Partnering to Nurture Change: Supporting Diversity and Global Engagement Across Campus

This panel will focus on the ways in which one model program at the University of Connecticut has helped to promote campus-wide diversity and inclusion initiatives in the arena of global engagement. By examining its historical roots, mission and current practices, we’ll discuss how Student Support Services (SSS) has both provided access to and built education abroad programs for its core participants: high-potential students who come from underrepresented ethnic or economic backgrounds and/or are first-generation college students. We will then contextualize the work and role of SSS within the campus as a whole during the academic year 2013 -14 when faculty and staff worked on and adopted a new strategic plan that emphasized global engagement and diversity as two of its four core values.

Dr. Maria Martinez, Dr. Bidya Ranjeet, Dr Dorothea Hast, Mr. Anthony Brooks – Uconn 

Student Exchange Program for Low-Income & First Generation Students

The Los Angeles-Amsterdam Connection: Student Exchange Program Designed for Low-Income and First Generation Students

2016 Annual Diversity Abroad Conference Presentation

The UCLA/VU Student Exchange Program has as its main goal to expose first-generation and low-income students from diverse backgrounds to social justice in a global context by exploring issues abroad of inequality, community activism, civic responsibility and political engagement.

Charles J. Alexander, AVP/Director-UCLA; Santiago Bernal, Assistant Director, CCCP-UCLA; Wim Haan, Coordinator-Vrije University Amsterdam

Effective Strategies and Approaches for Increasing Access and Diversity at Large, Public Institutions

2016 Diversity Abroad Conference presentation

This presentation will equip professionals with the tools to support and increase underrepresented students in study abroad, through case studies from three large public institutions.

Mary Dando (CU-Boulder), Heather Thompson (UT Austin), & Dr. Adam Henry (ASU) 

Equity Now! Understanding & Speaking About Equity

Equity now! understanding and speaking about equity in education abroad
2016 Diversity Abroad Annual Conference Presentation

How well can you define educational equity? Can you confidently articulate equity issues in education abroad within your office and across campus? This session breaks down understandings educational equity in clear language and provides you with useful soundbites and examples that can be used to speak to equity issues in study abroad with various campus stakeholders.

Kati Bell, Director Global Education Office – Dominican University of California

Diversity Matters: Impacts of a Diverse Study Abroad

Diversity matters: impacts of a diverse study abroad cohort on intercultural development
2016 Diversity Abroad Conference presentation

This session will share research findings on the impacts of a multi-destination, cohort-based study abroad program on participants’ intercultural competence. The session will share participant narratives along with quantitative and qualitative data supporting the assertion that the diversity in the cohort created unique opportunities for learning and engaging with the environment beyond what a homogenous group would offer. Student narratives from journals and interviews will highlight examples of how the diversity of the cohort was influential in their learning, including: Identity exploration, minority vs. majority status, sub-culture themes, privilege and empathy, and newfound attitudes, knowledge, and skills for intercultural competence.

Amir Reza, Ph.D. Babson College