Murphy will serve as a faculty member for the program taking place this summer. We asked him about what drew him to ����APP, why Nepal is an optimal place to learn geoscience, and what experiential learning means to him.

What is your educational/professional background, and what drew you to ����APP?

I had the great fortune of attending the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). I started as a biochemistry major who wandered into the geology building only to find opportunities that linked me to my passions in science and art. After completing my PhD in 2000 I was offered a position at the University of Houston (UH) following work experience in geotechnical engineering and petroleum exploration. At UH I have enjoyed conducting research with my undergraduate and graduate students in Tibet, Sichuan, Nepal, Mexico, and the Rocky Mountains. Since 2001 I have been teaching field geology in the Rocky Mountains from New Mexico in the south to Montana in the north.

The experiences we have had have been life-changing and are what drew me to teaching field geology. I know how impactful it can be. ����APP offers the same courses I teach but in the magical country of Nepal. The logistical planning is first-class, making travel enjoyable and easy to absorb the breathtaking views, the spectacular geology, and the people and their culture.

What brought you to the field of geoscience?

I grew up in southern California with a daily routine of exploring the hills and creeks in my backyard. Weekends were spent camping with my family where my deep interest in the sciences started. I wanted to understand the environment around me, what I was seeing and why it was there. I was hooked on geology after my first field course in Rainbow Basin, California. I learned that geology was unlike the other sciences. In geology, the experiment has already been run: the earth formed and plate tectonics initiated, which continues to shape the planet. Geology is more akin to forensic science, where we operate as detectives, reading the clues in the rocks that we use to construct histories from and base interpretations of the biology, chemistry, and physics that operate to generate what we observe.

My outdoor activities escalated in college. I spent way too much time rock climbing. After mastering the local crags in southern California and clawing my way up several big walls in Yosemite Valley, I wanted to go further in my education. My skills in field geology and climbing were well known to UCLA professors, and I was invited by the late Dr. An Yin to join his research expedition to Tibet in 1995. The following 12 field expeditions to Tibet and Nepal are novels in themselves. The last 24 years in geosciences have been spent sharing my skills and experiences with geology students and working with them to find opportunities that get them where they want to go.

Why would you recommend studying in Nepal?

Nepal is probably not like any place you have been. The people are so genuinely friendly and have an intoxicating passion for exploring their landscape. Our expedition will take us straight through the heart of the Himalaya from the bottom to the top. The people, vegetation, architecture, and religions shift throughout this journey. The rocks and landscape we will work with serve as the classic modern-day example of continent-continent collisions, the main process by which supercontinents are made. I cannot think of a more welcoming place to learn about how mountain landscapes form.

What do you hope students learn from your course?

I want my students to be able to “read” the rocks. In other words, they will graduate with skills to observe and survey a region that allows them to reconstruct its geologic history.

The Nepal program emphasizes geoscience themes in geologic hazards and societal impact. These are thriving and growing sectors of the government and private industry that need geoscientists. I want my students to have the skills to assess geologic hazards and be competitive for jobs in this sector.

����APP is known for experiential learning. What does that mean to you?

Experiential learning to me means that you will learn by seeing and doing. It means that we will be working together in the field. It means that I will expect to lecture in the field next to the rocks. I expect to show you and then you will show me how to make field measurements. It means that at the end of the trip, we both have the confidence that you can carry out accurate and meaningful fieldwork in whatever field you pursue.

What are you most looking forward to during your time as a faculty member?

I can’t wait to work with my fellow instructors. We have similar passions for sharing our knowledge with students. I also can’t wait to see Bhairab who oversees the ground team. He is a phenomenal mountain guide and a logistics extraordinaire. I have not worked with him since 2001. As a faculty member though, I most look forward to new experiences and discoveries with the class. My goal is that several students will leave with an interest in future research and a desire to return to Nepal.

The post Reading the rocks: A Q&A with ����APP Nepal professor Mike Murphy appeared first on School for International Training.

This spring, a group of study abroad staff and faculty from around the country visited ����APP in Samoa. They heard from staff, faculty, and key lecturers;, joined students for discussions on climate issues in the South Pacific; visited local partners; and met homestay families. As they explored a non-traditional location for academically rigorous, culturally immersive learning, they came away with a deeper understanding of what students can experience during a semester on ����APP’s program.

A Samoan welcome

When students arrive, they are brought into the local community and learn the best ways to think and act reciprocally. An important part of this is deconstructing Western students’ preconceptions of communities like Samoa. At the start of the semester, Dr. Maria Kerslake, a community development specialist and former professor with the National University of Samoa, asks students if they think Samoa is poor. Students often say yes and point to small tin-roof buildings and the lack of large metropolitan centers as general signifiers of local poverty. But by the end of the program, students often change their answers and as they start to identify kinship, the environment, and indigenous knowledge as indictors of wealth. 

Site visitors followed a similar journey as they spent a week learning how life in Samoa inherently incorporates key aspects of community, sustainability, and resilience, all centered around Indigenous identity. A welcome ceremony filled with music and culture provided an opportunity for participants to experience the depth and resonance of community. Riding in canoes with guides through mangrove forests introduced the group to a unique and important kind of marine environment, allowing participants to see an area that is particularly susceptible to climate change. Lectures from local experts provided a deeper understanding of how life in Samoa often fluctuates between vulnerability and resilience. “People who live in challenging spaces may be stronger and more resilient,” says Dr. Anita Latai-Niusulu, associate professor of geography at the National University of Samoa.

Community and a network of care

����APP strives to cultivate a network of care through community, preparation, and communication, often through the program staff and ����APP’s Student Health, Safety, and Well-being team. But students also find a community of local care formed by guest lecturers, guides, homestay families, and their fellow students. Given the strong focus on community building, students naturally become a part of a network of support, knowledge, and accountability, and students are invited to participate in community by performing Samoan dances, wearing Samoan clothing, and forming kinships with the people around them.

Learning the language is also an important part of how students find ways to be included in the larger community as it allows them to be more comfortable among their peers and host families.

The site visitors were able to see firsthand what these networks of care look like for students in Samoa. Meeting local ����APP staff, lecturers, and guides reflected the collaborative care that students find throughout their semester. During dinners hosted by homestay families, visitors were given garlands, fed a home cooked meal, and saw first-hand how well the students had adjusted to life in a new place. They were also introduced to the language through songs that express “fa’asamoa,” or Samoan culture—the same songs taught to students by their instructors.

Sustainability and Indigenous knowledge

A semester in Samoa allows students to hear perspectives on social transitions, conservation, and resilience from Samoans and other Pacific Islanders, providing an alternative perspective to issues they study on their home campuses.

“Students arrive armed with Western theory…the important thing for us is Indigenous knowledge. That is our method of sustainability and development,” says ����APP Academic Director Dr. Fetaomi Tapu-Qiliho.

Site visitors were able to hear more about what this means at the panel “Decolonizing Perspectives of Oceania.” The discussion provided an in-depth look at the research backgrounds and expertise faculty and guest lecturers bring to ����APP students. Topics of research included recontextualizing Indigenous knowledge and practices to properly represent the importance of Samoans and their culture, how life in Samoa often fluctuates between vulnerability and resilience, and how the health of the land affects the Samoan people.

Through canoe rides through mangrove forests, touring a cocoa and coffee farm, and snorkeling among giant clams, visitors saw how Fetaomi’s focus as an educator is to provide an “alternative way of being human.”

See for yourself

Joining a group site visit to an ����APP program is a great way to learn more about what your students can experience during their study abroad program. Individual site visits are alternatively available, and ����APP’s team can work with you to craft one-day visits focused on specific needs. More information can be found . Plan a visit now by !

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This story and photos were originally published in Hamilton College’s . They are reprinted here with permission.

From Feb. 22 to Feb. 24, the School for International Studies: Rainforest, Reef and Cultural Ecology students spent their time reforesting a section of the Mabi rainforest in the Atherton Tablelands, Australia. Mabi rainforest is critical to many species in Australia. “Mabi” is actually the Aboriginal name for tree kangaroo, one of the species that lives in Mabi rainforests. It also houses species endemic to the Wet Biotropics Region, such as Boyd’s Forest Dragon (Lophosaurus boydii). Thus, it is essential that Mabi rainforests are protected. However, currently less than four percent remains. This is where TREAT (Trees for the Evelyn and Atherton Tablelands) comes in.

TREAT is a volunteer-based organization that was founded in 1982 by Joan Wright and Geoff Tracey. Their goals were to replant rainforest trees and plants in order to help revegetate areas in the Evelyn and Atherton Tablelands. As of 2024, TREAT has more than 400 members who put in the hours, with numerous plantings during Australia’s wet season (Nov.-April) and preparation of hundreds of native species during the dry season (May-Oct.). ����APP students worked very closely with TREAT members as well as members of the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service over the course of the reforestation project.

The act of reforestation is more than placing a sapling in a freshly dug hole. In fact, it is a multi-day, multi-year project. First, the location of reforestation must be decided upon and the land must be prepared, including mowing and removing standing grasses that could hinder the growth of the new trees. From there, each hole must be measured out and marked to tell the auger operator where to dig — in our case, that was 2,500 holes! To continue to help the new trees successfully take root, each hole is then prepared with fertilizer and water crystals, or “goop,” as we came to call it. This will ensure that each tree will have the adequate nutrients to get started and will have a water source during the dry season.

Now the part we’ve been waiting for–the planting. Some of the species planted included Celery Woods (Polycias elegans), distinctive for its celery scent, and Bleeding Heart (Homalanthus populifolius), which has red heart-shaped inner leaves. Both of these species, along with many others planted, are early succession species that are native to the Mabi forest type. In addition, these trees will act as a magnet for birds in the area, who will deposit seeds from the surrounding forest when perched. Over the course of several hours and with around 100 volunteers, each tree is carefully placed in their hole and wished good luck. In the following years, fellow TREAT volunteers and the local Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service will follow up on the site, ensuring the seedlings’ success.

Reforestation is a long-term process, and nobody knows how long it will take for replanted forests to fully resemble Mabi forest. It’s also about more than just the trees — as TREAT explains on their website, “the aim of rainforest restoration is to generate a forest that is self-sustaining, with intact ecological processes, and that creates a habitat for the organisms that naturally occur in the area.” In the first few years after planting, trees spring up quickly, offering somewhat instant gratification for the work put in. Insects begin to dwell in the sites, as do birds and reptiles. But rainforests are extremely complex forests, with many other types of plants including epiphytes, vines, and shrubs. Over time, these species should appear, as birds and small mammals bring in seeds. The site we planted is right across from a remaining fragment of Mabi forest in Wongabel State Forest, which will hopefully speed up the rate at which various species move into the new habitat. But it will take years for the site to look like a real rainforest and provide habitat for larger animal species like tree kangaroos and probably hundreds before it will be indistinguishable from original Mabi forest.

Who knows what the years will bring? In the meantime, though, the diverse, dedicated, and ever-expanding group of TREAT volunteers will continue with their noble goal of planting, in their words, “the right tree in the right place for the right reason.”

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We recently met with ����APP alum Mahnoor Haq, who was a presenter in February for a Leaders Lead On-Demand (LLOD) program implemented by .

Haq, a senior communications associate for the communications firm Global Situation Room, presented with two colleagues on disinformation, social media, and artificial intelligence to a group of digital content creators from the Balkans. The group was in the United States for two weeks as part of program, which explored digital communication strategies and challenges and helped the participants build professional networks with other media experts.

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Haq shared about her educational background, how her time with ����APP Morocco impacted her professionally, and her work with World Learning.

What is your educational background?

I completed my undergraduate degree at Wofford College, a small liberal arts college in South Carolina. I majored in history with minors in religion, Arabic, and the Middle East and North Africa region.

I always had a wide variety of interests and wanted to pursue many different fields, but there wasn’t a major for everything I studied at that point. Because of these gaps in the programming, I went out of my way to supplement that programming.

I served as president of the Muslim Student Association, and my work involved identifying what I thought was missing from the curriculum. After completing my undergraduate program, I pursued my master’s at Georgetown University in conflict resolution, something I hoped would combine my different interests.

Can you tell us about your experience with ����APP Study Abroad?

When I was an undergraduate, I participated in Morocco: Multiculturalism and Human Rights [today called ]. We were based in Rabat and explored different cities, including Fez and Marrakesh. We were able to see the beauty of the Atlas Mountains and the Sahara Desert.

I wanted to live in a country where they spoke Arabic. We had a long period every day for Arabic classes, and there was always a functional element. For example, we would go to a cafe and order something in Arabic. That experience puts practice in motion, and without that, your language skills can only improve so much.

I really appreciated the setup of the program. Every week, an expert in a specific region or subject would give a lecture on their area of expertise. That was a great way of learning different subjects that was easy to digest. We had a class on the different legal codes of Morocco, and there was one on calligraphy, so there was a creative side, too.

During the final four weeks, I completed an independent study project “The Intersectionality of Quranic Interpretation and Cultural Norms on Sunni Muslim Women.” The project looked at how cultural and religious interpretations of texts impact cultural practices in specific Muslim countries and how that leads to a rise in violence against women and suppression of their rights. We were able to choose a subject that was most interesting to us and the weekly lectures helped to inform our project.

What is your current role at Global Situation Room?

After graduating from Georgetown, I started working at Global Situation Room, and I’ve been there for two years.

There’s a podcasting side to Global Situation Room, and our studios are called Situation Room Studios. The podcast I mainly work on as a producer is One Decision, which is global affairs oriented. The podcast delves into detailed conversations with world leaders, intelligence officials, experts, and reporters on current news topics. The conversations range from the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza to cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. One of the highlights of working on the podcast has been traveling to New York for the United Nations General Assembly for two years in a row.

