One of the most valuable sessions that I attended at the NAFSA bi-regional conference last week was “Thinking Outside the Book: Accessing the World through Words.” This session was the brainchild of Nancy E. Young, Associate Director of the Office for International Students and Scholars at New York University. I was very fortunate to have the honor of working alongside Nancy early in my career and know firsthand that she is a very gifted adviser, educator, trainer and writer. She presented this session with James Leck, another incredibly talented international educator from Boston University.

Nancy began the session by having audience participants read quotes about reading – this set the tone for the importance and value of words and their meaning, or perceived meaning. My quote, by Thomas Carlyle, was one that I would have hand picked if given the choice: “What we become depends on what we read after all the professors have finished with us. The greatest university of all is the collection of books.”

Nancy described how her passion for reading became an opportunity for not only personal development, but professional development. Each book we read tells us a story, but it also provides us with many hints about culture. Why do the characters behave a certain way? Why do they respond (or not respond) in a particular manner? How would we, based on our own cultural upbringing, react to the characters and circumstances? What influences these behaviors and decisions? How can we better understand ourselves and the characters through works of fiction?

Nancy offered guidelines to consider when reading intercultural fiction. Areas such as gender, daily habits, individualism vs collectivism (Hofstede), time, and the author were outlined as a starting point. A series of questions about each of her guidelines were provided and then we were asked to listen to a snippet of a short story by Jhumpa Lahiri, read quite gracefully by James. We drifted into story land, absorbing all of the cultural cues provided in Lahiri’s work. I closed my eyes to imagine the scene that James was describing, began to feel the characters near me, smelling the food that was described, hearing their voices develop as the plot did.

James and Nancy then had us break into small groups to discuss Lahiri’s words against the 12 “frameworks” provided. My group quickly addressed gender and time/time period while others focused on cultural issues that were less visible to the reader, such as communication style. It became quickly apparent that this type of exercise would facilitate dialogue about cultures with our students, faculty, administrators, staff – even friends and family – in a non-threatening manner. After all, we were not talking about ourselves, but characters from a story. This model adds tremendous value to our ability as educators to create opportunities to dialogue about cultural differences and to surface similarities that may not have been immediately visible.

As international educators, we have a responsibility to develop and maintain our own tool kits to refer back to when working across cultures. I am very appreciative of the value of the tools that Nancy has made available at www.thinkingoutsidethebook.org. This beauty of this tool is that it can easily be used with a variety of populations on our campuses: ESL classes, international students’ orientation, study abroad students pre-departure and re-entry orientations, across diverse teams and via campus wide/community reading programs. I would encourage you to visit this site and explore some of the readings suggested by Nancy and James. And as soon as I finish my latest read: “The Thing Around Your Neck” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (from Nigeria), I will incorporate one of her short stories into an upcoming training or orientation.

I’m curious to know what works of fiction you will be using in future intercultural training. Add a comment with the name of the author and book title for others to consider.

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I will be attending the NAFSA: Association of International Educators Bi-regional Conference (regions X & XI) in Springfield, MA from November 2nd – 5th. I will be co-presenting in a pre-conference workshop entitled “Fundamentals of Short Term Education Abroad Programming” on November 3rd.
There is still time to register for this conference. The bi-regionals are always an added bonus, as colleagues from both regions representing NY, NJ, CT, MA, VT, NH, ME and RI will be in attendance, sharing a wealth of knowledge and creativity.
Please look me up if you attend!