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8am - 5pm Registration & Information
8:30am -430pm Pre-conference Workshops
8:30am - 5:15pm Standards of Good Practice Institute- Standards in Focus: Beyond
the Basics of Health, Safety and Security
8:30am - 12pm/ Full-Day Workshops
1 - 4:30pm
Crossing Borders, Creating Culture: Digital Storytelling & Study Abroad
- Thomas D’Agostino, Director of Center for Global Education, Hobart and William Smith Colleges and Union College Partnership for Global Education (PAGE)
- Doug Reilly, Coordinator of the Center for Global Education, Hobart and William Smith Colleges and Union College Partnership for Global Education
- Bryan Alexander, Director of Research, National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education (NITLE)
The digital revolution has put powerful storytelling tools into the hands of study abroad educators and students. Digital storytelling, in which images, words and music are combined into short films that are easy to share with a wide audience, has the potential to enhance the study abroad experience, before, during and after the term abroad. Digital storytelling projects can facilitate focused reflection and concise articulation of cross-cultural experiences and their impact on personal or intellectual development. Participants in this workshop will learn about digital storytelling first-hand, by making their own digital story. Along the way, the group will discuss the myriad ways digital storytelling can augment the study abroad educational project. The process will conclude with a conference session in which the workshop group will show their own films, discuss the concept of digital storytelling, and facilitate a conversation about its potential to enhance study abroad with a wider Forum audience. (LIMIT 13 PARTICIPANTS)
The Blueprint for Intercultural Learning: The What, the How, and the Why
- Lilli Engle, President and On-Site Director, American University Center of Provence
- Michael Vande Berg, Vice President of Academic Affairs, CIEE
- Anthony Ogden, Pennsylvania State University
Study abroad professionals, at home and abroad, are increasingly aware that too many students do not learn and develop effectively while abroad, and that they learn best when focused efforts are made to intervene in their learning. This workshop explores the value and challenge of intercultural learning as well as the key dimensions of effective program design and intercultural training. Participants will examine the obstacles and solutions to improved student learning and experience several innovative intercultural activities. The workshop facilitators, each experienced program designers and intercultural trainers, will ask participants to explore the essential dimensions of effective program design and training. Covering techniques and considerations relevant to a number of program types, from short-term, faculty-led to semester-long immersion, the facilitators introduce these key dimensions through brief, interactive presentations, each of which is followed by facilitated experiential learning activities designed to allow participants to develop insights into ways to optimize student learning abroad. (LIMIT 30 PARTICIPANTS)
8:30-10:30am Standards Institute - first concurrent session
You be the Judge: Case Studies in Risk, Negligence and Risk Management
Joseph Brockington, Julie Friend
This session addresses the issue of negligence within a risk management context. Following a presentation on the elements necessary for negligence, tables of participants will review a series of actual and hypothetical cases to determine actual or potential elements of negligence and discuss how risks can be mitigated or removed.
What Do We Learn from Critical Incidents Abroad? How and What Do We Share About Incidents and With Whom?
Steven Duke, Landes Holbrook, Stacey Tsantir
Education abroad professionals face many challenges when dealing with health, safety and security incidents abroad. But once a critical incident is nearing resolution or is over, what do we do with the information? Critical questions to be addressed by this session include: How do we track and report critical incidents? What level of detail do we share with individuals within our institution? How do we best share that information? How do we share information with external audiences, especially if we think our programs may compete with other programs, and that students will enroll in other programs if we share information regarding health and safety? What types of information should we share with faculty and students during pre-departure training? How can we learn from past cases to improve our emergency response plans and notification systems?
Engaging Study Abroad Faculty Directors in Risk Management Planning
Holly Hill, John de la Hunt
Faculty-led study abroad program leaders are charged with the safety and security of their traveling group, yet often fail to receive proper training to mitigate risks during their international program Participants in this session will create a risk management plan through a guided simulation during which each participant assumes a different campus role (including faculty program leader) and where their decisions impact the unfolding results within the simulation exercise. The simulation debriefing will teach participants about faculty director risk management training and the successes and pitfalls of this approach.