I am involved in booking guests, including President Osmani of Kosovo. We’ve also had former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson on the podcast and previous presidents, like Egils Levits of Latvia. We’ve interviewed U.S. members of Congress as well—Rep. Jim Himes from Connecticut and California Rep. Ro Khanna recently.

This role was the perfect way to combine my interests because it requires being up to date on news trends and the next story that’s coming out.

What did your team speak to the Balkan digital creators about?

We gave a presentation on disinformation and misinformation in U.S. media. Our presentation focused on identifying when the media is biased. It’s important to identify when it’s misinformation versus disinformation. We started by outlining the definitions of these terms that are used widely but seldom completely understood.

The case study we used was the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. We identified different media outlets and the deliberate usage of those terms meant to invoke specific reactions in readers.

We also brought up social media platforms like TikTok that are seen as more dangerous because anyone can have a large platform and speak about a number of things. There’s less regulation, and it’s easier for misinformation to spread. But on the other hand, it’s also used for people who don’t have a voice anywhere else. They’re allowing audiences to get a firsthand view. People are able to get that primary source.

Can you speak about the discussion regarding artificial intelligence (AI) and its issues?

We showed how to identify an artificially generated image because that technology will keep improving. It’s important to take the steps to make sure an image is real instead of blindly believing it. This situation will become worse and more difficult to identify if media professionals are not already working on those skills. With AI images, there is also a shock value. Even as that shock diminishes, that in itself makes these images more normalized.

How did your educational experiences prepare you for your current role?

My undergraduate and graduate programs and the ����APP Morocco program led me to my current work. They’re the perfect combination of knowing your history when it comes to many of these ongoing crises and conflicts. You can talk about them in a more informed manner because you have that historical context. Otherwise, you’re seeing them in such a narrow scope.

Studying abroad and learning another language are all important skills that, regardless of what you choose to pursue, are always going to show up in some way that’s beneficial for your career. My study abroad program still shows up in ways I didn’t expect.

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Beatriz Céspedes de Fantini was already a committed internationalist when she came to School for International Training in 1966 to teach Spanish. The daughter of a Bolivian diplomat, Beatriz was born in Italy and had lived in Bolivia, Peru, Venezuela, and Argentina before coming to the United States. She speaks Spanish, Italian, English, and Portuguese.

In 1968, Beatriz joined ����APP’s faculty in the Master of Arts Teaching program, making her the first woman from outside the United States to serve on the faculty. Over the next five decades, she promoted proficient language learning, teaching methodologies, and intercultural understanding in various positions at the school. Students and co-workers always appreciated Beatriz, not only for her high degree of professionalism, especially in language training, but also for her perpetual optimism and upbeat energy when performing and teaching folk dancing and Latin music.

She contributed tirelessly to all branches of World Learning as a Language and Culture department director, a teacher trainer, and a language teacher and advisor for academic study abroad programs, among other roles. She directed summer language and orientation programs in Oaxtepec, Mexico, for 15 summers with The Experiment in International Living. She also developed training and implementation material for diverse activities including African language courses and the World Learning program Salaam-Shalom, which used Arabic and Hebrew language training and cultural studies to build understanding of the Middle East.

In 2004, Beatriz was awarded the World Learning Presidential Medal in recognition of her contributions and commitment to the mission of the organization. In 2016, she was awarded an honorary doctorate in humane letters by the World Learning Board of Trustees.

Retirement in 2016 did not stop Professor Emerita Fantini from actively furthering the mission of the organization. She had an essential role in welcoming and orienting refugees to Brattleboro, VT, as part of the , helping develop and deliver the initial language classes for refugees. Today, she continues as a cultural orientation teacher in community-based activities for the program, as well as she contributes articles to the media about World Learning initiatives.

Engaging and warm, Beatriz exemplifies the values of World Learning by always fostering a sense of community and furthering intercultural understanding among all.

We wish to thank Lou Witherite and Maisie Crowther from World Learning’s  who generously volunteered their time to provide the research and photo for this story.

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The theme of this year’s conference was “Power of the People: Uplifting Global Communities.” Presentations highlighted the positive impacts individuals, organizations, and communities can have addressing global challenges. ����APP co-sponsored the event, along with Notre Dame’s Ford Program in Human Development and Solidarity and the Center for Social Concerns.

The ����APP Study Abroad alumni, their presentations, institutions, majors, and ����APP programs were:

Daisy Alcantar
Existir y Sobrevivir: El prejuicio que enfrentan los inmigrantes venezolanos institucionalmente en la Quinta Región de Chile
Macalester College
Majors: sociology; minor in political science

Spring 2023

What inspired my research topic…I became aware of the resentment and hostile way that immigrants, specifically Venezuelan and other Latin American immigrants were talked about in Chile.

“What inspired my research topic was based on my initial experience during my study abroad program. During the first days of the program, I became aware of the resentment and hostile way that immigrants, specifically Venezuelan and other Latin American immigrants were talked about in Chile. This experience was very similar to the portrayal and the xenophobia present in the U.S. It is then that I became curious in wanting to learn more about the immigrant experience in Chile.”

Cora Beeson
The Unacknowledged and Underfunded Fight for Women’s Empowerment in Indonesia
Pacific Lutheran University
Majors: global studies with concentration in development and social justice; minors in political science and gender, sexuality, and race studies

Spring 2023

Her story got me interested in migrant workers from Indonesia, many of whom subsequently fall into human trafficking, becoming sexual assault victims.

“I have gone to Taiwan to see my mom’s family most summers of my life. My grandmother had an Indonesian caretaker who I became close to. She was a migrant worker and had to leave home at 16 to fund healthcare for both of her parents who were dying of cancer. Her selflessness kept them alive longer, but they passed away before she was able to return home. Her story got me interested in migrant workers from Indonesia, many of whom subsequently fall into human trafficking, becoming sexual assault victims. During my independent study project in Indonesia, while I was interviewing many different women across the country about their own stories, I was able to make the trek to visit her. All those years later, it felt like everything had finally come full circle.”

Lauren Carter
Belonging and Identity in Mustang: Lived Experiences, Social Identities, and Mobility Patterns among Himalayan Peoples of Nepal
University of Richmond
Majors: anthropology and psychology

Spring 2023

Continuing my work with the Belonging Project offers a hands-on opportunity to apply my Himalayan findings to real-world settings, potentially driving meaningful change in how institutions cultivate environments where everyone feels they truly belong.

“I settled on my research topic by combining my interest in yak herding, brought on by reading past independent study projects, with my interest in emotional wellness and the importance of belonging. This led me to explore how patterns of migration impact community bonds and individual identities. After my spring abroad, I returned to the Belonging Project, a campus initiative aimed at dismantling barriers to inclusivity within the academic community. Drawing on my experiences in the Himalayas, our team has been dedicated to capturing and understanding students’ qualitative narratives and their feelings of connection with the community. Looking ahead, I hope to pursue graduate studies and dive deeper into the research I started in Nepal. Alternatively, continuing my work with the Belonging Project offers a hands-on opportunity to apply my Himalayan findings to real-world settings, potentially driving meaningful change in how institutions cultivate environments where everyone feels they truly belong.”

Peter Cohen
Exploring the Role LO Plays in Preparing South African Learners for Life After Matric: A Case Study in Cato Manor
Washington University in St. Louis
Majors: educational studies, psychology, writing

Spring 2023

Through interviews, classroom observations, brainstorming sessions, and the gaps in between these moments, I learned so much about and felt more comfortable than ever in the South African culture.

“Throughout the semester we were learning about ways in which young people in South Africa were struggling with establishing their personal and professional lives. As an education major, I was curious to explore the ways in which schools played a role in these struggles and the lack of preparation young people had to overcome post-secondary school obstacles. It wasn’t until an ����APP staff member introduced me to the curriculum of a class that was meant to serve this exact role that my project finally came together. Through interviews, classroom observations, brainstorming sessions, and the gaps in between these moments, I learned so much about and felt more comfortable than ever in the South African culture. As I continue to look for jobs in journalism and the think tank space, I want to find a place that values these personal connections and opportunities for intimate storytelling.”

Esther Ekeh
Therapy Approaches Provided to Traumatized Refugee Children
Gettysburg College
Majors: psychology; minor in business
����APP Jordan: Psychology, Well-being & Mental Health
Spring 2023

My study abroad experience in Amman, Jordan, where I looked at therapy modalities for traumatized refugee children, solidified my interests.

“My research topic came out of the woodwork, as I didn’t realize I was passionate about it until I received support and guidance from my academic director. After working at a children’s advocacy center during my junior year, I knew I wanted to delve into understanding trauma and its mitigation strategies. My study abroad experience in Amman, Jordan, where I looked at therapy modalities for traumatized refugee children, solidified my interests. Conversations with NGOs and volunteering at Doctors Without Borders further piqued my curiosity about health inequities among refugees and migrants and their mental health implications. After undergraduate, I plan to work as a research assistant to gain more experience before pursuing a PhD in clinical psychology, aiming to continue my work in improving social functionality among vulnerable populations.”

Sally Fales
An Exploratory Study into Empowering Grade 10 and 11 Learners Through Critical Engagement With South African Literature: A Case Study in Cato Manor
Washington University in St. Louis
Majors: educational studies and sociology; minors in African and African American studies

Spring 2023

Through my research project, I worked with secondary school students in Cato Manor to read and analyze South African authored texts and fell in love with the process.

“Prior to my study abroad experience with ����APP in South Africa, I had primarily taught and worked with elementary students on literacy intervention. Through my research project, I worked with secondary school students in Cato Manor to read and analyze South African authored texts and fell in love with the process and impact of reading and discussing stories with the older age group. It was incredible to see how the students engaged with texts and connected it to their lives to form and shape opinions. It motivated me when applying to graduate school to pursue my teaching licensure in secondary English!”

Lillie Kang
Public Trust and Cultural Conservation: A Health and General Needs Assessment of the Chepang Community in Raksirang Rural Municipality, Makwanpur District, Nepal*
Washington University in St. Louis
Majors: global studies: development; minor in global health and environment

Spring 2023

I plan to return to Nepal to continue my research and form a comprehensive understanding of indigenous health and community development in rural Nepal.

“The main priority for my research was to collaborate with a local organization and create a study topic around their needs and interests in order to circumvent the legacy of extractive relationships in global development research. I partnered with RRN, a local NGO launching a Water and Sanitation Health (WASH) project in the Makwanpur District of Nepal, and expressed a need for qualitative field research to complement the WASH project and inform future projects in the area. Upon graduation, I plan to attend Brown School of Social Work at Wash University in St. Louis to pursue a master’s in public health, specializing in global health. A core component of the program is the global practicum experience, where I plan to return to Nepal to continue my research and form a comprehensive understanding of indigenous health and community development in rural Nepal.”

*This study received the at the conference.

Lena Kennell
Female Same-Sex Relationships: Qualitative Analysis of Resilience and Gendered Stigmatization in Samoa
Wellesley College
Majors: comparative political science; minor in africana studies

Fall 2022

It was life-changing to do research that uplifts a chronically under-documented and under-resourced population.

“Completing this research was an honor. I am grateful to have worked alongside incredible local activists and individuals to document and analyze the lives of fa’afatama and queer women in Samoa. It was life-changing to do research that uplifts a chronically under-documented and under-resourced population. This work is guided by my fundamental beliefs that everyone deserves to be safe and understood and that in order to understand and accept each other, you must first see each other. I have so much hope for the liberation and increased acceptance of Samoan fa’afatama and queer women and plan to continue to support the fa’afatama community within Samoa in their work to address gendered dimensions of discrimination in culturally salient ways.”

Keerthana Krishnan
A Comparative Study of Migrant Mental Health in Switzerland and the United States: How Do Different Healthcare Systems Affect Access to Care?
Tulane University
Majors: public health and psychology; minor in anthropology with a concentration in bio-archaeology

Spring 2023

Speaking to some migrant women during my time abroad in Switzerland…inspired me to look more into it.

“I decided to research mental health care in migrant populations after speaking to some migrant women during my time abroad in Switzerland. Getting to speak with them and learning more about who they are inspired me to look more into it.”

Hallee Limes
Māmānuina o Aoga Amata Contextualizing the Pedagogy of Samoan Identity in Early Learning Education
Ohio Wesleyan University
Majors: sociology and anthropology; minor in philosophy

Fall 2022

Illuminating the importance of children and their position in society is what inspired me to do my independent research with them at the early learning center in Apia.

“I decided on my project with ease after I saw all the Samoan words and values I’ve learned from Samoan children, whether it was my host sister, village kids, or my time with preschool children. Illuminating the importance of children and their position in society is what inspired me to do my independent research with them at the early learning center in Apia.”

Finn Meachem
Sunan Kalijaga: Pilgrimage in Java
Macalester College
Masters: linguistics; religious studies

Spring 2023

I am grateful to ����APP for introducing me to this part of the world that I knew nothing about and changing the course of my academic career and personal development!

“My time solo traveling in Java changed my life forever. I will be returning on the CLS this summer to get my language skills back, and then I plan on trying to apply for schools or further research fellowships in Indonesia. I am grateful to ����APP for introducing me to this part of the world that I knew nothing about and changing the course of my academic career and personal development!”

Samantha Murphy
Life as an Ex-Sex Worker: is it possible to leave HCMC’s sex industry?
Occidental College
Majors: sociology; minors in critical theory and social justice, media arts and culture

Fall 2022

My study abroad experience influenced my decision to apply for a Fulbright to conduct further research on a new topic in Vietnam.

“Since conducting my research abroad, I have completed an additional research project on American Public Media’s radio show “Marketplace” and have started a student analyst job at Nickelodeon! My study abroad experience influenced my decision to apply for a Fulbright to conduct further research on a new topic in Vietnam. Right now, I am a semi-finalist and am waiting to hear back if I’m accepted!”

