What inspired you to join the team at IPSL?
Before becoming an employee at IPSL I was working for another cultural exchange program. My mentor at that organization had set up an informal meeting with my (now) boss and IPSL President, Thomas Morgan, while I was in Portland, Oregon. My mentor thought it was important for me, as someone entering the field of international education, to meet the organization credited for originally founding “service-learning,” which is a term that is booming across the industry.
After hours of hiking I finally reached the famous Rainbow Mountains of Peru!
I remember coming into the IPSL office on a Friday afternoon, expecting to meet with Thomas for no longer than an hour. To my surprise, when I entered the office I was met with the entire staff who engaged with me for almost three hours that day about the lack of my diversity in study abroad.
After I left my company I received a lot of job offers, but I chose IPSL because I really appreciated an organization who treated me, someone who didn’t have anything to offer at the time, with so much respect that they took the time to shut down the office to have an important conversation around social justice in the field. It showed how IPSL works and upholds its values when no one is looking, and I’m grateful to be a member of this team.
Can you tell us about your role as the International Service-Learning Programs Coordinator?
My role touches on a variety of responsibilities including: undergraduate and graduate student recruitment, maintaining our partnership with AmeriCorps alums/Service Year Alliance, and graduate admissions and programming, to name a few. I also supervise our Campus Ambassadors around the country and help boost our social media and communications efforts.
What is your favorite part of your job?
My favorite part of my job is seeing the impact our programs have on students first-hand. Sometimes I’ll get really long, heartfelt emails from students about a particular experience they had while abroad and how life changing it was for them. I’ve seen students change the direction of their careers, have “ah ha” moments of self-realization, overcome personal obstacles, and come out feeling more confident upon their return in country.
I know there are plenty of potential challenges when studying abroad, but I live for the moments when our students discover their resilience and ability to build community anywhere in the world. That’s all we could ever ask for.
IPSL staff and our intern are all smiles after another successful "Advocacy Research Day."
What challenges do you face in your role and how do you overcome them?
A large part of my job involves traveling for student recruitment. I attend graduate and undergraduate study abroad fairs all over the country, and sometimes it gets difficult trying to stay grounded when you’re always on the road. What keeps me focused and in balance are the conversations I get to have with folks I meet at the fairs who tell me about their dreams, aspirations, and passions, etc.
As you can imagine, I meet people of all ages and backgrounds and it’s fascinating to see the diverse range of passions and values people carry with them. One time I spoke with a student who told me that he is really interested in disaster relief work for individuals with disabilities; I felt so inspired to know that someone was dedicated to a cause that I, myself, had never thought about before because of my own privilege.
How do your own travel experiences in the USA, China, Peru, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Costa Rica influence your current work?
All those experiences shape my work because they remind me of how important travel is in personal development. When you travel you begin to understand yourself, and your place in this world, a bit better. After traveling, I have a stronger sense of boundaries of what I like and don’t like, where my comfort zone lies, and how confident I am that the rest of the world isn’t as unsafe as the media leads us to believe. I’ve built community and found family in strangers and my experiences traveling alone as a woman, especially, are so empowering for me as an individual.
Peru will always hold a special place in my heart because it was the first study abroad experience I had that propelled me to where I am now. Just last year I returned to Peru for a site visit with IPSL and it was a surreal moment where I got to reflect on where I was as a study abroad student versus where I am now as a study abroad advisor.
IPSL staff volunteering at the Oregon Food Bank during our Spring 2018 Staff Retreat.
In what ways do you work to make international education opportunities more inclusive and accessible?
This year I was selected to be part of Diversity Abroad’s Race & Ethnicity Task Force. In my role, I work with other international education leaders and professionals to try to create and share resources to help bolster inclusive and accessible programs in the field. At IPSL, I also work to identify opportunities to partner with certain schools or departments that uphold the same values and mission as us. For example, IPSL was able to offer flight scholarships one term for students who were economically disadvantaged and part of the Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP).
What can participants expect from IPSL service learning programs?
Students can expect to be challenged on an IPSL service-learning program. Our programs are designed to be immersive and different from a traditional study abroad experience, which means students may experience culture shock because they are so involved in their host community. Over time, our students tend to overcome this hump but it is something to anticipate.
Why is it important for people to travel and experience new cultures?
It’s important for people to travel and experience new cultures because it helps build more tolerance, education, and connection across borders.
If you watch the news all you hear about is how dangerous everyone and everything is, and I think that is not a fair portrayal of the world. Sure, there are bad people you should be cautious of but overall I think everyone is just trying to move forward and be better for future generations.
IPSL President, Thomas Morgan, and I posing with some of our Master's of International Development & Service graduate students days before Commencement. We were celebrating with some cake and gifts!
What does meaningful travel mean to you?
Meaningful travel means setting out with good intentions for yourself. While you may not have a specific thing you are seeking when you travel, you should have a sense of openness, curiosity, and determination to engage this world in an ethical way.
What hopes do you have for the future of IPSL?
I hope IPSL will continue to learn about the world from the eyes of our students. They are our best teachers and our direct link to what is going on on the ground. I think it’s easy to get lost in our day to day tasks of maintaining programs, but we should also take more time out of our day to reflect on the magic happening on the ground.