8:30am - 12pm Half-Day Workshops (morning)
Using the Global Perspective Inventory to Assess the Value of Education Abroad
- Larry Braskamp, Professor Emeritus, Loyola University Chicago
- Dennis Doyle, Professor of Communications, Central College
- Brian Zylstra, Director, Central College Abroad
Participants will learn from a GPI author about its purpose, theoretical bases, and intended uses in program planning. The GPI has been constructed to answer common questions that students ask in their journey through college: How do I know? Who am I? How do I relate to others? In small groups, workshop participants will use the Interpretative Guide and Group Reports of the two administrations (pre-test and post-test) of the GPI administered during the 2009 spring semesters to approximately 150 students at eight study abroad centers associated with Central College Abroad. They will discuss how they can interpret and use the results of the GPI to determine baselines for understanding their students enrolled in education abroad programs, noting progress on global learning and development, altering and monitoring programs on site, and integrating study abroad programs into home campus programs. At the end of the workshop participants will be able to better understand how to use data from the GPI and other sources of evidence to connect desired student learning and development with socio-cultural environmental factors to enhance desired holistic and global student development. (LIMIT 50 PARTICIPANTS)
Developing International Online Course Collaborations that Build Bridges to Study Abroad
- Jon Rubin, Director, The SUNY Center for Collaborative Online International Learning at Purchase College
- Sarah Guth, English as a Second Language teacher, University of Padua, Italy
- Wayne te Brake , Professor of History, Purchase College at SUNY
- Craig Little, Distinguished Service Professor,Sociology/Anthropology, SUNY Cortland
The online modality is increasingly part of our students’ lives and can become an important addition to international education, if approached thoughtfully. With many of those in international education raising issues regarding the present state of cultural immersion for those studying abroad in the age of Facebook, this workshop will attempt to develop a culturally sensitive response to current online life and will thereby help develop a new vision for education abroad in the 21st Century. Four faculty experienced in globally-networked learning will describe how their students work online with peers in other countries through shared syllabi in an experiential learning environment, and how this engagement has internationalized their classes and led to an increased interest in studying abroad. Each presenter will offer a case study of the course that they developed and taught, followed by an overview of the ways that courses can be linked to and encourage study abroad, the ways that the universities involved have (or have not) chosen to build upon this opportunity, how these courses also function to support faculty development in the area of internationalization, and ways that existing international partnerships can serve as the basis for the development of such courses and the plusses and minuses to this approach. Participants will explore the potential for developing international collaborative courses at their institutions. Prior to the workshop, registrants will be asked to identify potential collaborative courses and partner universities and we will develop these possibilities within the workshop interactively. A social networking web site will be built during the workshop through which workshop participants can stay in touch and continue to develop their courses after the conference. (LIMIT 20 PARTICIPANTS)
10:30am - 12pm Standards Institute - second concurrent session
Crisis Management and Public Relations
Brian Brubaker, Carol Foley, Arlene Snyder, Gary Rhodes
This session will address all factors of developing successful plans to communicate with the home institution, faculty, participants, families, and emergency assistance providers during an emergency abroad. The session leaders will contribute insights gleaned from their own experiences in managing students and study abroad programs by presenting scenarios and examples of events, how they were handled, and what was learned.. Breakout groups will develop crisis communication plans from the perspectives of on-site staff and the home institution.
Medical Strategy for Education Abroad
Bill Frederick, Gail Rosselot
Preventing and responding to injuries and illnesses is a primary goal of most programmatic safety efforts. However, medical strategy remains one of the most underdeveloped areas in education abroad risk management. This session will discuss practical and common sense medical strategies based on particular program characteristics such as student profile, nature of program activities, and program location, duration and mission, Topics will include medical screening, pre-travel consultation, vaccinations, staff training, student health and hazard education, emergency response, medical protocols, self-care and medical facility assessment.