Amelia Opsahl
The social, economic, and political barriers that female victims of domestic violence face when reporting violence or accessing the corresponding protection services in Maipú, Mendoza, Argentina
Claremont McKenna College
Majors: foreign languages; minor in computer science

Spring 2023

I plan to build on my research with ����APP and make a broader comparison between the barriers to access to care for domestic violence victims in both Argentina and Brazil.

“As foreign languages major studying French, Spanish, and Portuguese, my senior thesis will be centered around a comparison between the cultures of certain social issues in two of the countries in which my focus languages are spoken. For this project, I plan to build on my research with ����APP and make a broader comparison between the barriers to access to care for domestic violence victims in both Argentina and Brazil. I am excited to continue this research and learn more about the topic in other areas of Latin America.”

Isabel Powell
The Effects of Stigma Against HIV and Tuberculosis on Patient Mental Health and Healthcare-Seeking Behavior in Dharamshala
Georgetown University
Major: biology of global health, justice, and peace studies

Spring 2023

The interview skills and interdisciplinary approach cultivated during my independent study project have proven invaluable in advancing my thesis research.

“In recognizing the nuanced social environment often overlooked in stigma and disease transmission studies, my work emphasizes the critical need to address social and cultural determinants in both disease prevention and treatment strategies. This comprehensive understanding of how stigma intersects with healthcare and social dynamics is essential for developing targeted interventions and driving systemic changes on a broader scale. Inspired by my study abroad experience with ����APP, I am motivated to further explore opportunities in public health research, equipped with a refined perspective gained domestically and a broadened cultural awareness internationally. The interview skills and interdisciplinary approach cultivated during my independent study project have proven invaluable in advancing my thesis research.”

Sezin Sakmar
What Makes a Family: How an Empowerment-Based Health Care Delivery Model Employs Family Planning to Positively Impact Families in Rural Maharashtra, India
The George Washington University
Majors: anthropology; minor in public health

Spring 2023

Because of my study abroad and research experience, I’ve realized my desire to become a physician and provide the same kind of empowerment-based reproductive health care I witnessed these healthcare professionals provide.

“I knew that I wanted to focus on the intersection of these interests while in India. After visiting the Comprehensive Rural Health Project (CRHP), I knew that I wanted to work with them to conduct this research. Their Mobile Health Team and directors were passionate and dedicated to supporting me throughout the process, and I admired the positive impacts that their knowledge- and interventions-based approaches had on communities in rural India. Because of my study abroad and this research experience, I’ve realized my desire to become a physician and provide the same kind of empowerment-based reproductive health care I witnessed these healthcare professionals provide. In the near future, I plan to return to India to continue researching the importance of empowerment in family planning alongside CRHP and cannot wait to get started (again)!”

Azuna Sawada
Predictors of high stigmatizing attitudes towards people with mental disorders and preferences for mental healthcare services in Kisumu, Kenya
Mount Holyoke College
Major: neuroscience and behavior

Spring 2022

My study abroad experience opened my eyes by allowing me to expose myself to completely new cultures.

“My study abroad experience opened my eyes by allowing me to expose myself to completely new cultures. The context around mental health was different from my home country and also the U.S. I think my hands-on experience of seeing different settings and context would help me to move towards achieving inclusive and equitable mental health research.”

Laiqa Walli
Investigating the Spatial and Industry Distribution of Brain Drain in Tanzanian Youth
Yale University
Majors: global affairs and African studies; Certificate in statistics and data science

Summer 2022

Researching brain drain to stimulate incentives for return migration is an ideal step towards my pursuit to engage with data-based policy making for East African developmental politics.

“In the context of African literature and data, there is a deeply rooted void in relation to youth engagement. Being African, I am personally motivated to conduct this research because I face challenges with the salary for entry level positions in Tanzania being much lower than those that I have access to with an education abroad. Researching brain drain to stimulate incentives for return migration is an ideal step towards my pursuit to engage with data-based policy making for East African developmental politics. I am determined to contribute to Pan-Africanist and Afro-optimist policies; creating an international movement that values and recognizes African prosperity.”

Lucy Wesson
Peace and Empowerment in Modern and Historical Women’s Cooperatives: A Comparative Case Study
University of Oregon
Majors: international relations with a concentration in conflict, peace, and diplomacy; minors in Spanish, textile arts, and linguistics

Fall 2022

My work with the Nyamirambo Women’s Center during my study abroad and summer research period in Rwanda was life-changing…and speaks to the nuances of women-led spaces in the post-genocide context.

“My work with the Nyamirambo Women’s Center during my study abroad and summer research period in Rwanda was life-changing. I was embraced by a community of seamstresses whose artistry and community defined my love for textile arts and my passion for women’s rights. I look to them for strength and inspiration and will be forever grateful that I had the chance to learn from them. My research was thus informed by my desire to highlight their organization’s successes and speaks to the nuances of women-led spaces in the post-genocide context.”

Samantha Wheelis
Examining the Relationship Between the Environment and Traditional Samoan Fishing Knowledge Through the Lens of Sustainability
Temple University
Majors: film; minor in environmental studies

Fall 2022

This study abroad experience absolutely changed the track of my academic career. It made me realize that I do not have to choose between research and film. I can combine them together.

“I specifically wanted to see if there was something true to the theory that Indigenous knowledge is inherently environmentally sustainable and if going forward, we should adopt this knowledge to climate change mitigation policy. Going to Samoa made me realize just how vulnerable Pacific Island communities were to climate change even though they were not the ones contributing to the problem of global emissions. I wanted to see how fishing has changed due to climate change and if traditional methods were still regularly used. This study abroad experience absolutely changed the track of my academic career. It made me realize that I do not have to choose between research and film. I can combine them together. It showed me the importance of making research accessible and how film is a good tool for doing that.”

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As an alum of The Experiment in International Living, Anne Janeway went on to impact World Learning in multiple ways: as a group leader, a trainer, a director, and more.

In 1957, Anne’s curiosity and social conscience as a student at Smith College led her to Finland with The Experiment in International Living. She then went on to lead several Experiment groups in the United Kingdom and Pakistan. After college, she taught at a school in India before moving to California to start a graduate degree.

But starting in 1961, The Experiment’s headquarters, then in Putney, Vermont, became an early site for preparing Peace Corps volunteers for placements overseas. Anne was persuaded to leave her graduate studies to help design and teach orientation sessions and trainings for the volunteers, especially those bound for Asia. She then became director of training in 1962, preparing more than 20 groups of volunteers for placements in Afghanistan, Iran, India, and Pakistan.

Anne was then tapped to be associate director (and later program director) for the International Career Training, known today as Programs in Intercultural Management or PIM. In this role, her impact on the pedagogy of the training was significant as she integrated key elements of cross-cultural awareness and technical management skills using experiential learning approaches.

Among her students are two U.S. ambassadors and countless country directors of international programs for nonprofits, U.S. government branches, and United Nations agencies, as well as many professionals and educators in the humanitarian and peacemaking fields.

Central to her worldview have been her experiences in India, a country she calls a second home and where she is integrally connected to a spiritual community and several schools and grassroots organizations. Through her unique blend of kindness, spiritual wisdom, and tolerance, Anne has created enduring relationships with all her students and colleagues worldwide who, long after her retirement, frequently visit her Dummerston, Vermont, home even today.

We wish to thank Lou Witherite and Maisie Crowther from World Learning’s  who generously volunteered their time to provide the research and photo for this story.

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During a memorial service in November 2012, a path down to a pond on School for International Training’s campus was officially named “Barbara’s Way” to honor and remember Barbara Dirks — an inspiration for those who knew her as well as generations to come.

Barbara graduated from Smith College in 1936 and then served as a Red Cross volunteer in New Zealand and various Pacific islands during World War II. Following, she participated in The Experiment in International and then in 1953, Barbara began leading summer groups, taking students to Scotland, Sweden, Holland, Finland, and Germany. In 1957, she joined The Experiment staff and two years later moved to San Francisco to serve as the director of The Experiment’s office on the West Coast. There, she was approached by Lewis and Clark College to set up a collaborative semester abroad program in Japan. In 1965, she moved to Vermont and worked for The Experiment on special assignments, including training Peace Corps groups slated to serve in Korea, Kenya, and the Marianas Islands.

Barbara’s career took her to Washington, DC, where she served as resident director of the International Student House, a nonprofit that houses international students and young professionals studying or interning in the city. After 12 years, she returned to Vermont and began earning her master’s degree at School for International Training in Brattleboro. Due to health reasons, she was unable to complete her final project and internship but was awarded an honorary master’s in teaching languages from ����APP Graduate Institute.

Barbara later served as a volunteer for World Learning’s Alvino E. Fantini Institutional Archives. Upon her passing in 2012, she left her estate to World Learning in unrestricted support, an impactful legacy that inspired and helped all those who followed in her footsteps.

We wish to thank the volunteers at World Learning’s����who provided the research and photos for this story.

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During Women’s History Month we’re spotlighting some of the impactful women of World Learning, School for International Training, and The Experiment in International Living. This series seeks to showcase their extraordinary journeys and indelible contributions to our more than 90-year history. Each of them, in their own way, has helped us create a more sustainable, peaceful, and just world.

In 1922, Leslie Somers and Donald Watt began a life’s journey together that not only would take them all over the world, it would lead to the creation of The Experiment in International Living. Leslie took her first extended trip to Europe and the United Kingdom one month after their marriage. She went on to make countless trips by ship and airplane, accompanying her husband to Asia, Africa, and South America as well as Europe.

Dr. Watt’s experiences working with young people abroad had influenced him to create The Experiment. When it was launched in 1932, Leslie, a University of Rochester graduate, was employed as secretary, bringing her talent for writing and attention to details. In the days before computers, she wrote hundreds of letters and aerograms, assisting in organizing and conducting groups for student travel abroad. Notebooks and letters, editorial remarks on institutional reports, identification tabs on file folders, and personal papers reveal her input from the early days on the direction and mission of the future organization.

The Watts moved to Putney, Vermont, which became headquarters of the original Experiment and its staff. Leslie was a gracious host to the many visitors, both national and international, who came to their unique home, called Himmel House. Items collected throughout their travels and other architectural features reflected their appreciation for the many cultures they encountered.

In many ways, Leslie Watt is the unsung hero of the early Experiment. Her handwriting and photos are found everywhere in the history of their efforts toward building peace through understanding. Her role was essential to the success of the organization as it grew from The Experiment into School for International Training to World Learning.

The Watts retreated from everyday administration in the 1950s, but throughout her life, Leslie never lost her zeal for the values and mission of the organization.

This article was researched by World Learning Institutional Archives volunteers Lou Witherite and Alvino Fantini.

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Dr. Samuel Alexander
Australia: Sustainability and Environmental Action

A passionate educator, scholar, and activist with a PhD in environmental law and politics, Dr. Samuel Alexander’s interests and expertise include sustainable consumption, social movements, renewable energy transitions, ecological economics, and environmental politics. Prior to joining ����APP, he lectured at the University of Melbourne, Australia, and was a research fellow at the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute. As academic director on this heavily field-based program, he guides students’ learning about climate, geology, flora and fauna, as well as human history and culture to instill a sense of place and understand the unique management issues of each location. This program also includes an excursion to Tasmania and a camping trip among Aboriginal elders.

Indonesia: Arts, Religion, and Social Change

Born in a rustic Java village and raised in Bali, Yudhistira Kazuhiro Budiono, or Kazu, went on to earn degrees in philosophy from the University of Amsterdam and University of California, Berkeley before returning home to promote education, sustainable farming, and conservation. He is an active member of a permaculture organization in the Badung region advocating for permaculture practices and sustainable living. As interim academic director of Indonesia: Arts, Religion, and Social Change, he helps students understand the dynamics of a highly pluralistic society in one of the most visually stunning, culturally rich, and biodiverse places on the planet.

Dr. Daniel Lumonya
Kenya: Global Health and Human Rights

Dr. Daniel Lumonya has served ����APP in a wide range of positions over the past two decades, from academic director to regional dean. A Ugandan citizen, he has also taught at Makarere University in Kampala. His research interests include small-scale farming systems and agrarian transitions, rural livelihoods analysis, and state-civil society relations. This semester, he leads Kenya: Global Health and Human Rights, where ����APP students have unparalleled access to medical professionals, scholars, and scientists working to address western Kenya’s health challenges.

Dr. Zed McGladdery
IHP Health and Community: Globalization, Culture, and Care

Initially trained in law, Dr. Zed McGladdery’s interests have led him into academic disciplines from anthropology to epidemiology. A lifelong resident of Africa, he has seen changes from colonialism to democracy. Among his varied professional experiences, he has taught “street law” to unhoused orphans and served as deputy principal of a socioeconomically disadvantaged school. He works on community participation in conservation of fauna and flora and audits mining and prospecting applications to expose malfeasance in coal mining development. As program director on IHP Health and Community, he stewards students’ learning about health inequities across four continents, comparing health systems and strategies, community well-being, and other factors affecting human health from the local tp the global level.

Dr. Chimene Nukunah
Cameroon: Development and Social Change

For her PhD at the University of South Africa, in response to calls from the #FeesMustFall to decrease education costs and to the anti-apartheid, anti-colonial #RhodesMustFall movement targeting statues at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, Dr. Chimene Nukunah developed a framework to decolonize education. Her background includes research, teaching, student support, staff management, and leadership development, among other areas. As academic director of Cameroon: Development and Social Change, she guides U.S. and Cameroonian students through an analysis of the complex relationships between development, modernization, and social change.

