Bard Abroad Goes Global with IIE in NYC

Jennifer Murray, Director of Bard Abroad and the Institute for International Liberal Education, guest blogs about how education teams build change together and the impact of being a Generation Study Abroad Commitment Partner

Bard Abroad — comprised of professional staff from Bard Annandale, Bard College Berlin, American University of Central Asia, Central European University, and the Bard-Smolny program in St. Petersburg, Russia — convened during the first week of April for a series of professional development and team-building workshops. Our sixteen staff members work on marketing, social media, recruitment, enrollment, orientations, housing, program management & support, and re-entry & alumni relations. During our week together, we discussed the Forum’s Standards of Good Practice in Education Abroad, how to ensure Title IX compliance abroad, strategies for meeting students’ mental health needs, and integrating reflection into cultural programming throughout the abroad experience. Being together in the same place and time zone created a safe and inclusive environment for us to brainstorm, share challenges as well as successes, and learn from one another. For those members of the staff who have never been on a US campus, the visit provided context for the expectations that our students bring to their locations and for many of the bureaucratic requests we make of them. Just as important as the structured workshops and speakers were the conversations that occurred around the edges, such as how to mediate misunderstandings with host families, or respectfully help a parent disengage from their student’s study away experience.

Our group traveled to the Bard Globalization and International Affairs (BGIA) program in New York City, where Jim Ketterer, Bard’s Dean of International Studies spoke about the program’s extensive internship and alumni network — and the values of a semester spent studying away in NYC. The final event of our very busy week was a panel discussion on trends in international education and the role of the Institute for International Education’s (IIE) Generation Study Abroad initiative.

Joseph Rienti, Director of Education Abroad at Fordham University, and Sylvia Jons, Scholarship and Grants Specialist at IIE, led the panel. Sylvia shared megatrends impacting international higher education, Generation Study Abroad, and the link between study abroad and employability. The panel provided a big-picture look to complement much of the policy-specific work done earlier in the week, “The panel discussion, especially the representative from IIE, presented some fascinating info on study abroad trends. The fact that 90% of US students do not study abroad shows that there is potential for growth while at the same time reaffirming how specific it is.” Dr. Rienti spoke about Fordham’s experience as a Generation Study Abroad Commitment Partner, essentialism as a leadership style, and unique identifiers of contemporary undergraduates. For Fordham, the Generation Study Abroad pledge provided an opportunity to redefine priorities for the office and to align the goal to increase participation with other institutional interests, such as access and sustainability. One visitor reported this takeaway, “I appreciated Joseph Rienti highlighting that the current students represent Generation Я (I Gen), this helps to understand them better. Also, the competencies that students gain while studying abroad (intra/inter-personal, cognitive) will let me help students become aware of what they get while studying abroad during their times of uncertainty in their progress.” Visitors to the panel included colleagues from Barnard, Columbia, NYU, Pace, and West Point; all of whom contributed to the discussion about efforts to expand study abroad participation and its lasting impact on our own — as well as our students’ — personal and professional lives.

As a Generation Study Abroad commitment partner, Bard College is pleased to have seen an increase in study abroad and international program participation over the years. Our goal is to have approximately 330 students in a graduating class counting an international experience as part of their Bard undergraduate study (credit or non-credit), and we’re well on way to meeting the goal! Being a GSA partner has facilitated a culture of collaboration and communication across departments to document and celebrate the impact of our global engagement and led us to identify challenges and successes. We face some challenges in recruiting students to lesser-known destinations such as Kyrgyzstan, and we have seen successes in increasing access, for example through a partnership with Pitzer College to enlarge our pool of tuition exchange destinations. Our cooperation with Pitzer College allows students from each institution to access the other’s study abroad programs using a tuition exchange model, thereby keeping all financial aid in place. Our program sites complement one another’s and the exchange aids in hitting enrollment targets; for example, Bard has no programs or exchange agreements in sub-Saharan Africa, the Pitzer partnership has extended the opportunity to study in Botswana, Zimbabwe, and South Africa to students who would otherwise need to petition for a leave and finance the program independently. Likewise, Pitzer students have access to Bard’s unique programs in Bishkek and Berlin and are also able to maintain their aid. At Bard, some of the tuition savings are used to help high need students with airfare, visa fees, or health insurance costs. The arrangement has been a win-win for each of our institutions! The panel left us all feeling hopeful about our work facilitating international educational experiences for the U.S.’s most diverse generation, and our belief that knowing another culture goes a long way in fostering good will at home and abroad.

Generation Study Abroad is an initiative of the Institute of International Education (IIE), launched in 2014, to mobilize resources and commitments with the goal of doubling and diversifying the number of U.S. students studying abroad by the end of the decade. We welcome Commitment Partners who pledge to expand study abroad opportunities and participation through their institution, school, organization, or government. Join today!