Zlatinka Blaber, PhD, Associate Professor of Accounting, Salem State University
Guergana Gougoumanova, PhD, Mary P. Dole Medical Fellow, Mount Holyoke College
Iuliia Samoilyk, PhD, Professor of Economics, Poltava State Agrarian University
Tele-Collaborators
The tele-collaborations were conducted on Zoom. The first VE took place just before Russia’s war in Ukraine. The students from the Ukrainian and the U.S. university were placed in seven teams. Recent evidence suggests that team collaboration is improved by the presence of women in teams, and that this effect is explained by benefits to team processes (Bear & Woolley, 2011). Particularly in contexts such as STEM, gender diversity helps alleviate the gender gap and bias in traditional, male-dominated teams, argue these authors. In addition, Rosenauer et al. (2016) show that the effects of nationality diversity in groups depend on task interdependence and the cultural intelligence of group leaders. These authors propose that nationality diversity is more consequential in more interdependent groups, in which group interactions and processes are more salient. Three teams had a Ukrainian leader and four teams a U.S. leader. The leaders were tasked with organizing team meetings and compiling the teams’ Zoom presentations. Table 1 shows the gender and country composition of the first VE’s teams.
Table 1: Gender and country composition of the Fall 2021 VE
Team Number
Female Students
Male Students
Team 1
2 from the Ukrainian university and 1 from the American university
1 from the Ukrainian university and 2 from the American university
Team 2
2 from the Ukrainian university and 2 from the American university
2 from the Ukrainian university and 1 from the American university
Team 3
3 from the Ukrainian university and 1 from the American university
None from the Ukrainian university and 2 from the American university
Team 4
3 from the Ukrainian university and 1 from the American university
None from the Ukrainian university and 2 from the American university
Team 5
3 from the Ukrainian university and 1 from the American university
None from the Ukrainian university and 2 from the American university
Team 6
3 from the Ukrainian university and 1 from the American university
None from the Ukrainian university and 2 from the American university
Team 7
1 from the Ukrainian university and 2 from the American university
1 from the Ukrainian university and 1 from the American university
While the 2021 project examined select Ukrainian and U.S. agricultural sectors (alternative meat, milk, sunflower, seafood, etc.), the 2022 project focused on specific Ukrainian and U.S. companies’ (Arnika Organic, Apple, Kernel, Mars, etc.) sustainability reporting practices. Both projects required cross-country teamwork and research. The 2022 VE took place during Russia’s war in Ukraine. There were five teams participating in this VE. Two teams had a Ukrainian leader and three teams a U.S. leader. The leaders were tasked with organizing team meetings and compiling the teams’ Zoom presentations. Table 2 shows the gender and country composition of the second VE’s teams.
Table 2: Gender and country composition of the Fall 2022 VE
Team Number
Female Students
Male Students
Team 1
1 from the Ukrainian university and None from the American university
2 from the Ukrainian university and 2 from the American university
Team 2
2 from the Ukrainian university and 1 from the American university
2 from the Ukrainian university and 1 from the American university
Team 3
2 from the Ukrainian university and 1 from the American university
1 from the Ukrainian university and 1 from the American university
Team 4
2 from the Ukrainian university and None from the American university
2 from the Ukrainian university and 2 from the American university
Team 5
2 from the Ukrainian university and 2 from the American university
1 from the Ukrainian university and None from the American university
EI in VE and the VUCA World
International VE is valuable in university education in the Global North and the Global South (Figarotti et al., 2022), especially because it promotes equity for all participants. Dovrat (2022) distinguishes several theoretical underpinnings behind extant VE research: 1) pedagogical (learning approaches, learning theories, and teaching approaches/competencies), 2) intercultural competencies, 3) digital literacy, 4) psychological and socio-cultural, and 5) other. This article provides a new theoretical underpinning in the last, ‘other’ category – the VUCA world. To reiterate, the ‘VUCA’ world means ‘volatility,’ ‘uncertainty,’ ‘complexity,’ and ‘ambiguity’ (VUCA World, n.d.). This is a relatively new concept about living in an unpredictable world, where change is fast and constant.
