What inspired you to work for Santa Barbara City College?
I started as an international community college student at Kirkwood Community College Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and came to the conclusion that I was 100% better prepared to go to a 4-year institution than if I had gone straight to a University. I also traveled a lot while I was growing up in Germany and was fortunate to be exposed to many historical sites, art, and a breadth of cultures, foods, music and more.
Once I moved to Santa Barbara, California, and saw a position posted that aligned with my interests, experience and passion to introduce Americans to other countries, it was not a hard choice to apply for the position in the Santa Barbara City College Study Abroad Program.
I've been riding Dressage since I was seven years old.
Describe a typical day at work.
I’m not sure that any day is very typical as it is a one woman office. So I cover a lot of things in a day’s work. From social media and marketing, to student advising, to developing programs, setting up meetings, creating blogs, putting together events, working with the financial aid office, reviewing scholarship applications and program applications, updating or creating documents or manuals.
I also support the international student office by working with our global marketing partners. I may start off by answering emails and phone calls, then create flyers or social media campaigns, then work on a workshop, review student applications, create spreadsheets, write a blog, and switch to an Instagram Live session, back to meeting students or recruiting Unibuddy ambassadors for the international program.
It’s never boring because I can switch back and forth between creative tasks and procedural so my two halves of the brain are constantly working.
Why do you do what you do?
I think it is very important for Americans to get to experience other cultures. It broadens your horizon and helps you think much more comprehensively and just gives you different perspectives. I am very excited to send students abroad. If only a few of them come back understanding that there is more out there than they thought and that they can accomplish more than they thought they could, then I would be proud.
What is your favorite part of your job?
Ask me again in a minute. I like many aspects of my job because I constantly work on different types of tasks. I love creating flyers and social media posts and really like writing. I enjoy putting together the programs and provide guidelines to faculty and students. When one task gets too tedious, I just do something else.
There is always something to do here, never a dull moment. I guess my favorite part is the very few occasions when a student returns and lets me know about their great experience and what they learned. It doesn’t happen often.
I think faculty have these types of encounters much more as they are “the face” of the program. I’m more the behind-the-scenes person. But every once-in-a-while a student will remember me and let me know they had a good time.
Three students that went on our Spain semester program, myself, and a colleague.
What are some current projects you are working on?
I am currently working on putting together our summer program to Tokyo, Japan and to Bali, Indonesia. Both are amazing and fun programs with great faculty and I know they will fill quickly. I am also working on a bunch of social media items for the international student program because we just added a new student advisor for our international students, so I can use my film degree to be a bit creative that way.
What advice would you tell your pre-travel self?
The first time I traveled I was maybe six years old and we went to a lake. Before I was even allowed to drive a car, I've been all over Germany, to Greece, Turkey, Austria, France, Spain, Italy. So, I guess I would tell my pre-travel self to go travel and be adventurous. I don't believe anyone on their deathbed has ever said "I wish I had traveled less."
Why should someone choose Santa Barbara City College over competitors?
Our programs are faculty-led which is really great for the students. Destinations and courses offered change every school year. One year you might have film studies and communications in Japan, then you might get to do Spanish in Bolivia.
Rome is always popular and usually includes an Italian Language and Art History class, but this fall the Rome program also offers film studies and photography, while the spring program in Rome offers English, Personal Development and an optional internship.
We even go to Costa Rica to learn surfing next summer. Our programs always keep diversity and finances in mind. We want all students to be able to go abroad because we know how much it adds to them as a person, but also as a prospective employee.
Finances are the biggest hurdles usually, so we try to keep the program costs down and promote several scholarships that are available to our students. SBCC overall has so many student support services.
I have never seen an array of free support services for students anywhere else. I think faculty and staff really care about students and go above and beyond helping them succeed. Of course showing up for class, studying and learning they’ll have to do themselves!
What is Santa Barbara City College's mission and how do you continue to work toward it?
We strive to offer financially accessible programs. With an emphasis on diversity and affordability, SBCC Study Abroad aims to offer programs to a diverse student body. Applicants do not have to be enrolled at SBCC in order to apply and the programs have no major or language requirements. Applications are straightforward and requirements are attainable.
Courses offered on the programs are usually UC/CSU transferable and may fulfill IGETC requirements. Our International Education Committee keeps our mission and goals in mind when selecting programs for the next school year and it is my top priority when I develop the programs.
What do you hope participants take away from your programs?
In addition to having learned about other cultures, I hope students return with a new appreciation of what it means to be ‘different.’ I know they will make lifelong friends, appreciate the different foods, music, traditions, maybe experience and experiment with different fashions.
I also hope they realize that they are so much more capable of accomplishing things and reaching goals. I hope traveling teaches them to be truly more tolerant and flexible and not to take themselves too seriously. I wish they discover more of their individualism and get to know themselves better.
I think the greatest gift is when a student returns and realizes what a responsibility they have as an individual representing their American culture somewhere else. If they can internalize that and bring that awareness home it allows them to provide a richer contribution to society and the global world stage.
Promoting our programs on campus with study abroad students, then director Carola Smith and then colleague Tara Stoker.
Why is it important for people to travel abroad and experience new cultures?
I think I already answered this throughout this whole questionnaire. But what I would add is that it is important to get a different perspective. Humans are afraid of what they don't know. The more you learn about others, the less afraid you have to be.
We may never truly know what it's like to walk in someone else's shoes but it helps tremendously to be able to emphasize and better consider what it's like. Also, it's just fun. The people, the food, the kindness, the colors, the scents, music, different routines and landscapes. Your whole outlook on life can change if you open yourself up to other cultures.
What does meaningful travel mean to you?
There are different angles to this question. As mentioned before, I think it's really important to notice and realize the effect you have as an individual and as a group and the impression you make on other people, especially other cultures. How do you represent yourself, your college, your state, your country? We talk a lot about 'being present' and "being mindful.'
I think that meaningful travel means to travel with your eyes and mind wide open, to be present and observe others and yourself. Travelers should be open to the new and different and embrace it. From a different angle, I would also say that meaningful travel includes seeing, learning and experiencing as much history as possible and making connections to the present. What can we learn from the past? What can we do better in the future?
Lastly, meaningful travel also means doing it with purpose. Have as much fun along the way as possible, but be responsible and respectful. Always leave a place better than you found it is a good motto for travel.
How is your company handling Covid protocols? What should participants know about your Covid readiness? How are you assisting participants with navigating the new travel landscape?
Protocols surrounding Covid change constantly and we do our best to stay on top of regulations and requirements. We work with our service providers who have people on the ground in our destinations, which helps tremendously. We want to run safe programs and don't want students to get sick and be stuck in quarantine while abroad.
But of course getting sick with anything has always been a possibility. We require international health insurance and strongly encourage students to purchase CFAR or IFAR Travel Insurance. We work with service providers to have safe protocols and procedures in place and they have staff that can help students should they get sick with Covid.
We returned to traveling abroad in Spring 2022, earlier than many other colleges, and our diligence in considering reliable data and resources and ongoing communication with our service providers allowed us to run safe programs that students could enjoy.