Where Does Student Responsibility for Student Health and Safety Begin and End?
Michael Steinberg, William Anthony, Andrea Custodi, Julie Friend
In recent years, study abroad programs have put increasing emphasis on protecting student health and safety At the same time, study abroad programs are encouraged to foster students’ independence and self-direction. These two objectives may at times conflict. While study abroad is a time for exploration, it also exposes students to new risks that they may not face at home. What limits should study abroad programs set on student behavior? This session will examine our legal and professional responsibilities to students through a series of roundtable topics: How can we discourage students from risky behavior and encourage responsible behavior? To what extent should we leave students free to make their own decisions based on personal levels of risk tolerance? What are the ethical and practical boundaries between program responsibility and students’ rights to make autonomous decisions and take risks? To what extent do we need to monitor student behavior when they are travelling independently or involved in independent program activities? The Standards focus on program responsibility for health and safety. Should we include a standard or standards that emphasize student responsibility?
12:15 - 1:45pm Standards Institute - Lunch Plenary featuring Dr. Eric Shaw,
Associate Professor, Joint Military Operations, Naval War College
Dr. Shaw will first present a selection of risk assessment models, and then explore unique issues facing education abroad professionals. The goal of his plenary address is to develop a model for reducing risk exposure and consequences. Serious analysis will be leavened by Dr. Shaw sharing personal experiences (sea stories) when he averted disasters. Dr. Shaw spent three years commanding the United States Coast Guard's Barque EAGLE, "America's Tall Ship," including deploying overseas with cadets and officer candidates from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.
1 - 4:30pm Half-Day Workshops (afternoon)
The Vision and Value Behind the Dollar Sign: Financial Models for Education Abroad
- Lisa Donatelli, Director of Global Strategies, Georgetown University
- Annemieke S. Martinez, Chief Budget Officer, Georgetown University
- Vanessa Meyers, Senior Business Manager, International Programs, Georgetown University
- Sherry Miller, Director of Financial Offices, Pennsylvania State University
- Casimar Sowa, Field Director, IFSA Butler
Employing the best financial model is one of the keys to gaining institutional commitment and support for education abroad; without an effective financial model, even the best vision for education abroad cannot be realized. However, rarely do institutions spend enough time discussing and analyzing various financial models for education abroad. This workshop will bring together chief budget officers with education abroad leaders to explore the pros and cons of different institutional financial models, where education abroad fits in those models, and the challenges and opportunities inherent in each approach. Topics will include currency purchasing, summer program budget models, cost-sharing, predicting student numbers, and building staff into the budget. Before the workshop participants will be asked to describe their institutional and office budget models and the greatest challenges they are facing. At the workshop participants will work in small groups on addressing these specific challenges. (LIMIT 20 PARTICIPANTS)
QUIP Peer Review Training
- Annmarie Whalen, Associate Director for Programs, The Forum on Education Abroad
- Brian Whalen, President and CEO, The Forum on Education Abroad
This Forum workshop is offered a few times each year and is a prerequisite for becoming a QUIP peer reviewer. It will focus on the concept of quality improvement for education abroad, the implementation of the Forum’s Standards of Good Practice, and the role and responsibilities of the QUIP Peer Reviewer. The workshop will detail the processes of the different types of QUIP reviews, including how to analyze the Self- Study Report, conduct the Site Visit and write the Peer Review Report. Participants will analyze sample Self-Study and Peer Review Reports in breakout groups, then present their analyses for group discussion. (LIMIT 50 PARTICIPANTS)
2 - 3:30pm Standards Institute - third concurrent sessions
Theory vs. Reality: Lessons Learned in Crisis Response
Deb Ajango, Adam Rubin, John Tansey
As practitioners, receiving the call that someone has been critically or fatally injured on one of our programs is something that we all dread. Even though most of us will never receive that call, we must be both mentally and organizationally prepared in the event that it comes. Through personal experience of several fatal incidents both in the field and in management response, the presenters will provide valuable lessons from these tragic events that you can apply immediately, whatever the size of your program. This is most certainly not a ‘war stories’ session; it is about sharing what we wished we knew before and soon found out afterwards, in the hope that you will be better prepared to achieve the best possible outcomes from such a tragic event.