Bhawana Oli
NEPAL: Development, Gender, and Social Change in the Himalaya

Bhawana Oli has worked as a consultant with CARE Nepal and the Asia Foundation on projects focused on women rights, political representation, and gender-based violence. With interests in gender and environmental issues, she has conducted research with a well-known organization in Nepal and taught social sciences and English at a local college. As interim academic director of Nepal: Development, Gender, and Social Change in the Himalaya, she facilitates students’ exploration of changing gender and social justice rights and how international development and global markets are redefining Nepal, which has seen dramatic changes in development, equality and inclusion, and human and civil rights over the past several decades.

Dr. Christine Palmer
Iceland: Climate Change and the Arctic

A biologist with a passion for understanding how organisms survive in challenging and changing environments, Dr. Christine Palmer has worked in the neotropics and as a field researcher in the high desert working examining the impact of climate change on alpine plants. She moved to Iceland as a Fulbright/NSF Arctic Research Scholar with the Iceland Forest Service to study mycorrhizal fungal communities in subarctic regions . She says of her most transformative experiences was studying studied abroad on an environmental conservation field program in college. On Dr. Palmer’s program, students witness the astonishing beauty of glaciers, volcanoes, fjords, geothermal fields, highlands, lava flows, rugged coastline, and waterfalls as they study the causes of climate change and its impacts on the critical environment of the Arctic. Fieldwork introduces scientific methods, data collection and ethical issues related to climate research in Iceland.
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By Cátia Magro
����APP Portugal Academic Director

On ����APP’s Portugal: Sustainability and Environmental Justice program, our mission is to empower students to be change advocates by involving them in research projects that have a meaningful and lasting impact on communities at home and abroad.

• Read more about

By participating in fieldwork, contributing fresh ideas and perspectives, and collaborating with research teams, study abroad students have the opportunity to apply theory to practice in a variety of research projects.

One example of this collaboration is a research project by Colorado College student Olivia Furman. During her study abroad semester in Portugal, Furman gathered and analyzed data to assess the impact of tourism on municipal waste production and treatment in the Algarve region of Portugal from 2017 to 2023.

“I have had a longtime, surprising fascination with waste characterization and management,” Furman said. In high school, she spent many lunch periods “wearing a neon vest as a compost monitor helping her peers learn how to sort waste for composting. My favorite activity of the Covid lockdown was my near daily walks to our neighborhood scrap-iron and metal sorting plant, where we would watch as big cranes sorted metal scraps.”

Furman says her interest in Independent Study Project (ISP) topic emerged during a group excursion to Valorsul, a waste-sorting plant in Lisbon, where her group witnessed the methods of collecting, sorting, and characterizing municipal solid waste.

“With conversations from that morning’s lesson on urban regeneration and development in mind, and newly gained knowledge on the operations of the waste plant, I became curious as to what variables influence waste generation and characterization in a community,” she said.

As a popular tourist destination, the Algarve region of Portugal attracts millions of visitors annually. This relationship between tourism and waste generation and management practices is crucial to understanding the development sustainable waste management strategies that minimize environmental degradation. This research can also contribute to the creation of fair tourism policies that protect the interests of the local community.

In addition to Furman, the project research team included Dr. Eduardo Cardadeiro, Eng. Joana Dionísio, Dr. Catarina Roseta Palma, and myself, with the cooperation of ALGAR, the waste management company for Algarve.

With conversations from that morning’s lesson on urban regeneration and development in mind, and newly gained knowledge on the operations of the waste plant, I became curious as to what variables influence waste generation and characterization in a community.

Engaging our students in Portuguese research projects not only accelerates project advancement, it also provides them with invaluable practical research experience and a deeper understanding of the subject matter. The success of these projects relies on strong partnerships between study abroad programs, local communities, universities, and stakeholders. Such collaborations facilitate the identification of pressing local issues, tap into community knowledge and expertise, and develop effective strategies for implementing sustainable solutions.

This project exemplifies the strong collaboration between ����APP Portugal Sustainability and Environmental Justice and the Research Center for Economic and Business Sciences at Autónoma University, the program’s university partner. Partnerships like this one promote the fusion of diverse expertise, resources, and perspectives to generate innovative and effective solutions.

The anticipated outcomes of the project include enhanced tourism management strategies aimed at reducing adverse effects on local communities and maximizing the positive impact of tourism for residents in the targeted region. Through presentations at conferences and municipalities focusing on effective waste management practices, a longer-term goal is development of a model with applicability to other regions in Portugal, promoting broader sustainability practices.

We look forward to additional partnerships through a new ����APP Portugal program, , which will be launched this fall in collaboration with Autónoma University. Renowned for its communication science courses, Autónoma University boasts cutting-edge television and radio studios, along with state-of-the-art equipment and multiplatform newsrooms that will be made accessible to our students.

The primary objective of this program is to equip students with the necessary skills to become proficient multimedia storytellers, as stories possess the potential to mold knowledge and inspire inquisitiveness regarding crucial subjects.

Through both programs, I am certain that in Lisbon, we will continue to live, learn, and build our stories alongside students as we strive for a sustainable and just world.

Cátia Magro is academic director of ����APP Portugal. She is an environmental engineer and holds a PhD in environment and sustainability. 

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Professor emerita cited as ‘one of the most influential applied linguists of our time’

Accolades are not new to ����APP Professor Emerita Diane Larsen-Freeman. Renowned in the field of language learning and second-language acquisition, as far back 1999, she was named by ESL Magazine as one of 30 ESL pioneers of the 20th century. Since then, among her many distinctions, Larsen-Freeman has served as Fulbright Distinguished Chair at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, received the highest honor of the American Association for Applied Linguistics, and one of her recent books won the Modern Language Association’s Kenneth Mildenberger Book Prize.

Now the ����APP and University of Michigan professor emerita has two more feathers in her cap. In December, she was elected as a Fellow of the Cognitive Science Society, “a high honor that reflects your impact on the Cognitive Science community, and your sustained record of excellence in research contributions,” wrote Anna Papafragou and Adele Goldberg, Society president and past president, respectively.

In addition, Larsen-Freeman has been honored with the publication of a special edition of the peer-reviewed academic journal , which features 22 articles celebrating her 50 years of achievements and influence in the fields of language teaching, language learning, second-language development, and teacher education.

“I have always been curious about how we learn,” Larsen-Freeman says in the publication, which invites readers to witness “the ‘becoming’ and ‘being’ … of one of the most influential applied linguists of our time,” according to guest editors Zhisheng (Edward) Wen of Hong Kong Shue Yan University and Hassan Mohebbi of European Knowledge Development Institute in Turkey.

[W]e regularly invited leading methodologists to introduce their methods to our students: Caleb Gattegno, Earl Stevick, and other methodologists presented us with rich and provocative experiences each time they came to visit, and from them and from my colleagues and students, I learned a great deal.

Close friends, colleagues, and collaborators contributed anecdotes about their encounters with Larsen-Freeman. The edition also presents theoretical discussions of key issues in the field of applied linguistics and results of empirical studies pertaining to complexity/dynamic systems theory, grammar learning and teaching, task-based language teaching and writing, and L2 instruction and second language development.

Below are excerpts from an interview with Larsen-Freeman by co-editors Wen and Mohebbi.

Larsen-Freeman talks about how her experience teaching with ����APP’s MA in TESOL (MAT) program shaped her landmark 1986 book, Techniques and Principles.

“Techniques and Principles was based on my teaching an approaches course with colleagues at the Graduate School for International Training (����APP). The challenge in writing this book was two-fold. For one thing, per usual, I was learning along with my students. The MAT program was based on the principles of experiential learning. This meant that in order to understand a method, we had to experience it firsthand and subsequently reflect on and analyze our experience. Thus, we regularly invited leading methodologists to introduce their methods to our students: Caleb Gattegno, Earl Stevick, and other methodologists presented us with rich and provocative experiences each time they came to visit, and from them and from my colleagues and students, I learned a great deal.

“The second challenge in writing this book was the question of how to capture the dynamism of a lesson-in-progress in order to help readers appreciate its distinctiveness. I decided that having readers ‘enter’ a classroom where the method was being used and observe and analyze it would work better than having them only read a description of it. And this is what I did with each method in the volume.”

The co-editors ask Larsen-Freeman to name the greatest developments in language teaching methods since the publication of that book. Her response reflects the pedagogy that guided ����APP’s renowned MA in TESOL, which in recent years amplified a approach to teaching and learning.

“Recent attention has focused on language learners, demonstrating the unique qualities that define each one and recognizing the emotional dimension of language learning and its effect on the learner’s identity. Also, there is a recognition that learners with different identities—refugees, migrants, businesspeople, international sojourners, students, and immigrants—may want and need to develop their language skills differently. Furthermore, not all learners will need to interact with native speakers of the target language, and no language is the province of its native speakers alone, thus calling into question relying on native language usage as a measuring stick. Instead, for many students, instruction should aim for intelligibility, not conformity to native speaker norms,” she responded.

“This awareness and an appreciation of the empowerment that comes with language learning has spurred initiatives to promote social justice, recognizing that even opportunities to learn another language are not equally distributed. These critical initiatives have also helped us acknowledge that the use of the learner’s other languages is not an impediment to additional language learning, but rather can be a resource to be drawn on in facilitating additional learning in the quest for plurilingualism and through practices such as translanguaging.”

Larsen-Freeman calls on researchers and teachers to acknowledge the agency of learners.

“Learners are not passive consumers of input, but rather they navigate their own unique developmental learning trajectories. Teachers who recognize this, and incorporate ‘enabling conditions’ into their lessons will help learners to enact their agency,” she says.

In closing, she concludes: “Some years ago, I wrote about my development as a teacher. I identified three ‘stages’: Learning to teach, learning teaching, and simply learning. I continue to be in the third stage and I wish it to be ever so.”

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Isabella Cronin studied abroad in 2023 on ����APP Jordan: Refugees, Health, and Humanitarian Action. This story was originally published on the . It is reprinted here with permission.

By Cat Cutillo
St. Michael’s College

Isabella “Bella” Cronin ’25 said she remembers sitting in her Whitefield, New Hampshire, classroom in middle school when she first learned about the Syrian refugee crisis. Now, a junior at Saint Michael’s College, she reflected to that moment again as she explained what it was like to see the Za’atari Refugee Camp in person, the world’s largest camp for Syrian refugees.

• Learn more about ����APP Jordan: Refugees, Health, and Humanitarian Action 

Cronin returned to St. Mike’s campus this semester after studying abroad in Amman, Jordan, through ����APP Study Abroad. She visited Za’atari five or six times during her time abroad while she interned with an NGO (non-governmental organization) that ran a clinic at the refugee camp. She learned about the sexual and reproductive health services that the clinic offered women.  

Cronin is an International Relations major at Saint Michael’s College and has three minors in Peace and Justice, Philosophy and Ethics, and Health Equity.  

“One of the things that stuck with me my first visit was just how positive the attitude is of the people who live there,” Cronin said. “A lot of kids would wave at us, and they would smile.”  

She added, “I think going there and having these firsthand experiences that was instilled will remain incredibly powerful.”  

Four weeks after she arrived for her study abroad experience in Jordan, an armed conflict erupted on Oct. 7, 2023 ,between Israel and groups of Palestinians led by Hamas, a political and military organization governing the Gaza Strip. Jordan shares a border with Israel and the West Bank, and Cronin’s cohort, which was comprised of seven other students from around the country, was planning to fly to Switzerland that day.  

It changes your perspective. You think about, ‘What resources am I using? What people am I getting my information from?’ I, personally, have become more intentional about where I’m getting my news from.” 

Cronin said that the things they were seeing in real time began to impact the way she and other students and instructors approached their education – and the overall study abroad experience. “I think there are some elements of the things that we saw that I wouldn’t have even begun to think about,” Cronin said, 

She added, “It changes your perspective. You think about, ‘What resources am I using? What people am I getting my information from?’ I, personally, have become more intentional about where I’m getting my news from.” 

Cronin said she’s changed her media consumption and now reads news outlets that are based in the Middle East and Gulf Region. For her internship, she wrote her final paper “on Gaza and the aid restrictions set by Israel going into Gaza, and the attacks on aid workers on the ground, including medical personnel and hospitals.”

“Every day we would open our computers and read the news. … We would ask questions together to our program director, who was the person teaching most of our classes,” Cronin said.  

She added “One of the things I learned … Ask the questions. A lot of times you won’t get an answer. Ask the questions anyway.” 

Cronin’s program, itself, was organized and run by women. She said the people of Amman were kind and welcoming.��“I felt safer in Amman, even at night, than I do in Boston or New York during the day,” she said.

She said she dressed “a bit more conservatively” wearing long skirts and neutral colors, but she did not cover her hair. 

While there, Cronin lived with a host family that was comprised of a mother, father and three host siblings, ages 12, 14, and 15. As an only child, herself, she said the new experience of having siblings was a lot of fun and that she misses the family a lot since her return to campus this semester. Her host parents spoke Arabic and English, and her host siblings were studying English. Cronin took a “Survival Arabic” course while abroad and her host mom and host sister would help her with her homework. She said most people she encountered spoke English. 

Cronin said the experience in Jordan has also helped boost her class participation here on campus this spring.��“The purpose is to see certain things through a different perspective and a different lens and that was definitely achieved for me,” Cronin said. “It definitely changes you as a person. I think, for me, it was a very positive change.”��

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Although she’s still in her 20s, Jennifer Tolman has a long history with ����APP and World Learning. It started in high school, when, as a Vermont resident, she attended the prestigious current events program Governors Institutes of Vermont when it was held on the ����APP campus in Brattleboro. Then, as an undergraduate she studied abroad with ����APP not once, but twice, in Bolivia and South Africa.

