IEM

MIIS Delegation Makes Waves at National Conference of International Educators

Anne-Marie Steiger asteiger@miis.edu careers, Featured, IEM, newsroom, Student Life
National Conference of International Educators

Kristen Greene and Alex Nichol with their co-presenters David Wick and Kevin Long, and MIIS student Heather Frank (MAIEM ’14).

As the International Education Management program at the Monterey Institute heads into its third year, it continues to grow in size and scope. The program is hiring new faculty this summer to prepare for the large incoming class in the fall. That the program is also growing in reputation was clearly evident at the national NAFSA (Association of International Educators) conference in San Diego this week where a delegation of two faculty members, five staff members, half a dozen alumni, and dozens of students made waves with highly regarded presentations and sessions.

Among those presenting were recent alumna Kristen Greene (MAIEM ’13) and current student Alex Nichol (MAIEM/MPA ’14) whose presentation, “Mentoring in International Education: Strategies for Success,” was voted best in session at the 4-day regional conference in November. They were invited to give an encore presentation as part of the Region 12 Highlight. Kristen, who graduated in December, is the International Exchange Coordinator at San Francisco State University. She and Alex presented with two other international education practitioners, David Wick of Santa Clara University and Kevin Long of UC San Francisco.

Other Monterey Institute representatives presenting at the NAFSA conference included Gael Meraud and Jennifer Holguin of the Center for Advising and Career Services (CACS) who presented on “Integrating Career and Academic Advising to Create Globally Competent Leaders,” and current students Jarod Hightower-Mills (MAIEM ’14) and Anessa Escobar (MAIEM ’14) who presented their ideas on the “Integration of Underrepresented Students into Campus Internationalization Efforts.” Program chair Katherine Punteney also hosted workshops on student advising.

New Service-Learning Course Builds Community Partnerships through Hands-On Learning

Anne-Marie Steiger asteiger@miis.edu Featured, IEM, IPS, MPA, newsroom, T&I, TESOL, TFL
Girls’ Health in Girls’ Hands

Lynn Bentaleb (MPA ’08), Kathryn Lattman (MAIEM ’14), Amitay Flores (MAIPS ’14), Molly McMills (MPA ’13), Maria Kovell (MPA ’14), Ali Philbrick (MAIEM ’14), and Natalie Cox (MPA ’14) at the Girls’ Health in Girls’ Hands Summit.

Monterey Institute students from the International Education Management, Public Administration, Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, Teaching a Foreign Language, and Translation and Interpretation degree programs are participating in a new course this semester, learning about program design while working with seven local organizations on projects that further each of their missions.

The new course, “Service-Learning: International and Domestic Community Partnerships,” was developed and taught by Professor Netta Avineri, who is passionate about civic engagement and prioritizes real world applications of her in-class lessons. The organizations are: Big Sur Charter School, Community Assessment of Monterey County, Girls’ Health in Girls’ Hands, International School of Monterey, Lyceum, National Steinbeck Center, and the YMCA.  Student projects include website design, parent handbook and training development, educational video creation, leadership curriculum research, service-learning program development, grant writing, outreach, and tutor training handbook creation. 

Alexandra (Ali) Philbrick (MAIEM ’14) and Kathryn Lattman (MAIEM ’15) have been working with the Girls’ Health in Girls’ Hands initiative this semester. Every year girls in Monterey County organize a summit with peer-taught sessions, which Ali and Kathryn attended and assisted with. They are working on a video to help the next group of girl organizers and also helping out with curriculum design, activities, and lessons, and doing research for a report.

“It could not be more perfect for me,” shares Ali, who will build on her experience working with local girls when she heads off to Peru for the practicum portion of her degree in the fall. In Peru, she will be working with the nonprofit organization Girlsportworks whose mission is to teach life skills to young women through athletics. “This is exactly what I want to be doing in the future,” she says. “Netta put a lot of thought into this,” says Kathryn appreciatively of the course, and adds that “you can’t beat the opportunity to learn by doing and do good at the same time by helping others.”