During the two tele-collaborations, a diverse body of students—both male and female (please refer to the two tables above) and both studying in Ukraine and the USA—had an equal chance to work together on team-specific business research topics. The students and instructors alike experienced first-hand the four components of the VUCA world. For example, in 2021, before Russia’s war in Ukraine, both Ukraine- and U.S. based students talked about the possibility to study for a Masters or a PhD degree in the other country and university. The Ukrainian professor offered to translate for the U.S. students the Ukrainian version of her university’s PhD brochure. There was hope for international travel and study on both sides. Before the war, students and instructors felt comfortable discussing Ukraine’s agricultural exports. Very soon afterwards, on 24 February 2022, the war erupted, and the world changed overnight for the Ukrainian students. The American students also felt the effects of this war, such as higher gas prices. Hopes for studying abroad in Ukraine were stifled, at least temporarily. Despite some challenges (working from a war-stricken country and having sporadic supply of electricity, Internet connection, and water in Ukraine), the collaborations fostered EI in business education.
Conclusion
All students, regardless of gender and nationality, experienced a no-cost virtual study abroad. The U.S. students showed sincere concern for the safety and wellbeing of their Ukrainian VE partners before and during the war. One American student shared with his instructor that his team was in contact with its Ukrainian teammates once a week after the start of the war. Lasting friendships were built, both among the students and between the instructors. The latter co-authored several conference presentations and research articles as a direct result of these two VE projects. The classes acquired cultural knowledge about the two countries, besides business content knowledge. The authors encourage university instructors to pursue VE collaborations even when a VUCA world event occurs. VE helps promote EI for all. VE participation in the VUCA world offers moral support to the party(-ies) that is(are) currently experiencing volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and/or ambiguity. Nobody is completely immune to the VUCA world. VE makes VE participants empathetic to one another, while learning about the subject matter.
Dovrat, L. (2022). Systematic literature review on the utilization of theoretical underpinnings in virtual exchange research. Journal of Virtual Exchange, 5, 193–212. doi.org/10.21827/jve.5.38444
Figarotti, J. L. J., Subbarao, S., & Bagatelia, E. (2022). An unspoken truth: Faculty (in)equity in the context of invisible violence: Virtual exchange case studies. Journal of Virtual Exchange, 5(SI-IVEC2021), 42–53. doi.org/10.21827/jve.5.38199
Rosenauer, D., Homan, A. C., Horstmeier, C. A. L., & Voelpel, S. C. (2016). Managing nationality diversity: The interactive effect of leaders’ cultural intelligence and task interdependence. British Journal of Management, 27(3), 628. https://doi-org.corvette.salemstate.edu/10.1111/1467-8551.12131
Virtual exchange (VE) combines the deep impact of intercultural dialogue with the broad reach of digital technology (EVOLVE Project Team, 2019). It is a research-informed practice and a strong catalyst in advancing the internationalization of HE curricula, known as internationalization at home (IaH) (Beelen & Jones, 2015; O’Dowd & Beelen, 2021). It can prepare for, deepen, or extend physical exchanges or—as shown by COVID-19—it can also emulate study abroad.
However, VE-based IaH is not inherently equitable, nor is it necessarily inclusive. Like other forms of online or blended education, it is prone to Western hegemonies and influenced by inequalities in access to and experience with technology, institutional constraints (e.g., lack of support and incentives for educators), gender, race, age, English language dominance, and socio-political and geopolitical challenges (Helm, 2020). Hence, as O’Dowd and Beelen (2021) conclude, ”we need yet to find out more about how processes of inclusion and exclusion play out in virtual settings” (n.p.).
Critical VE (CVE) (Hauck, 2020; Klimanova & Hellmich, 2021), a nascent field in VE practice and research, aims to ensure more equitable and inclusive student exchange experiences and is characterized by the following elements (see Figure 1):
The use of low-bandwidth technologies
A focus on students often underrepresented in IaH, e.g., those from low socio-economic backgrounds (SoB)
Exchange topics informed by and aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
The integration of local student outreach work with businesses, NGOs, and charities to foster transversal skills development, enhance graduate employability, and support SDG achievement.