• Find out more about ����APP’s

Last year, Tolman completed her Global MA in Diplomacy and International Relations at ����APP Graduate Institute. Now she’s working as program associate with the Institutional Support and Program Implementation team at International Business & Technical Consultants, a USAID subcontractor, in Washington, DC. We met Tolman last March, when her graduate program cohort was studying in South Africa, where we talked with her about her broad range of SIT-related experiences and where she hoped to go with them.

Not only are you doing your graduate degree with ����APP, you were also involved in ����APP Study Abroad. Can you tell us about that experience?

I actually first heard of World Learning and ����APP when I was in high school. There’s this program called the Governor’s Institutes of Vermont where you get to learn about current issues and youth activism. It was this fascinating two-week program that really opened my eyes to the world beyond Vermont, where I lived. So, from there, I then did two study abroad programs with ����APP in college.

I find that with every ����APP program, I grow as a person.

I was also familiar with World Learning, the parent organization of ����APP, so I got an internship in Washington DC with World Learning’s Monitoring and Evaluation unit. And I am now back with World Learning and ����APP in my master’s degree program.

Why did you do two study abroad programs?

I loved the experiential component of the study abroad opportunities and the homestays are such an enriching learning opportunity. When I studied abroad with ����APP in Bolivia I got to do my independent study project on Mennonite communities in rural Santa Cruz. I had seen people in traditional Mennonite or, in the U.S., Amish, clothing, and I was fascinated. So, ����APP put me in contact with this nonprofit that worked with Mennonite communities.

I remember being on some rural road with my Bolivian taxi driver and ending up in this fascinating community with no electricity, and they were making cheese. The person who was hosting me in this community showed me around their cheese factory—it was just such a fascinating experience that I never thought I would have in my life. I still look back on that and I’m proud of myself for trying to explore something new and intimidating and really leaving my comfort zone and speaking Spanish with people for whom Spanish was also their second language, from high German.

That was one of my favorite experiences and something that I think I will always remember and return to, whether that’s my personal growth collections or interviews, or any other experiences. In various internships and job opportunities that I’ve had, I’ve found myself continually going back to my ����APP experiences as examples of intercultural experiences and ways I’ve worked through difficulties. So, I find that with every ����APP program, I grow as a person.

Is that the reason you decided to do a graduate program with ����APP as well?

I chose to do a graduate program with ����APP in addition to my study abroad because I was really excited to go back abroad again, to learn in a non-American context, and also I really liked that it was a one-year intensive program.

When you were looking for grad school did you see other programs that were comparable in terms of the format?

I haven’t really seen anything comparable to ����APP in grad school format. I know that there are some one-year programs in Europe, but nothing that I’ve seen that has that the intercontinental component.

We started our master’s program last fall in Washington DC, and then we went to Switzerland for three months. At the end of that time we went to Brussels, Belgium, and we are now in South Africa.

I am developing more connections in the international relations community and having a much more holistic view of what diplomacy can be and the different forms it can take.

Those are vastly different places and they present different scenarios. Have you found that to be beneficial – the different places and the perspectives that you’re getting?

Can you tell us about your experiences on your program so far?

In this program, going between three continents—the US, Europe and Africa – has been really beneficial for my learning experience because you get to have that traditional western view of politics and the global order in the UN system. But then you also get to have a more complete view of global politics by learning from professors from the University of Cape Town. Now we’re learning about BRICS, which is Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. We’re starting to learn about different networks and a new development bank, and see these groupings and organizations in a different light than you might learn about them in the U.S. or Europe.

You’re studying diplomacy and international relations at a time when there’s a debilitating conflict going on between Ukraine and Russia. Do you feel like you’re getting a different perspective about that situation by being here?

It’s been really interesting being in the master’s program during the war between Ukraine and Russia because when I was in Switzerland in the fall my host would be watching the news and she would talk about how terrible Russia was. Coming to South Africa has given us a really different because of course with the  BRICS network you have Russia as part of that grouping of countries. So I think that I’ve seen a less negative perception of Russia, but frankly just less discussion of Russia overall because it’s in a vastly different region from South Africa. So, it’s been a great opportunity to see what the most pressing issues are in the view of our professors and people in Cape Town.

Are there networks or connections that you’ve kept as a result of your various experiences with ����APP and World Learning?

����APP has a really great network and community of people. I actually had planned to go to the Peace Corps before Covid hit, so I was talking with somebody that I knew from World Learning who had also done the Peace Corps, and she was giving me some really good advice. I’m still in touch with my undergraduate program director from Durban, South Africa, and I like to see his pieces in the newspaper here in South Africa. So it’s exciting to maintain relationships with the people that you pick up along the journey.

Do you think those relationships will continue to help on your professional trajectory?

Yes, definitely. I have been in touch with people from World Learning as I look for internships for the summer, and I definitely see myself continuing to reach out when I’m curious about a topic that they specialize in or if in the future I am looking to shift career paths.

Where do you see yourself taking these experiences as a career?

Before I did my master’s with ����APP I had done some work with small nonprofits, in grant writing specifically. So I view this program as a transition to returning to Washington DC, where I did my undergraduate degree, and hopefully working for the U.S. State Department or doing international development work. I am especially interested in the field of monitoring and evaluation and making sure that international development projects are using money effectively and efficiently and having the outcomes that they say they want to achieve. I think this experience is putting me on a path to success with that. I am developing more connections in the international relations community and having a much more holistic view of what diplomacy can be and the different forms it can take.

Is there anything else about the program or your experiences in South Africa that you would like to add?

This is a really unique program. I think that either people have no idea what ����APP is, or they know it and they love it, because once you enter into the ����APP community it becomes a great network that you never want to lose.

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This story was originally posted on the . Excerpts are reprinted here with permission.

By Amelia Heymann

Amy Leap has an extensive social network. “I feel like I literally have friends all over the world,” said the assistant director of global learning in VCU’s .

As part of the Education Abroad team, Leap helps Virginia Commonwealth University students turn their dreams of studying overseas into reality. And having done so herself, she knows the lasting benefit of establishing diverse connections and building cultural understanding.

“The relationships that I have formed from my international experiences are probably the highlight,” Leap said. “I really value that I was afforded those relationships from my experiences studying abroad.”

Leap spoke with VCU News about opportunities that await students – and lessons from her own journey.

In a nutshell, what are the key benefits of studying abroad?

Getting out of your comfort zone and being forced to get to know locals in another community who have a different background and understanding and experience of the world – I think that’s the best thing that can come from study abroad. Interpersonal learning – how to be flexible and understanding, and just better at that communication – that’s one of the really lasting impacts.

Talk about your travels and how they influenced you as a student and beyond.

I did my undergrad at the University of Mary Washington, and I was a Spanish and geography double-major – but I actually started as a sociology major. After I studied abroad in Spain during my freshman year summer, I decided to add the Spanish major; my goal was being able to converse with more people in the world and just to have broader opportunities for connection and understanding globally. I also studied abroad for a summer in Argentina as well as in Guatemala on a faculty-led program for geography, and that led me to return to Guatemala two times after graduation – once for an internship and then another for research, for an article I co-published with one of my faculty from undergrad.

Studying abroad continued opening doors and really transformed the next steps I took professionally and academically, ultimately leading me to get a master’s degree from ����APP Graduate Institute in – which is a mouthful, but international education is a component of that. I did my practicum in Morocco. I was there for about five months working in a student affairs capacity with undergraduate study abroad students. I think it was that experience, which was both as a student but also as a semi-professional, that led me to want to continue doing this work.

What is the most rewarding part of your job?

It’s seeing students grow as individuals holistically. Throughout the process – from applying to actually being abroad and then when they come back and are all excited, talking about challenges they had or growth points – that’s what it’s all about for me. I just came back from traveling for VCU. I think the highlight of this trip was actually talking to our students who are currently studying abroad. It’s a really different conversation than when they get back to the U.S. I was able to ask questions to help them reflect in the moment and think about something they might want to try doing before they finish their study abroad.

What is your favorite place outside the U.S.?

I really have liked everywhere I’ve been. I love Latin America – I’ve studied in Argentina, I’ve interned in Guatemala, I’ve backpacked in other places. It’s a very welcoming culture in Latin America. Morocco also feels like home; it’s just such a different culture all around than what I’m used to here. If I just had to say for traveling or for where I would love to move someday, it would be somewhere in Europe. I love the history and the lifestyle differences there. I just feel like the pace of life is more what I was built to live than here in the U.S.

You volunteer with the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities. Does this intersect with your VCU focus?

 hosts the Prejudice Awareness Summit annually for middle school students, and I’ve been a facilitator for five years. We spend an entire day bringing together students from all the schools in the Richmond region, and we talk about prejudice and how to be inclusive – and how Richmond is a really diverse, intercultural place. While it’s not going abroad, students are still getting a really different cultural understanding of their peers. For me, I think at the core of this work are the relationships. And who knows? One day the students might come to VCU and I’ll see them for study abroad.

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A pair of ����APP Study Abroad alumni are calling for Washington to revise its response to China’s Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) as part of a global shift in favor of diplomacy rather than military solutions.

In an article published last month by the Uzbek Press and Information Agency , fall 2023 alumni Dylan Morgan, a University of Iowa graduate, and Bryan Soh, an undergraduate at Claremont McKenna College, note that the U.S. is relying more on military action than diplomacy to address conflicts such those between Ukraine-Russia and Israel-Palestine.

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“While conflict escalation might not be the U.S.’s intention, Washington consistently fails to explore other options for resolving global issues,” they write.

One area where diplomacy could lead to positive change is China, they note, specifically Chinese President Xi Jinping’s “foreign policy brainchild,” the (BRI), which is aimed at building critical infrastructure in developing countries. The BRI “has cemented China as a rising global power and furthered the trend towards multipolarity, with the U.S. in relative decline,” they write.

While conflict escalation might not be the U.S.’s intention, Washington consistently fails to explore other options for resolving global issues.

“Cooperation should begin through diplomatic engagement with China. The U.S. must engage in and acknowledge that, in this specific area, China can be a partner. China has its willingness to work with other global infrastructure initiatives, such as Europe’s Global Gateway, a key part of the [Partnership for Global Instrastructure]. While the U.S. is likely to remain hawkish towards China’s intentions in the near future, the U.S. can meet Beijing halfway in global development.”

Although the BRI is wavering due to criticisms of ‘debt trapping’, corruption, and harmful environmental standards, Morgan and Soh say Xi’s announcement of reforms last year — including smaller, greener, and more commercially led projects — “presents a critical juncture of opportunity for the U.S. to flex its capabilities where Beijing is lacking.”

“As a geo-economic strategy, the U.S. would be able to complement weaknesses in China’s BRI without matching it dollar-for-dollar. While China has its pivot to a commercially-led, smaller-fund, and more ‘green’ approach, the U.S. can leverage its influence in multilateral standard-setting institutions to spearhead anti-corruption efforts in BRI deals. The Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) creation of a gives Washington the credibility to offer both knowledge-sharing and capacity-building in low-carbon infrastructure.”

Anti-Chinese rhetoric and decoupling strategies ought to be eased in favor of cooperation initiatives along with a re-commitment to tangible development in the Global South.

Building on the recent meeting between President Biden and President Xi on the sidelines of the 2023 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, Morgan and Soh suggest talks on infrastructure cooperation could take place on the side of the next G77 conferences or the 2024 UN climate talks.

Conceding that cooperation will need to start small, they say such meetings could create a platform for significant future coordination. “One possible area is in the types of infrastructure the two sides specialize in. China has much more experience in ‘hard’ projects such as ports and railways, while the West has more experience with ‘soft’ projects like education and health care, in which China is seeking more involvement.”

“To yield larger results, the U.S. can enhance [World Trade Organization] and [International Monetary Fund] cooperation with Chinese-led multilateral financial institutions like the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Asian Development Bank. While the two western-centric and U.S.-led international institutions are unlikely to reform their major shortcomings to become more effective and attractive for the developing world, they have financial resources that can contribute to these projects.”

Such an approach “must come in the context of a paradigm shift in the American approach toward the trend of multipolarity,” they conclude.

“It is already that decoupling from China is a knee-jerk reaction causing the U.S. more harm than good. and decoupling strategies ought to be eased in favor of cooperation initiatives along with a re-commitment to tangible development in the Global South. Strategic cooperation, especially in the areas of education and manufacturing, is beneficial to the American economy and also to Washington’s credibility in leading global development.”

Dylan Morgan is a graduate of the University of Iowa, received a Bachelors in International Relations and Political Science, and was a student on ����APP Switzerland: International Studies and Multilateral Diplomacy. Research experience on the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Central Asia, and the Tajik Civil War. Clerk at the State of Iowa Senate and Campaign Manager for Senator Erick Giddens.��dylan-morgan@uiowa.edu��

Bryan Soh is an undergraduate studying International Relations at Claremont McKenna College, with a focus in U.S.-China relations and environmental policy-making. He has previously worked in the National Climate Change Secretariat in Singapore, and was a Keck Center Research Fellow for the Study of Race in International Relations. bsoh25@cmc.edu

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By Tasfia Rubayat

When Lucas Grabowski ’23 returned to the as a senior after a summer in Iceland, he brought with him a new understanding of renewable energy technology.

The mechanical engineering major from Syracuse, N.Y., traveled to the Land of Fire and Ice shortly after finishing his last final exam. Upon his arrival, he began an intensive 9-credit course, jam-packed with traveling, sightseeing, and traditional class time.

“They didn’t really give us a lot of information going into it, but it was very laid out and structured once we got there,” Grabowski says. “They had our housing and transportation all taken care of, so they were really focused on us learning and taking it all in and having a great experience, rather than having to figure out all the logistics.”

Iceland has plans to reach carbon neutrality by 2040, making this particular education-abroad program a perfect match for Grabowski and his interest in the renewable energy sector.

I looked at how we can create a local power source there. A pumped hydropower plant could be powered by a local wind farm. They also have a lot of channels in the northern region of Iceland, so I was thinking about a tidal barrage that would spin a turbine and produce energy.