Assessing Adequate Coverage: Case Studies in Disability Accommodations and Insurance Planning
Katie Kutsy, Michelle Scheib, Laurie Dutson, Jim Baker, Karen Randazzo, Ric Valentino
In this session, panelists will share lessons learned and foster audience dialogue concerning solutions for overcoming disability-related accommodation barriers and troubleshooting a broad range of insurance issues. Topics will include: making decisions about providing student accident & sickness insurance and addressing pre-existing and mental health conditions; collaborating with disability services and third-party providers on providing reasonable (but not required) accommodations abroad for students with disabilities; addressing barriers in administering property insurance and risk management programs for education abroad locations and communicating effectively with foreign insurance professionals.
Constructive Disequilibrium: Do the Ends Justify the Means?
Philip Clay, Megan Che, Agida Manizade, Natalie Mello, Mindy Spearman
This session will explore what is acceptable risk in an education abroad context (particularly those that are unfamiliar and uncomfortable) and how the psychological development of late adolescents and their cognitive abilities impact students’ abilities to understand risk. The claim that education abroad experiences do facilitate a student’s transformation and growth by bringing them to unfamiliar, less comfortable destinations will also be explored.
Navigating Between Safety and Liability
Bill Frederick, Frances Mock
In risk management the best decision or the best course of action is not always readily apparent either when strategizing or in the heat of emergency response. The majority of the time, if you attend to liability concerns, safety concerns will be taken care of as well. Most of the time, effective safety practices are the best method for avoiding liability exposure. However, there are instances where a safety strategy could increase an organization’s liability exposure and instances where an effort to minimize liability exposure could compromise safety. This session will explore the zone where safety and liability potentially conflict. Specific areas for discussion will be student screening, program assessments and reviews, confidentiality, staff training and emergency response. The session will identify the most significant variables in order to inform our decision making, examine approaches that can resolve the conflict, and ways of structuring programs that assist in avoiding such conflicts.
3:45 - 5:15pm Standards Institute - fourth concurrent session
Classrooms Without Walls: Risk Management Protocols for Adventure-Based Study Abroad
Nancy Chamberlain, Ana Alonso
Not all study abroad programs have fixed destinations, partner institutions or virtual connection. Preparation of administrators and faculty for successful adventure-based study abroad requires special training and protocols. Five core areas will be addressed in this session: field staffing ratios, staff training and certification, participant medical screening, site visit requirements and use of third-party contractors, and emergency communication protocols. Participants will review case studies in small groups using best practices promulgated by the commercial adventure sector to address these core areas.
Beyond the Basics: Study Abroad Amidst Psychological Challenges
Janet Alperstein, Nora Dock, Irene Gawel, Dina Nunziato
As the number of students attending college with psychological challenges has grown so has the number of students studying abroad with these challenges. An overview of the psychological issues facing U.S. college students will be presented by a director of college counseling. Participants will review case studies in breakout groups to discuss and explore best practices for responding to the increasing needs of students before, during and after study abroad.
Review of Standard 8: Where Do We Go from Here?
Natalie Mello, Bill Frederick, Heather Barclay Hamir, Stacey Tsantir, Arlene Snyder, Kathy Poole
This team of colleagues will present on the information they have gathered and assessed regarding the health, safety and security standard. Discussion will center on proposed improvements to Standard #8 to include specific details about how programs should address issues of health, safety, and security. Participants will contribute to the dialogue and offer their input regarding the proposed revisions.
5:30 - 7pm Welcome Reception in Westin Grand Ballroom
All conference participants are encouraged to enjoy dinner on your own following the reception at one of the many restaurants within walking distance of the hotel!
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