Figure 1: Critical Virtual Exchange – A Framework
In addition, we propose the systematic integration of translanguaging approaches as a defining element of CVE, particularly but not exclusively in exchanges where the learning and teaching of languages and cultures is the focal point. Translanguaging means the fluid use of multiple linguistic and semiotic resources as a single repertoire (Clavijo Olarte et al., 2023). It is about practices that encourage all learners to use their full linguistic and semiotic repertoire and help them realize their full multimodal communication potential. Multimodal communicative competence is the ability to express ideas across a wide range of modes including words, spoken or written, images (still and moving), sound, 3D models, and any combinations of these (Kress, 2003). Modeling and promoting translanguaging approaches in the student exchanges not only introduces multimodal communication as a common exchange practice, it is also a first step towards equitable multilingualism (Ortega, 2017).
VE is also known to be an ideal context for developing students’ digital skills as the exchanges are—by default—mediated by technology (e.g., Helm, 2014; Hauck, 2019). CVE, however, is informed by critical digital literacy (CDL) that explicitly leverages digital technologies for social justice-oriented action and change, e.g., by reaching out to a wider, more diverse range of students in collaborative online learning projects (Darvin, 2020; Nicolaou, 2021) such as those implemented in VE.
Finally, CVE is also an instantiation of critical global citizenship education (CGCE) (Andreotti, 2006) which has notions of power, voice, and difference at its core, and involves the systematic development of critical inquiry, engagement, reflexivity, and re-learning. Grounded in real-world issues, CGCE involves “analysis and critique of the relationships among perspectives, language, power, social groups and social practices by the learners” (Andreotti, 2006, p. 51). Designed in accordance with these notions, CVE can become a pedagogical vehicle for collaborative action, public engagement, and socio-political change. It has great potential as a first step toward learner agency, glocal awareness-raising and ‘thinking otherwise’ (Stein & Andreotti, 2021) and—in this way—toward critical IaH.
Shared Garden is a CVE example that is aligned with SDG 13 (Climate Action). Here, university students from France and Spain collaborated with a local allotment to develop an environmentally friendly and sustainable watering-system which was subsequently built to maintain a physical garden close to Bordeaux University campus (https://express.adobe.com/page/qi01gwVrDxYpz/).
Another example, Reading the City Through Agenda 2030, involved university students from Argentina, Poland, and Sweden in critically exploring their cities through the lens of SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities). They first investigated local challenges and existing grassroots initiatives and then co-created multimodal sustainability campaigns equally relevant in their respective urban environments.
These projects share the aim of fostering CGCE by engaging students in:
exploring sustainability issues within and across geographical and cultural contexts
understanding global SDGs in the light of local realities
negotiating ideas by using translanguaging strategies, digital tools, and multimodal resources
co-creating a product as a way of implementing new knowledge and taking action
CVE has the potential to be agenda setting for VE scholars and practitioners worldwide through its focus on social justice and inclusion and to instigate transformative change at individual, institutional, and policy level. It will create new legacies in critical IaH based on an understanding of research as “living knowledge” (Facer & Enright, 2016): praxis knowledge that connects lived experiences on the ground—by students, educators, administrators, and other decision-makers involved in CVE—with the body of global critical knowledge in international and intercultural education and transversal skills building.
References
Andreotti, V. (2006). Soft versus critical global citizenship education. Policy & Practice: A Development Education Review, 3, 40–51.
Beelen, J., & Jones, E. (2015) Redefining internationalization at home. In Curaj, A. et al. (Eds.), The European Higher Education Area: Between critical reflections and future policies (pp. 59–72). Springer International Publishing.
Darvin, R. (2020). Creativity and criticality: Reimagining narratives through translanguaging and transmediation. Applied Linguistics Review, 11(4), 581–606.
Hauck, M. (2020, Sept. 15). Towards global fairness in the digital space through VE [Keynote]. International Virtual Exchange Conference 2020. https://iveconference.org/2020-conference/
Hauck, M. (2019). Virtual exchange for (critical) digital literacy skills development. European Journal of Language Policy, 11(2), 187–210.
Helm, F. (2020). EMI, internationalisation, and the digital. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 23(3), 314–325. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2019.1643823
Klimanova, L., & Hellmich, E. A. (2021). Crossing transcultural liminalities with critical virtual exchange: A study of shifting border discourses. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 18(3), 273–304. https://doi.org/10.1080/15427587.2020.1867552
Kress, G. (2003). Literacy in the new media age. Routledge.