Run by School of International Training, the program unfolded across four hub locations. Grabowski and other American students—including six additional Binghamton University students in different fields of study—visited and toured several geothermal and hydroelectric plants, wind and solar farms, and Icelandic parks to learn more about the region’s unique geology.

“Geothermal research there is huge because they have so many volcanoes,” Grabowski says. “And they’re on a tectonic plate barrier, so they pull a lot of the heat from there to produce energy.”

Grabowski applied to the program in October 2021 and submitted recommendations, an essay, his GPA and a background check. After receiving his acceptance, he communicated with his professors to ensure the credits from his education-abroad program would count toward his major.

“Students can work with their undergraduate director to assess course equivalents or participate in an already approved program,” says Jennifer Drake-Deese, Watson College’s director of undergraduate advising. “Studying abroad over the summer is an excellent way to have an international experience, fulfill a general education requirement and still stay on track to graduate in four years.”

As an official education-abroad ambassador, Grabowski encourages students, especially those from Watson, to pursue opportunities to study in a different country.

“Don’t say you can’t do it until you actually can’t do it. Just be open to everything,” he says. “There are different opportunities, and you’re not limited to internships over the summer. Not a lot of people know they can do this, especially as a Watson student. I never thought these possibilities existed, but unless you actually see it in action, it seems far from your reach. Now I can take those experiences and apply it to my future career.”

Grabowski and his team members visited the northern region of Westfjords to learn about its unique challenges with energy cost and conservation. Despite having a smaller population than Iceland’s capital city, Westfjords has much greater energy costs.

“They use a lot of diesel generators because they don’t have a great power source from the main grid. They have to adapt in that way and their energy price is higher, even though there aren’t a lot of people,” Grabowski says. “We learned about their challenges there and what their struggles are and the initiatives to combat that.”

He centered his independent research project on the region and worked toward developing plans that may improve its economy while preserving the environment.

“I looked at how we can create a local power source there,” he says. “A pumped hydropower plant could be powered by a local wind farm. They also have a lot of channels in the northern region of Iceland, so I was thinking about a tidal barrage that would spin a turbine and produce energy.”

As he traveled even farther north, Grabowski reached the Arctic Circle and experienced 24 hours of daylight, accompanied by perpetual freezing temperatures.

“We took a boat ride over there. Just seeing the views and the ocean, the mountains, the landscape, and there were puffins everywhere,” he says. “It was like realizing how beautiful the world is and laying the foundation for why we’re here, to learn about renewable energy and how to preserve it.”

In the capital city of Reykjavík, Grabowski was immersed in traditional classroom-style learning. Icelandic professors and industry experts lectured on the technical aspects of renewable energy technology used in the region.

“We learned it in class, then went out and applied it, and for me that was very beneficial,” he says.

In addition to the mechanical and technical side of his research, Grabowski attended a wide range of classes that gave him well-rounded perspectives about the economic and political aspects of the renewable-energy sector.

Just seeing the views and the ocean, the mountains, the landscape, and there were puffins everywhere. It was like realizing how beautiful the world is and laying the foundation for why we’re here, to learn about renewable energy and how to preserve it.

“One big takeaway I noticed was that rather than cutting back on regulations and easing into it, they’re going more aggressive. Over here, it’s more the opposite way,” he says. “They’re seeing it more as an economic way to advance the country rather than just saving the planet. Seeing both sides helps connect people toward a common goal.”

Despite the ambitious academic schedule, Grabowski and his teammates were able to enjoy weekends at their own pace. As an avid hiker, he was eager to pursue adventures that allowed him to take in the natural beauty of Iceland as often as he could.

“We got the weekend off, which was really nice,” he says. “We hiked and they had a lot of natural springs, but one of my favorites was when we hiked 45 minutes up this canyon to a geothermal hot river where the water was like 100 degrees and it was like a natural hot tub.”

Grabowski’s passion for renewable energy is rooted in his appreciation for environmental beauty. Inspired by his trip to Iceland, he hopes to pursue a career related to renewable energy.

“I met Lucas when he was a student in my undergraduate mechanical engineering class, Thermodynamics. It was clear that he had a passion for energy research and development,” says Paul Chiarot, associate professor and chair of the Mechanical Engineering Department. “He did great in my class. I was happy to hear that he was invited for the internship in Iceland. He had the opportunity to learn from world-class experts on energy generation and efficiency, with the goal of bringing this knowledge back to New York.”

As part of the program, Grabowski developed two case studies, based in New York and New Jersey, that applied different renewable energy methods to gauge economic and social feasibility. He spoke with professors in Iceland to learn how to calculate power production numbers and their suggestions to state governments about reaching carbon neutrality.

He had the opportunity to learn from world-class experts on energy generation and efficiency, with the goal of bringing this knowledge back to New York.

Associate Professor Paul Chiarot, chair of the Mechanical Engineering Department

“We wanted to know how much power we would need to produce to go 100 percent renewable energy in New Jersey and New York, and it was crazy to see that we need a lot,” he says. “It’s not super-feasible, so it just shows that it’s a collective effort to cut down on the carbon that we use here.”

Grabowski looks forward to applying what he learned in Iceland to environmental preservation efforts in the U.S.

“It’s very inspiring to see that these things can happen—people are actually doing it. That was why I wanted to go over there and bring some of that knowledge back,” he says. “It’s our generation that is tackling this problem because we are seeing all the effects of climate change. It’s our turn to step up to the plate and do something about it.”

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Students seeking an international relations master’s degree for a global career in diplomacy will gain a unique, multifaceted understanding of the field with ����APP Graduate Institute’s one-year Global Master’s program.

����APP’s International Relations masters’s degree approaches diplomacy with a global lens through immersive semesters in South Africa and Switzerland. In the final semester, you will undertake a professional practicum in a location of your choice.

As the fastest growing continent in the world with a dynamic geopolitical landscape and global connections, Africa is central to the study of diplomacy. During a semester in South Africa, students will be exposed to a wide range of international challenges and perspectives through a decolonial lens.

According to Dr. Bruce Dayton, chair of the ����APP program, “You’ll learn about South-South relations in the context of BRICS, the diplomacy group comprised of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa; the African political economy; continental solidarity, and more.” 

����APP’s experiential master’s degree programs combine theory and practice. Students learn theory through classes and reading, and practice by engaging with policymakers, experts, and local communities to gain a 360-degree view of diplomacy’s impact. By the end of this semester, they will be well-versed in South Africa’s complex history and the African Union’s role in global diplomacy, said Dayton.

Here are five reasons to earn a Global MA in Diplomacy and International Relations with ����APP.

1. You will become part of a diverse global network.

This program is part of an extensive network of professionals, policymakers, and experts in Washington D.C., Geneva, Switzerland, and South Africa. These connections open doors to valuable networking opportunities and provide access to key players in diplomacy and international relations.

2. You’ll learn from distinguished faculty.

Our faculty, advisors, and guest lecturers have direct, real-world experience that enrich students’ understanding of diplomacy and international affairs.

3. You will cultivate international partnerships.

����APP maintains valuable collaborations with international diplomatic institutions and organizations that grant students unique access to global resources and opportunities.

4. We focus on multilateral diplomacy.

Our program places a special emphasis on multilateral diplomacy, providing you with an in-depth understanding of international organizations and their pivotal roles in global affairs. This focused approach equips you to navigate the complex landscape of modern diplomacy.

5. What can I do with a master’s degree in international relations?��

With an emphasis on research and analytical skills, a master’s in diplomacy and international relations prepares you to work not only in diplomacy, but in many other sectors including academia, politics, and NGOs. The skills you will learn in this program are also useful for those who plan to go on to become lawyers, intelligence research analysts.

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Colin Byers

As a staff member of a Union of Concerned Scientists, Colin Byers is working to make the U.S. electric grid more equitable. “As stakeholders work to get renewable energy online quickly, it’s key that equity and justice are front and center,” Byers writes. “If done correctly, the transition to 100 percent renewable energy could dramatically improve the quality of life for generations to come.”

Amara Evering

Evering produced a radio series to get information to women in rural Namibia about healing. The seven segments address sexuality, eating disorders, intergenerational trauma, and more. “Without access to information, women are left unaware of available resources. So, there has been a need to communicate information to women in Namibia on a larger scale, despite infrastructural limitations,” says Evering.

Amit Gerstein
����APP Nepal: Development and Social Change
Gerstein partnered with a local makeup artist to create workshops for trans women and sex workers in Nepal, where communities experiencing high rates of unemployment were hard hit by the pandemic. Many were forced to go back to families that didn’t accept them and discrimination they had tried to escape. Gerstein said the workshops “helped marginalized people find jobs. However, throughout the workshops, I realized that we might be doing something equally as powerful: We were empowering people to be themselves, legitimizing thoughts and feelings that are so often under attack. If people recognize their own value, perhaps that can be a step in building a society that does, too.”

Bahati Kanyamanza

As an advisor with the , Kanyamanza is working to ensure that refugees in the U.S. are well-supported and that the U.S. is a global leader in policies and practices that engage and fund refugee organizations. “The U.S. government pays critical attention to displacement and invests heavily in this work,” he says. “If the U.S. does a good job, other countries are likely to follow suit. My role as an advisor is to make sure that I use my forced-displacement experience and expertise to shape better policies for refugees in the U.S and globally.”

Brittany Lavelee

As a member of Pine Creek First Nation in northern Manitoba, Lavelee developed a curriculum on empowerment in First Nations resilience and sustainability, which includes an educational exchange that takes Pine Creek First Nation high school students to Indigenous communities across Canada and South America. The project uses a First Nations-based curriculum with land-based knowledge and field excursions. “Many Elders had told me that our youth must return to our roots to heal and overcome barriers,” Lavalee said.

Emmanuel Orozco Castellanos

As a 2024 Rhodes Scholar, Orozco Castellanos will continue to address the Inter-American asylum regime and how the UN High Commission for Refugees operates in Mexico with support from the United States. “The University of Oxford pioneered the field of refugee studies in the 1980s,” he says. “I am ecstatic to learn from some of the world’s most prominent experts in the field, many of whom have worked as humanitarians and have a holistic view of the realities of forced displacement.” 

Cece Roth-Eagle

The Smith College journal Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism awarded Roth-Eagle the Elizabeth Alexander Creative Writing Award for Prose for her piece, Month of Wind/Mes del Viento, which the journal describes as “a masterful blend of narrative with scholarly power.” The 2022 Smith College graduate, who has a special interest in literary forms and Indigenous rights, lived and worked with a Jicarilla Apache community in rural Colorado before moving to Spain to teach English in fall 2023.

Ishmael and Shahida
����APP South Africa
In Cape Town, South Africa, Ishmael and Shahida create a warm and welcoming home away from home for ����APP undergraduate and graduate students, who share the family’s home and meals, attend community events, and become part of the family’s daily lives. At the same time, the couple, who have experienced apartheid and the new South Africa, shares the complex history and realities of their country. “It changes their whole mindset,” says Ishmael. “So we also try and talk to them about our childhood, how we grew up. “

Angela Tucker

Emmy and Webby award-winning filmmaker Angela Tucker sees a common thread running her diverse body of films—a through-line that goes back to when she picked up a camera to film the arts and culture of Ghana with ����APP. “My work is about representing underrepresented communities in unconventional ways. I think my Christmas movie had a place in my work as much as a documentary about forced sterilization. It’s about representation, and the importance of showing the experiences of Black people … It’s about Black joy—and that’s radical in a world that wants to show Black pain.”

Dr. Leslie Turpin
Professor Emerita, ����APP Master’s in TESOL
Dr. Turpin retired in 2023 after more than 30 years at ����APP Graduate Institute. Her legacy continues in the work ����APP alumni are doing around the globe. “I believe that the way to solve the world’s problems is to learn better,” says Turpin. “We need to figure out how to learn differently. … Language is the portal to that bigger question: What does it mean to learn? How do we evolve as human beings through the process of learning?”

Ronan Wallace
����APP Nepal: Tibetan and Himalayan Peoples
Wallace is using low-cost three-dimensional modeling to document climate-induced impacts in two villages in the Himalaya that are experiencing dramatic changes due to the climate crisis. His project “encourages communal voices to take center stage, spotlighting marginalized Himalayan communities struggling to adapt to anthropogenic climate impacts.” He hopes the project will become a model for other impacted communities to use data-based storytelling “in a way that not only places communal voices ahead of our own, but also results in an effective resource for communal use.”

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Four years ago, Bahati Kanyamanza was one of five ����APP Global Scholars to complete their master’s degrees at ����APP Graduate Institute. Each of the five came to the U.S. as a refugee or asylum-seeker and received full scholarships from ����APP under a program aimed at supporting refugees at a time when then-U.S. President Donald Trump was sharply curtailing immigration from the Global South.

Kanyamanza is from Democratic Republic of the Congo. At 14, he became a refugee in Uganda, where he lived for 17 years before he resettled in the United States in 2016. While in Uganda, he co-founded , a nonprofit organization that supports conflict-affected children and youth in Africa’s Great Lakes region to access quality education and helps refugee families to start income-generating initiatives.

After graduating from ����APP with an MA in sustainable development, Kanyamanza went on to work at Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services in Connecticut, and then at , a global organization advocating for the rights of forcibly displaced people, where he led advocacy and engagement with key institutions influencing global displacement including the World Bank, the U.S. government, and the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).

Currently, Kanyamanza is global partnerships director at International Refugee Assistance Project (),  a global legal aid and advocacy organization working to create a world where refugees and all people seeking safety are empowered to claim their right to freedom of movement and a path to lasting refuge.

