Alumni

Employers from Around the World Flock to Recruit at MIIS Career Fair

Anne-Marie Steiger asteiger@miis.edu Alumni, Career Fair, careers, Featured, newsroom
Career Fair 2014

Students and alumni had the opportunity to meet recruiters from more than 90 organizations at Career Fair 2014 on February 28. 

The opportunity to recruit Monterey Institute students and graduates drew 92 employers from all over the world to the Monterey Conference Center Friday for Career Fair 2014 on February 28. Organizations attending included global brands Apple, Driscoll’s, eBay and Honda, non-governmental organizations such as the Sierra Club and the United Nations Development Programme, language specialists like LanguageLine and Transperfect, and government agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of State.

The fair offered Monterey Institute students the opportunity to meet employers, learn about job opportunities, distribute resumés, and set up interviews. Some employers started the day before the fair, hosting information sessions and talking with students. MIIS alumna Sally Young (MATI ’99) flew in from Geneva to recruit candidates for the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). She appreciates the quality of MIIS candidates from the Graduate School of Translation, Interpretation and Language Education, in particular their “attention to detail, passion to keep learning, and desire to do in-depth research.” MIIS graduates make up half the full-time staff in her office and MIIS students also fill about half of the internships offered at any point in time.

“Every year, the Institute’s career fair attracts some of the top international employers in the U.S. and the world,” commented Institute President Sunder Ramaswamy. “It’s a direct reflection of how they view our graduates—as exceptionally capable international professionals who are equipped to hit the ground running and make a difference immediately.”

A complete list of participating employers can be found here.

Peru Practicum: Breaking Down Barriers Between Classroom and Real-World Development

Anne-Marie Steiger asteiger@miis.edu Alumni, development, Featured, IPS, MPA, newsroom, research
Aaron Ebner Peru

Aaron Ebner (center, MPA ’11), co-founder of the Andean Alliance for Sustainable Development, with MIIS students in Peru

Five MIIS professors took an introductory policy analysis course and turned it into an optional year-long immersive learning opportunity. Students have the option to enroll in a Peru-focused policy class in the fall, design a research project, conduct in-field research as part of a winter-term practicum in Peru, and then follow up by working with the information and data collected as part of a seminar in the spring, all while they are learning the tools of data analysis.

Linking faculty research, alumni activities, and students’ desire for practical learning experiences, this is a true MIIS community collaboration. It started with Professors Robert McCleery and Philip Murphy, who have been working on research on the links between poverty and isolation, and grew through connections with the Andean Alliance for Sustainable Development, a non-profit co-founded by alumni Aaron Ebner (MPA ’11) and Adam Stieglitz (MPA ’11) that is working on community development projects in the isolated Sacred Valley of Peru.

Professor Jeff Dayton-Johnson and his team of 25 International Policy Studies, Master of Public Administration, Master of Business Administration and International Education Management students looked at several dimensions of connectivity as it relates to a poor rural economy like that of Andean Peru. That included roads, telecommunications, connectivity to public services like health care and education, and connectivity via language (while the national language of Peru is Spanish, Quechua is the language spoken by most of the people in the study area).

Five students—Mario Guzmán-Soria, Josefina Lara, Luz Vázquez Ramos, Ximena Ospina, and Rafael Hernández—presented a preliminary report on major themes and initial findings to local authorities in Calca before returning to Monterey. Says Professor Dayton-Johnson about the experience: “This student-organized and delivered presentation in Calca effectively breaks down the barriers between the classroom and the real world of development practice. Our students took advantage of this opportunity to share initial findings from a field research project they had designed and carried out, to respond to policy makers’ questions, and to strengthen the relationship between MIIS and this region of Peru. I’m very proud of them and look forward to building on their work with another group of students next J-Term!”

MIIS Alumni Mingle at CATESOL Conference

Adrienne Lubbert Alumni, Events, Faculty, Language Education, MIIS Update, TESOL, TESOL Convention, TFL
CATESOL 2013 - MIIS Alumni

MIIS Alumni: Back Row: Don Sillings, Larry Lawson, Tammy Wik, Jeff Madison. Middle Row: Gary Sosa, Karen Hamilton, Celeste Coleman, Belinda Braunstein. Front Row: Erin Butler, Chigusa Katoku.

Many MIIS graduates, students, and faculty attended the 44th Annual CATESOL Conference two weeks ago in San Diego. The conference is for TESOL professionals in California, and the theme this year was “Riding the Waves of Success,” which dealt with the challenges and achievements educators and students face when teaching or learning English. The event included pre‑conference institutes, multiple plenaries, featured speakers, level and interest group workshops, poster sessions, an electronic village, and general sessions for every level of ESL. Highlights of the conference were the opening plenary, the Thursday evening reception, the Presidential Luncheon on Friday, and the Saturday Night Sizzle.

CATESOL 2013 (2)

The event was a great opportunity for all TESOL educators and students to come together, especially current and past TESOL educators and students from MIIS. Many MIIS students, graduates, and faculty attended the event, including Tammy Wik, MA TESOL ‘10, who is currently the English Language Fellow Program (ELF) Regional Recruitment Coordinator for MIIS, and Celeste Coleman, also a TESOL graduate and English Language Fellow (see picture, right). All of the MIIS graduates met up and hung out at the Saturday Night Sizzle, which was a fun 2-hour social event on the last night of the conference (see featured picture above, with captions). Considering there were only about 100 total people who attended the social hour, there was a great turn out of MIIS people at the event.

TESOL Alumna Writes Memorial Piece for Dr. Leo van Lier

Jenna Tidwell Alumni, Language Education, Language Program Administration, MIIS Update, News, TESOL, TFL

LeovanLier

Caroline Fuchs, an alumna of the MIIS MATESOL program, recently published a memorial piece for the late Dr. Leo van Lier. According to Caroline, “words can’t do justice to the wisdom that Leo encompassed for those who were fortunate enough to have known him. This is my humble attempt at expressing my thoughts.”

If you would like to read the piece in its entirety, you can download it here.