Nicolaou, A. (2021). Technological mediation in a global competence virtual exchange project: a critical digital literacies perspective. In S. Papadima-Sophocleous, E. Kakoulli Constantinou, & C. N. Giannikas (Eds.), Tertiary education language learning: A collection of research (pp. 111–131). Research-publishing.net. https://doi.org/10.14705/rpnet.2021.51.1257
O’Dowd, R. (2018). From telecollaboration to virtual exchange: State-of-the-art and the role of UNICollaboration in moving forward. Journal of Virtual Exchange, 1, 1–23. Research-publishing.net. https://doi.org/10.14705/rpnet.2018.jve.1
Ortega, L. (2017). New CALL-SLA research interfaces for the 21st century: Towards equitable multilingualism, CALICO Journal, 34(3), 285–316.
Stein, S., & Andreotti, V. (2021). Global citizenship otherwise. In E. Bosio (Ed.), Conversations on global citizenship education: Research, teaching and learning (pp. 13–36). Routledge.
Join us as we take a glimpse into what’s ahead for the 2025 Global Impact Conference — from the vision behind the conference’s evolution to how the IMPACT framework is shaping a more intentional, inclusive experience. The conversation explores how the 2025 Global Impact Conference builds on DA Global’s legacy of advancing accessible inclusive global education, and how this year’s program supports professionals at all stages of their careers.
The session also answers key questions from the community: What types of proposals is DA Global hoping to see? What’s changing in terms of session formats, themes, and networking? And what kind of long-term impact do we hope the conference will have? Whether you missed the live webinar or want to revisit the insights, this is your chance to get oriented and inspired for what’s to come
Speakers:
Andrew J. Gordon | CEO & Founder, DA Global
Victoria Pope | Membership & Programming, Manager, DA Global
Neal McKinney, Doctoral Student, The Ohio State University
U.S. Black, Indigenous, and Persons of Color (BIPOC) will not soon forget the effects of the double pandemics of 2020 and 2021 for some time. The pandemic of Covid-19 has exposed severe racial inequity in healthcare such that recent CDC data for BIPOC infection, hospital, and death rates from COVID average 1.35, 2.5, and 1.9 times that of white, non-Hispanic persons (CDC, 2021). Beyond Covid-19, BIPOC have also survived the pandemic of highly publicized racialized trauma including but not limited to: the murders George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and the six Asian women in Atlanta, as well as the overt displays of white nationalism under the Trump administration and policies that decimated immigration and civil rights protections. The collective impact of racialized trauma such as these concurrent pandemics produces both physical and psychological stress known as racial battle fatigue (Smith et al., 2007).
Thus, as the field of international education navigates a new normal for U.S. education abroad in 2021 and beyond, the toll of these realities on BIPOC student mental health because of racial battle fatigue must be a part of the overall strategic vision for health and safety best practices. As a first step, international educators must familiarize themselves with research that centers race and racism in order to understand why strategies to support BIPOC students who likely experience racial battle fatigue are necessary and differ from traditional catch-all mental health strategies. This article constructs the foundation for international educators to reimagine and re-prioritize BIPOC students’ wellbeing by introducing critical race theory (CRT) to describe how race and racism shape BIPOC student experiences. This article closes with implications for practice by pointing to research on BIPOC self-care informed by CRT.
Despite a contemporary flash point among global conservative political circles, CRT’s historical purpose is to serve as a critical lens to understand race and racism’s influence within the United States’ history in order to shed light on how race is used to continue inequity between white people and people of color (specifically Black people). CRT’s origins in 1970’s critical legal studies and radical feminism emerged with the intention to interrogate and transform the power dynamics between race and racism within facets of law, policy, and property rights. (Delgado & Stefancic, 2001; Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995). Delgado and Stefancic (2001) theorize CRT’s interrogation of race and racism as a critique of color-blindness and legal neutrality of racial civil rights through four specific tenets: 1) racism is ordinary and commonplace, 2) racism provides systemic physical and material benefits to white people, 3) race is not biological and was formed as a social construct, therefore it is subjective and capable of changing its form when convenient, and 4) the uniqueness of voice from people of color serves as a space of resistance against master narratives of race and racism.
Patton (2016) expanded CRT’s usage in higher education to identify three propositions for understanding race and racism in higher education: 1) higher education is rooted in racism/white supremacy, 2) higher education utilized whiteness as property rights to maintain power/oppression over all aspects of the institution (curriculum, property accumulation, hiring practices and policies), and 3) higher education serves as a vessel for promoting knowledge construction/production rooted in racism/white supremacy. Thus, it is important to acknowledge racism’s influence on higher education as an institutional system as largely uncontested and invisible in much of existing higher education literature (particularly in international education). So, in order to disrupt and dismantle its influence on practitioners, it has to be named and studied (Patton, 2016).