He was also recently named to a three-year advisory role with the , a partnership with , , and that advocates for forcibly displaced persons in the U.S. to have meaningful engagement on regional and international bodies that make policies affecting them.

How can stateless people be represented by organizations like the United Nations, whose members are nation-states?

That’s something Kanyamanza has been saying and doing for some time. In an published last year by WBUR in Boston, he wrote: “The United Nations is supposed to be the world’s leading protector and guardian of displaced people. But the members of the governing body of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees are all diplomats—not one member of this group is a refugee or former refugee.”

“Refugees are caught in a catch-22,” he pointed out. “How can stateless people be represented by organizations like the United Nations, whose members are nation-states?”

We reached out to Kanyamanza to talk about his career in refugee advocacy, and to ask him how ����APP helped to prepare him for his work:

I came to ����APP after being a refugee for about 20 years. Looking at global displacement challenges, I really wanted to continue advocating and engaging different stakeholders in addressing these complex issues. When you want to engage these huge stakeholders, you have to be prepared. ����APP was a solid foundation for me. When I was offered a scholarship, my interest was to find a program that was going to prepare me for a career on refugee issues since these are issues I have lived most of my life. The sustainable development degree stood out for me. It had a combination of policy advocacy and leadership (social sector organizations) courses which I found attractive for my future career.

We had classes around policy, advocacy methods, and analysis. After each course, our professors asked students to write reflection papers. This helped me to think through what I wanted to do after my education and most importantly, how I would use the acquired knowledge in the field. Also, our professors were super experienced, not only as teachers. All of them were doing work in the field. And the combination of theory and practice from these professors helped me understand theory and the practice in the field.

����APP isn’t a big school. There were opportunities to have direct one-on-one conversations with the professor, then spend as much time as we wanted asking all the questions we had. I found this to be a huge opportunity

����APP isn’t a big school. There were opportunities to have direct one-on-one conversations with the professor, then spend as much time as we wanted asking all the questions we had. I found this to be a huge opportunity. Many people don’t pay attention to that. I looked at it as mentorship—spending a lot of time with most of my professors discussing these global issues, asking critical questions, and also being challenged as a student. And that’s what I’m doing in the field. ����APP was a huge, huge opportunity for me to prepare to go into this field.

When I left ����APP, I started working to help young refugees in Connecticut access college education and prepare them to start a new life in the U.S., where the system is overwhelming for every newcomer. In addition, for young people there are the challenges of dealing with adulthood or being a teenager, adjusting to a new home, supporting their families, learning in a completely new education system, in many cases with limited English language. My role was to make sure these young people had the support they needed both academically, mentally, and socially.

Wasn’t that also the work you were doing in Uganda?

My work in the U.S. is a continuation of what I was doing when I was a refugee in Uganda. I became a refugee in 1999 in Uganda. In 2000, I started working with young people in my village to help them focus on productive activities that would help them live a healthier and decent life. There were issues around marriages as early as 10, early pregnancies, substance use, poverty, among other problems. The camp didn’t have structures to support these young people, the majority of whom had either lost their parents or were separated from them during the war.

I worked with refugee youth in my village between 2000 and 2004, and then in 2005 I paired with two other friends to co-found an organization called CIYOTA to help young people access education, but also to help them with mental health, some leadership preparation, and ways to create small businesses because of the high rate of unemployment and poverty.

We also wanted to help them understand the complexity of the problems we faced as young people in a refugee settlement and in Africa at large.

If you had to name one key thing that help a young person in a refugee camp, or someone coming to the United States, to have hope, to have a vision of their path forward, what would it be?

Access to quality education. When we looked at our problems in the refugee settlement, we had challenges in the health sector, challenges of poverty, we had challenges of isolation. We thought that education would be a pathway to solve those problems. Health issues could be solved through education. Conflict could be addressed through access to quality education that pays attention to social issues, to women’s issues, to gender-based violence issues, poverty eradication and socioeconomic development. That’s what I would say we should provide to young, displaced persons across the globe.

After Connecticut you went to Asylum Access. What did you do there?

Asylum Access had started this huge portfolio of engaging the World Bank, which had just announced over $3 billion to support specific refugee-hosting countries, to support them financially to be able to address the problems I’ve mentioned above and to respond to the impacts of COVID-19. At the same time, we realized that there could be an opportunity for civil society to engage the World Bank and make sure that the funding achieved its intended impact. Asylum Access was also engaging the U.S. government and UNHCR.

I was also given an opportunity to build partnerships with civil society organizations in Africa with a focus on how the work I was doing in the U.S. could also be done at the local and regional level. In particular, we were preparing and supporting civil society organizations including refugee-led organizations to engage the U.S. government and the World Bank in East Africa.

I was looking at how our advocacy could translate to regional and national advocacy. By the time I left, I had helped establish a model in which local civil society organizations, including refugee aid organizations, could directly engage these institutions.

What could regional or local engagement look like? What’s an example of that?

Here’s one example: In Uganda we received a lot of corn. At the same time in my refugee settlement, refugees including my father were growing and harvesting corn, but we didn’t have the market to sell it. Still, the World Food Programme was pumping us with corn when what we needed was a market for the corn we were producing. It was an opportunity for the WFP to focus on another community that actually needed the corn while at the same time it would have helped refugees in my former refugee settlement to develop a proper livelihood by helping them find the market for their corn.

Refugees don’t participate in selecting their leaders. They’re not allowed to vote. At the same time, the decisions in government or at these huge institutions are made by staff or leaders with no experience of displacement.

The U.S. government is a huge global humanitarian player. We invest billions of dollars in humanitarian work. But one of the critical challenges we are seeing is that all the decisions are made in Washington, DC, and New York, or in Geneva, without the consultation of affected people, refugees. Part of my work has been to pay attention to how local affected communities like refugees can influence priorities for these institutions.

Refugees don’t participate in selecting their leaders. They’re not allowed to vote. At the same time, the decisions in government or at these huge institutions are made by staff or leaders with no experience of displacement. The projects they come up with may be very beautiful with good intentions, but because there’s a disconnect with the people they want to serve, these projects may not end up making an impact.

Beyond establishing CIYOTA, part of my work has focused on how to make sure that refugees are consulted on their needs and priorities. If we ask refugees about their needs and priorities, would they say education? Health care? Livelihood? One of the mistakes development institutions are making is not engaging local people they serve. Throughout my work, I have pushed for local community involvement.

Consulting refugees to understand their priorities and design projects based on those priorities; refugees being part of monitoring and implementation of those projects—that is the only way their needs can be met and problems solved.

I also advocate for refugee leadership, hiring forcibly displaced people, people with displacement experience, in senior leadership roles including the UNHCR’s executive committee. Refugees understand the problems they face or have faced. When I tell people about living in a refugee camp—going to sleep hungry, with no medical care, or going to school with no pen or notebook—nobody understands, but I’ve lived this life. I understand and I can be part of the solution.

You and I, we can sit in the U.S. and say, OK, this is what we’re going to do for refugees in Uganda. But when we go there, we realize this is not what they want.

We must find funding for local refugee-led organizations and civil organizations that are rooted in these communities and use local solutions to address the problems. You and I, we can sit in the U.S. and say, OK, this is what we’re going to do for refugees in Uganda. But when we go there, we realize this is not what they want.

Throughout my career, I’ve been working to help development partners and stakeholders understand these issues and ways we can work collaboratively with affected people or communities to understand their needs and priorities and invest in projects that will make an impact.

Do you think you’re seeing progress?

There’s progress, but we want to see much more. These are the same issues I spoke about 10 years ago and we continue to talk about them today: refugee leadership, meaningful refugee inclusion and participation, funding refugee-led ventures. Now, we are seeing a constant push by many refugee advocates and allies such as , , and, , Refugee-Led Networks and organizations. Researchers are producing data to show the impact of refugee-led organizations. The U.S., UNHCR, and Canada have refugee advisory boards and other countries are coming up with the same.

We see donors starting to directly invest in refugee-led organizations. We have started seeing international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) such as and , my current and former employers, respectively believing and trusting in refugee leadership by hiring refugees or people with forced displacement experience in senior leadership roles, sharing their own funds with RLOs and advocating for funding RLOs.  All these are efforts worth celebrating.

There must be trust and even risk-taking if we want to see real change and impact.

However, the journey ahead is far too long. Some international actors claim that local actors don’t have the capacity to lead or to manage finances. With this assumption, it is hard to forge meaningful partnerships with local actors and communities. There must be trust and even risk-taking if we want to see real change and impact.

There are advocates including refugees who are coming up with new, innovative approaches, and there are successful refugee-led organizations to look at as models for investment and scaling. Governments, funders, and INGOs have started listening and slowly realizing that without meaningful engagement of refugees in their own issues, the intended impact won’t be reached. Part of what we’re doing at the United States Refugee Advisory Board is to tell the UNHCR, the U.S. government, and other stakeholders what we would like to see in the sector by paying attention to the issues above.

My hope is that we can continue to build on this momentum, on this foundation, and understand that without accountability to the affected people (forcibly displaced people) there’s no way we will address the complex problems they face.

Talk more about the U.S. Refugee Advisory Board (USRAB).

USRAB was created to meaningfully engage forcibly displaced people, and for refugees and asylum seekers to influence policy in different organizations, including the U.S. government. To serve as an advisor one has to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the challenges of displaced people and experience engaging with government entities, NGOs, even local organizations. One must show a commitment to addressing community issues for forcibly displaced people.

What do you hope to achieve at the end of your three-year term?

Throughout my work for over 20 years, I’ve been interested in, one, better refugee policies and framework, two, refugee livelihood, and three, meaningful engagement. Those are still my core commitments as an individual leader. Each one of us brings to the board their own experience, expertise, and their lived experience of displacement. I think the combination of all these advisors from different regions, different countries, different states in the United States will bring amazing opportunities and expertise to advise and support the U.S. government and international organizational multilaterals like UNHCR to reshape their work and their thinking around how they address refugee issues.

My role as an advisor is to make sure that I use my forced-displacement experience and expertise to shape better policies for refugees in the U.S and globally.

My personal commitment will continue to be toward better frameworks, better policies. How do we make sure that when we resettle refugees in the U.S. they are well-supported? How do we keep our commitment to refugee settlement programs? How do we make sure that the U.S., as a big player in the humanitarian sector, takes a lead when it comes to improving refugee policies, engaging and funding refugee organizations? The U.S. government pays critical attention to displacement and invests heavily in this work. If the U.S. does a good job, other countries are likely to follow suit. My role as an advisor is to make sure that I use my forced-displacement experience and expertise to shape better policies for refugees in the U.S and globally.

A major driver of migration in the 21st century is the climate crisis. Are you seeing intersectionality on that issue on the various boards and organizations that you work with?

Yes, definitely. Climate displacement is a major concern for everybody. We can’t isolate it because it’s becoming one of the major drivers for displacement.

Climate change doesn’t have a border. Displacement doesn’t have a border. When there’s a crisis in one continent, you have an obligation to act if you are a concerned citizen. We are a global village, and we must act as global citizens.

In my language, we say that if your neighbor’s hut is on fire, you have no idea how safe yours is. The fire might extend to your own house. No matter where we are born, we love our homes, no matter the conditions there. Nobody leaves their home completely willingly; people leave for many reasons, some leave because they can’t survive there or do not see a better future and others are forced to leave to seek safety, especially during an active conflict or war. Therefore, the U.S. and other countries must continue working together collaboratively to address drivers of displacement including climate change, conflict, and others.

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That summer, I learned from various health professionals, researchers, and nonprofit workers about the complexities of public health in the region of East Africa and its intersections with social, political and cultural dynamics.

What will you be doing after graduation?
This coming fall, I will be in Uganda (Tanzania’s neighboring country in East Africa) on the . I will support Ugandan university students with English-based academic writing, interview skills and resumes, among other things. While there, I also hope to engage with Soft Power Health, a nonprofit focused on public health and sustainable well-being, through their initiatives on food security.

How did your career plans evolve over the course of your time at W&L?
I certainly would not have predicted getting to this point when I started W&L, but I came into college sure I would stay open to new possibilities because of my vast array of interests and indecisiveness about what I would major in or what I ultimately wanted to do. I planned to keep my options open and originally started out taking coursework for the pre-med track, but ultimately felt most compelled and excited by big ideas and questions related to public health or environmental health. Then, as I gained more opportunities to study abroad and engage with international-focused fellowships, my mind was opened to global affairs, perhaps global health or international development. Quite honestly, though, my career plans are still evolving and likely will be for a while!

I see each part of my story—every extracurricular, course, job and major—as a stepping stone that is a part of the story.

What internships or other summer experiences did you partake in and how did those experiences shape you and your career plans?
The summer after my first year, I did an internship with Campus Kitchen at W&L, where I helped address food insecurity in the local Rockbridge County. My work included developing strategic initiatives, COVID-19 response and nutrition education lessons, as well as providing organizational support to CKWL. With conversations on sustainability, human dignity, community-based solutions, and a mission for the physical and mental wellness of the people we serve, Campus Kitchen became a core inspiration in how I hope to make an impact in my communities and the world.

After my sophomore year, I did the Public Health in the Tropics Internship in Jinja, Uganda, through School for International Training. That summer, I learned from various health professionals, researchers, and nonprofit workers about the complexities of public health in the region of East Africa and its intersections with social, political and cultural dynamics. It was around this time I was diverging from the pre-medical track and becoming more interested in public health and its intersections with different cultures and climates.

I thought a lot about how food security is the crux of environmental sustainability and human well-being is a critical issue that demands an interdisciplinary response through public health and climate change. Additionally, in the realm of diplomacy and international affairs or international development, I care deeply about upholding agency, equity and compassion for a more just world, and building authentic relationships and communities is an important way of achieving that.