The effects of racialized trauma onset by the dual pandemics have yet to be fully studied, particularly their effects on BIPOC students; however, existing studies have used CRT to examine how racism impacts BIPOC student college experiences. Black students reported experiencing microaggressions inside and outside the classroom (Smith, 2007; Solórzano et al., 2000), undocumented Chicana students reported experiencing racialized nativism (Peréz Huber, 2010), and the perpetual invisibility of Filipino students racial identity among Asian American college students (Buenavista et al., 2009) are just a few examples of how racism shows up in the every day experience of BIPOC students. All of these experiences contribute to the detrimental toll of racial battle fatigue, which Smith (2007) describes as a physiological manifestation of “frustration, shock, anger, disappointment, resentment, anxiety, helplessness, hopelessness, and fear” (p. 551).
Therefore, as the field of international education moves forward in its response to the world changing with the Covid-19 pandemic, it is critical that the field find ways to disrupt the realities of racism that challenge BIPOC students’ mental health and wellbeing. One such strategy, informed by CRT, is by naming and validating the existence of racism occurring presently, and having occured in the past, and how this has a specific impact on BIPOC students. Certainly, it is pivotal for U.S. higher education to do this work, yet it is equally important to extend this work to the field of international education. Fortunately, it appears that various education abroad organizations are turning the tide to address racial justice more publicly in their future strategic planning. However, all such efforts can only support BIPOC student wellness by centering the voices of BIPOC students. In closing, CRT instructively offers two possibilities that can honor this charge.
First, international education as a field must be willing to serve as a space that actively challenges dominant ideologies that continue to perpetuate racism. This is adapted from Patton (2016) who acknowledges the burden of such a task for higher education as a whole, but reminds educators that today’s students become tomorrow’s, “lawyers, doctors, judges, teachers, professors, scientists, business owners, leaders, and citizens in this country” (p. 335). All students participating in education abroad learn from what the field teaches, as such, revising any and all policies, practices, and paradigms to incorporate a racial justice lens will ensure that all who engage in international education understand their responsibility in this work such that BIPOC students can feel safe and centered. Such action is possible when international educators simultaneously interrogate and disrupt non-BIPOC students as well as their own monolithic constructs of racial identity that show up globally. BIPOC students have an individualized relationship with racism, which is shaped by their unique stories. These stories must be heard and shared. Delgado and Stefancic (2001) term this concept as engaging anti-essentialism and counterstory-telling, which points to the disrupting of dominant norms generalizing BIPOC individuals into harmful stereotypes (anti-essentialism), and instead amplifying BIPOC students telling of their own stories. International education has the resources to achieve these outcomes for racial justice, and it will be up to international educators to shift into action during this time of unprecedented change to prioritize wellbeing for all BIPOC students.
Buenavista, T. L., Jayakumar, U. M., & Misa-Escalante, K. (2009). Contextualizing Asian American education through critical race theory: An example of US Pilipino college student experiences. Special Issue: Conducting Research on Asian Americans in Higher Education 2009(142), 69-81. https://doi.org/10.1002/ir.297
Ladson-Billings, G. & Tate, W.F. (1995). Toward a critical race theory of education. Teacher College Record, 97(1), 47-68. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ519126
Patton, L. D. (2016). Disrupting postsecondary prose: Toward a critical race theory of higher education. Urban Education, 51(3), 315-342. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085915602542
Pérez Huber, L. (2010). Using Latina/o Critical Race Theory (LatCrit) and racist nativism to explore intersectionality in the educational experiences of undocumented Chicana college students. Educational Foundations, 24, 77-96. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ885982.pdf
Solórzano, D., Ceja, M., & Yosso, T. (2000). Critical race theory, racial microaggressions, and campus racial climate: The experiences of African American college students. The Journal of Negro Education, 69(1/2), 60-73. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2696265
Smith, W. A., Allen, W. R., & Darnley, L.L. (2007). “Assume the position…you fit the description”: Psychosocial experiences and racial battle fatigue among African American male college students. American Behavioral Scientist, 51(4), 551-578. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764207307742
Jessica Driemeier, Associate Director of Study Abroad, University of Miami
Nina Castro, Assistant Director of Study Abroad, University of Miami
The COVID-19 pandemic has had far-reaching and pervasive effects within the field of international education; it has highlighted the supranational linkages in our collective health and well-being, reinforced the paramount importance of health and safety travel plans and contingencies, and revealed more clearly who the US healthcare system works well for and who it does not. They say “never waste a good crisis”; COVID-19 has given us the time to stop, reflect on what we do, how we do it, and how we can do it better. At the University of Miami, this reflection led to our proposal to mandate a specific international health insurance policy for all students traveling internationally. Our goal is to provide a comprehensive insurance policy to all study abroad students that is partially subsidized or fully paid by the university.
UM’s benchmarking of 25 peer institutions revealed that the majority (80%) have a mandatory international health insurance policy for study abroad students. The remaining 20% offered students the option to purchase international health insurance from a preferred provider. These results are in line with a 2019 University Risk Management & Insurance Association report, which found that 100% of institutions surveyed, provide medical and emergency coverage for their travelers.
In addition to benchmarking, recommendations from the field’s major organizations were incorporated into our proposal. NAFSA best practices recommend that institutions “obtain and maintain appropriate health and travel insurance coverage … during the program” (NAFSA, n.d.). The Forum on Education Abroad reiterates that organizations “maintain[s] appropriate kinds of insurance at recommended levels, operate[s] in compliance with local laws, and follow[s] best practices in reporting on critical incidents” (Forum on Education Abroad, n.d.).
Initially, we conceived the insurance proposal as simply a health and safety compliance measure. But the more we learned about various inclusions and costs, we realized how providing a comprehensive, inclusive insurance policy could be a tool to overcoming barriers that discourage students from pursuing international experiences. Most diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives target specific underrepresented groups; adopting a comprehensive and inclusive insurance policy can effect change and positively impact multiple underrepresented populations. We wanted to share this realization with the international education community to encourage others to also reframe how to approach, develop, and enact DEI efforts.
Increasing accessibility to international opportunities for a diverse student population is a key component of the University of Miami study abroad office’s strategic plan. We believe that a comprehensive international health insurance policy makes it possible for a wider group of students to travel internationally.
Without a subsidized, comprehensive insurance policy provided by the university, students are left with their existing coverage or the best international travel health insurance coverage they can afford. This results in students of higher socioeconomic status (SES) obtaining excellent coverage and care while lower SES students are left afraid to visit a doctor or clinic to avoid a high deductible or large bill. A university-provided and mandated insurance policy can erase this divide, while reducing or eliminating upfront costs to students. Equity of health insurance coverage while abroad ensures that all cases are handled following the same procedure. While there will still be variation in the care received depending on where students are in the world, equity of coverage guarantees similar handling of advising and claim processing as well as identical provision of information and resources.
Furthermore, an inclusive international health insurance policy will help address some of the barriers for students with disabilities. Students with disabilities can succeed in study abroad programs with ongoing support from the home university, the international health insurance provider, and our international partners. With attitudes and laws surrounding physical mobility, mental illness, and many chronic conditions varying depending on study abroad destination it is essential that we have an insurance partner that has an understanding of the support services available in the student’s host country.
Nationwide trends show that more students with anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues are studying abroad. Students who are already aware of mental health conditions and comfortable managing their symptoms may require on-going mental health care as part of their treatment. Moreover, international travel may necessitate extraordinary care beyond their normal treatment protocols due to new and unfamiliar environments. Students who have conditions which have not yet presented could experience this for the first time while abroad without their normal support systems available to them. Institutions can ensure equitable mental health coverage and support for all students going abroad by including this in the group policy. Additionally, it is important to ensure that injuries resulting from alcohol or drug use are covered under the provided policy. Ideally, the coverage should extend to students experiencing substance/alcohol abuse or dependency.
Students covered under the same international health insurance coverage will have the support of on-campus offices along with an experienced healthcare provider abroad allowing students to get customized support and recommendations for their specific health needs. We are hopeful that the implementation of a university-provided and mandated comprehensive insurance policy will open the doors for more underrepresented students to seek out study abroad opportunities without concerns of healthcare costs or coverage. Reframing international health insurance as a tool for DEI access and equity rather than a health and safety compliance measure may assist fellow international education professionals with advocating for an inclusive, comprehensive, and funded policy at their institutions.