I thought a lot about how food security is the crux of environmental sustainability and human well-being is a critical issue that demands an interdisciplinary response through public health and climate change

To become a better listener, a more inquisitive learner, and a more informed global citizen, I during my third college summer and the fall term of senior year, in which I completed an intensive study of Swahili language and studied abroad in Tanzania. These memorable, enriching experiences in East Africa were a large reason why I applied for Fulbright — to continue deepening my cultural engagement and exchange with this region.

What did you study here and what are some skills or learnings you will take from your academic experience into the professional world?
At Washington and Lee, I did my best to maximize my liberal arts education! Ultimately, I really connected with and was compelled by the sociology and environmental studies majors; I am grateful for the flexibility they both allowed me to pursue an interdisciplinary education with a unique blend of environmental sociology with a public health lens. I also minored in poverty and human capability studies, which felt like a natural fit to incorporate a people- and dignity-centered approach to the big questions I wanted to be asking and exploring.

This combination of majors and minors has given me a strong platform and preparation into countless future jobs and career paths. Above all, they have equipped me with the ability to think critically, synthesize knowledge across subject matter and integrate different perspectives, and develop a toolkit of both qualitative and quantitative methods for research and policy analysis.

I have engaged deeply with academic literature, learned and applied statistical inference and analysis skills … and gained my own voice in thinking outside the box and bridging together big questions. I will go forward into the professional world adaptable, versatile, and a coachable learner on-the-job. In addition, I have learned to not underestimate the power and importance of soft skills, and I believe being a W&L student, across all academic disciplines, we go forth with a valuable ability to listen, connect with people, and model empathy and compassion in the work we do.

I encourage anyone who is feeling uncertain to trust themselves to lean into the uncertainty and be open to taking risks and trying something new, even if you don’t necessarily know what doors it will open next.

What career-related advice would you give to next year’s graduating class?
I encourage anyone who is feeling uncertain to trust themselves to lean into the uncertainty and be open to taking risks and trying something new, even if you don’t necessarily know what doors it will open next. I have benefited from not trying to justify every decision I make for summer plans or career decisions by solely how it gets me to some end destination, but rather by making decisions to do things I believed would help me learn, grow, explore, be challenged and open my eyes to something new. I see each part of my story—every extracurricular, course, job and major—as a stepping stone that is a part of the story. Some of them have clear contributions to my future career, and others are more obscure or still emerging. Regardless, take advantage of this time we have to experience the world and people in the ways that you want to. Stay curious, ask questions, try something new. Allow yourself time to digest it all and reflect.

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����APP Switzerland alum Emmanuel Orozco Castellanos is among 32 U.S. students selected as 2024 Rhodes Scholars. The select group—among only about 100 such scholars chosen each year in the world— will go to Oxford University in October 2024 to earn graduate degrees. Orozco Castellanos plans to pursue two master’s degrees: one in refugee studies and one in Latin American studies.

Orozco Castellanos, who participated in ����APP in spring 2022, was born and raised in Jalisco, Mexico. He migrated with his family to the United States and graduated from the University of Michigan in 2022 with a BA in international studies and minors in critical translation studies and Latin American and Caribbean studies. He is the third known ����APP Study Abroad student named a Rhodes Scholar.

Jeromel Dela Rosa Lara, an alumnus of 2022 ����APP , was named a 2024 Rhodes Scholar Finalist.

• Jeromel Dela Rosa Lara talks about his study abroad experience in

After the program was twice cancelled due to the pandemic, Orozco Castellanos was finally able to join it in spring 2022. He describes his experience as transformative, and said it confirmed his interest in pursuing a career in human rights, an idea born in high school in Mexico when he served as an NGO representative to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. His goal is to work in humanitarian relief or human rights advocacy for a global NGO or an international organization like the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.

Among the most impactful experiences of his semester abroad, he said, was meeting the chair of the United Nations Committee Against Torture while working on his on the legal theory behind the UN Convention Against Torture and its applicability to non-state actors. “Being able to interview one of the world’s foremost human rights experts just outside the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights was very special,” he told the UM newspaper .

Orozco Castellanos said he was impressed with the access he had to high-level professionals on his program. “Pretty much everybody I asked was willing to offer an interview, and I’m talking about very high-profile scholars and professionals,” he said.

But academics wasn’t the only memorable aspect of his study abroad experience. “That’s the part everyone talks about, and I know it sounds cliched, but I was in a homestay that was just incredible—probably one of the best experiences of my life.

“I know a lot of other students do programs where they stay on a college campus. But I was so grateful to do a homestay because I got to learn so much about Swiss culture. I made so many memories and met so many people.”

Orozco Castellanos said he sustained a foot injury during the last month of his program that required him to wear a cast and use crutches which prevented him from participating in hikes. “That was disappointing and stressful. But the folks on the ����APP program were so nice and accommodating. They helped me explore health insurance abroad and all of those things that you never think about. I’m grateful for them because they went above and beyond to make sure that I still got to enjoy the program. I’m never going to forget my time there. It was so memorable and transformative.”

At the University of Michigan, Orozco Castellanos did a project on the Inter-American asylum regime and how the UNHCR operates in Mexico with support from the United States. “The mechanisms we have are very weak in the region compared to Europe,” he said. As a Rhodes Scholar, he said he hopes to strengthen the inter-American regime.

“The University of Oxford pioneered the field of refugee studies in the 1980s,” he told The University Record. “I am ecstatic to learn from some of the world’s most prominent experts in the field, many of whom have worked as humanitarians and have a holistic view of the realities of forced displacement.” 

“Migrants and displaced people deserve the same level of respect I have received,” he said, “and I hope to use my time at Oxford to work towards this goal, particularly during these dark times in humanity’s history.”

Prior to winning the Rhodes Scholarship, Emmanuel was the 2023 recipient of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Spirit Award for his approach to inclusive leadership and contributions to the field of international human rights, a 2021-2022 Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship winner, a five-term James B. Angell Scholar, and a 2020 UROP Blue Ribbon Award recipient for his role in developing the University of Michigan’s new responsive curriculum for international students. He received the Miguel Cabrera Scholarship and has presented and received awards for his research. As an undergraduate, he served as president of University of Michigan’s Global Scholars Program and wrote for the Michigan Journal of International Affairs.

Established in 1903, the Rhodes Scholarships are the oldest and one of the most prestigious scholarship programs in the world. According to the Rhodes Trust, the overall global acceptance rate is 0.7 percent, making it one of the most competitive scholarships in the world.

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In early October, ����APP invited a group of colleagues from partner organizations to join us in Morrocco to experience two of our semester programs: and . The group represented study abroad offices at colleges and universities across the U.S. who were interested in learning more about the foundations of an ����APP program. This site visit was specifically designed for new international education professionals to give them a better understanding of ����APP’s history and values and how we provide students with unique experiential learning through rigorous and immersive academics.

Site visit participants learned first-hand what makes an ����APP experience special.

Critical Global Issues and Academic Excellence

����APP programs are developed to prepare the next generation of leaders to confront global challenges with  expertise and intercultural understanding. Within this framework, the two programs in Morocco explore Identity & Human Resilience and Peace & Justice. Students examine these issues through coursework and site visits with local organizations, engaging multiple identities, perspectives, and cultures. The site visitors had the opportunity to visit several of these local NGOs to see how students utilize this network for the Independent Study Project or Internship portion of the program.

Experiential Learning

At ����APP, hands-on learning is combined with active reflection to facilitate a deeper understanding of critical global issues and allow students to experience significant transformation by challenging their old paradigms, assumptions, and beliefs.

Throughout the Research Methods and Ethics course, classroom instruction is complemented with time spent in the field learning from experts and interacting with locals. A highlight of the week was joining a class during a meeting of ����APP students and a Moroccan university class. The students discussed the hopes and dreams of their peers and how the different cultures share similar challenges. Students helped each other confront assumptions and stereotypes while emphasizing the similarities of each group’s lived experiences. These conversations allowed students to learn first-hand how to engage more effectively in the local context.

Cultural Immersion

Immersive programming is an important way to enrich the student experience. By learning to speak the local language, discover new food, and understand different customs, students gain insights from a range of perspectives. In Morocco, speaking Arabic, eating couscous on Fridays with host families, and experiencing a hammam allow students to engage with their new culture in new and memorable ways. During the site visit, an overnight excursion brought the group to Tangier, an international city located within sight of the Spanish coast. Participants took part in a Gnawa music workshop, learning the rich history of this religious ceremony and taking part in traditional music and dancing.

Homestays

Not only do homestays provide the opportunity to improve language skills and deepen cultural understanding, they provide additional context and perspectives on the issues students are studying. Beyond this, homestays allow students to build deeper connections with the local community, sharing in the rhythms of daily life in a way that most visitors do not. Two homestay families opened their homes to the group for a shared meal that highlighted the hospitality of the Moroccan people and displayed the unique flavors of local tradition and cuisine.

Ways to Visit

Visiting an ����APP program is a great way to learn more about these unique elements of an ����APP experience�� and gain a better understanding of what students experience during their programs abroad. Individual site visits are another great way to experience ����APP, and our team can work with you to craft one-day visits that are focused on your specific needs. More information can be found . We encourage you to plan a visit now to one of our sites in Africa or other countries by .

Rebecca McMunn is ����APP University Relations Manager for Alaska, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington.

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By Jamie Hansen, Communications Manager

Global health education takes many forms at Stanford, including overseas rotations for residents, fellowships for medical students, and on-campus courses on health technology innovation, planetary health, and global health equity open to all Stanford students. Yosefa Gilon, senior program manager for global health education, helps coordinate these experiences, often in collaboration with overseas partners. 

Gilon has been passionate about promoting overseas travel and learning for more than 15 years, beginning with her own formative experiences teaching and learning in Greece and Israel. Prior to joining CIGH, she spent more than a decade in international education, most recently managing international computer science education programs for Stanford’s Computer Science Department. Before that, she spent five years managing short-term international programs at the Bing Overseas Studies Program. 

We spoke with Yosefa about her career as an international educator, and how CIGH strives to center all its educational opportunities in a spirit of health equity and equal exchange between Stanford and its global health partners.

What experiences prompted your interest in global travel and international education?

I grew up in California’s Central Valley, and while I didn’t travel too much as a kid, my family helped instill in me an interest in other places. I didn’t study abroad because I thought it was too expensive and worried that I wouldn’t graduate on time. I’ve since learned these are two of the biggest misconceptions about studying abroad. 

After graduating, I followed my twin sister, who was passionate about teaching, to Greece. We earned our Teaching English as a Foreign Language certificates and taught English in a fishing village on a Greek Island for five months. I didn’t speak the language and the island was very isolated. Despite the challenging experience, I knew I wasn’t yet ready to go home when it was over.

I spent the next six months in Israel, in a program where I spent half my time learning the language and the other half of my time working in a communal kitchen on a kibbutz. To this day, I consider it one of the best times of my life. My dad is Israeli, and it was nice to connect with my roots. And as I learned the language, I could communicate more and more with the people around me. I left wanting to find a way to connect people to these kinds of experiences abroad.

I pursued a master’s degree in international education from the School for International Training in Vermont. Following that, I spent time directing a study abroad program that hosted international students in southern California and then spent many years coordinating place-based experiential opportunities for Think Global School, an international traveling high school. After that incredible experience of traveling around the world with these high schoolers, I was ready to stay in one place for a while. That’s when I came to Stanford. 

Can you share a particularly impactful overseas education experience you helped support? 

During my time working for the Bing Overseas Studies Program, I helped manage a long-running service-learning program called Community Health in Oaxaca. In this program, Stanford students learn medical Spanish and travel with local doctors to observe the provision of community health in rural clinics and hospitals. One day, a doctor showed me around a clinic, and we met a local obstetrician. One of our Stanford undergrad students accompanied the obstetrician/gynecologist to a nearby village, where they provided exams to all the local pregnant women who wanted one. The undergrad was beaming, thrilled to have had this chance to experience a completely different, but very successful, healthcare model to what we typically see in the United States, where the provider comes to the patient and offers very personalized care.

Most pivotal are the relationships we build with our partners and the quality of those relationships. The experience needs to be beneficial to both sides. Especially when we send residents to hospitals, we want to ensure we are doing so because our partners have a need or interest. We want to ensure that our participation is filling that need in some meaningful way and that we are not a burden to our hosts. It can’t be just because we want our residents to have experience overseas. 

We want our relationships to be equitable and bilateral. This means that an exchange of knowledge is occurring on both sides.

Yosefa Gilon

This program illustrated many components of a successful overseas education experience. In order to have an impactful educational experience, it’s important to inform yourself as best you can before you go. This program embodied that, with students taking a class on campus before they traveled to learn about Oaxacan culture and the health-seeking behaviors of Oaxacan and other Mexican migrants. Students also stayed with local families who were compensated for serving as hosts, giving students a sense of daily life and getting them out of their bubbles. The program also ensured that students had a chance to debrief and synthesize what they learned on a daily basis.

What do you see as the most essential components of successful overseas education, especially in relation to global health?

We want our relationships to be equitable and bilateral. This means that an exchange of knowledge is occurring on both sides. For instance, when our residents go overseas, they are benefiting from learning about new diseases and our partners’ responses to them, but they are also teaching and helping to build capacity. To deepen these bilateral relationships, we hope to host more learners from our partner countries here at Stanford in the years ahead.

I encourage students to open themselves up to taking courses outside their major and exploring these topics early in their academic career.

Yosefa Gilon

Can you speak to the power of international education to spark an interest in health equity and global health in students?

While studying abroad is incredibly valuable, an overseas experience is not necessary to spark that interest. I encourage students to open themselves up to taking courses outside their major and exploring these topics early in their academic careers. … The earlier students take these courses, the better. It opens them up to a world of opportunities to follow up and pursue related studies. 

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