Title: Sustainability in Action: Integrating SDGs into International Education
Presenters:
Sean Reilly, AFS
Saskia Kaya, AFS
Description:
Integrating Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into international education programs enhances their global impact. This session explores how SDG-focused curricula prepare students and educators for responsible and informed global citizenship..
Discuss how SDGs can be seamlessly integrated into curriculum and program design.
Highlight the value of aligning international education goals with global sustainability objectives.
Share examples of collaborative projects or community engagement initiatives tied to SDGs.
Explore the benefits of preparing students with sustainability-focused learning outcomes.
Title: Identity & Inclusion at the Crossroads: Involving Students in the Development of Practical Support Strategies in the European Context
Leadra Reeves, CASA Granada Spring ’24 Alum & Travel Grant Awardee
Dani Kaufman-Sedano, CASA Granada Spring ’23 Alum & Travel Grant Awardee
Description:
Join a seasoned study abroad director and two program alums as they share their stories, effective strategies, easy-to-implement practices, and the measurable outcomes that result from incorporating student voices in the development of inclusive support services onsite. In this deep-dive session, we invite you to engage in the exercise of validating the lived experiences of recent graduates whose identities span a range of both visible and invisible identities that we often encounter among our student cohorts, and of translating those experiences into concrete strategies. More specifically, based on both research findings and direct personal experiences, we will:
Come to a comprehensive understanding of inclusion, drawing from the different approaches utilized in Europe and the U.S., and the lived experiences of our students at this crossroads, and use it as the foundation for building inclusive programs and practices.
Explore the importance and the impact of inclusive approaches in academic and cultural adjustment support on students’ overall wellbeing and personal growth.
Identify specific challenges that students of varying identities face while studying abroad in Europe, with a particular focus on students of low-income backgrounds, Black students, LGBTQ+ students, and students of different religious backgrounds.
Discuss intentional support services/resources that study abroad programs can provide for diverse student populations in close collaboration with their host partners – institutions, host families, faculty, community organizations – and how to approach potential obstacles that may surface.
Engage with the process of developing, implementing and evaluating the success of inclusive initiatives, and measuring the direct impact on your students and the future of your program!
Title: From Abroad to Beyond: Turning European Experiences into Career Success
Presenters:
Nicola Sullivan, AIFS
Maya Edwards, AIFS
Description:
Global education experiences in Europe equip students with unique skills for careers in public and private sectors. This session highlights how these experiences translate into employability and career preparedness.
Explore how global education in Europe impacts students’ employability and career preparedness.
Identify transferable skills developed through international education and their alignment with workforce demands.
Discuss reverse culture shock and strategies to leverage the abroad experience professionally.
Showcase alumni success stories to inspire future students.
Concurrent Session Block 3
The Role of the Global University in Navigating Conflict, Dialogue, Transformation — How campuses cultivate dialogue, resilience, and civic readiness amid geopolitical tension while keeping learning and community at the center.
Partnerships that Drive Real Collaboration & Innovation — Models that move beyond finance-only deals to co-created programs, research, and talent pathways linking MENA and global institutions.
Concurrent Session Block 2
Making the Student Success Case for International Education to Campus Leadership — How to build deeper support for global learning among campus leadership by framing international education as a key driver to improving student success.
Inclusion in MENA: Narratives, Demographics & Opportunity — Public narratives about MENA are often formed at a distance. This session examines inclusion through societal trends and the policy frameworks that enable openness and stability.
The Value of International & Experiential Study Through the Lens of Global Employers — What employers say global and experiential learning uniquely delivers, from teamwork across cultures to problem-solving on real projects.
Concurrent Session Block 1
Preparing Today’s International Students for Tomorrow’s Workforce — How institutions align global and experiential learning along with employer partnerships so international students translate global study into career readiness and impact.
Unique Mental Health & Wellbeing Considerations for Study to & from MENA — Culturally grounded approaches that support student wellbeing across languages, faith, family expectations, and cross-border transitions.
Tech for Global Education: What’s Actually Working? — Practical, people-first uses of digital tools that expand reach, improve student support, and strengthen collaboration without turning staff into technologists.
