On March 19, Diversity Abroad, a nonprofit study abroad organization for college-age students, will host the second Annual MSI Global Education Summit — part of the larger Diversity Abroad Conference. Its focus is on aiding faculty, staff, and administrators at Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) as they work to internationalize their campuses and expand their study abroad efforts.
With an emphasis on collaboration, the event seeks to help MSIs build capacity in those areas.
“The summit offers MSIs a rare opportunity to share space and time, enabling their ideas around funding, staffing, and programming for study abroad to flourish,” says Gretchen Cook-Anderson, director of diversity recruiting and advising for IES Abroad, which is a sponsor of the event. “What’s also special about the summit is that it presents a learning experience for IES Abroad to help us better support these school partners and their students with meaningful and accessible programs.”
At the event, Cook-Anderson, along with representatives from two Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs), will lead a special session titled “Hispanic-Serving Institutions: Innovations in Education Abroad and Internationalization in the New Millennium,” concentrating on innovative approaches used by HSIs. Topics covered in the presentation will include ways to boost “student success, campus inclusion, and access to intercultural experiences through greater focus on study abroad and other internationalization efforts,” according to the event’s website.
The summit will also feature workshops and presentations about various challenges faced by MSIs. Discussions will center on methods for designing study abroad programs; resources to increase education abroad, such as grants; and ways to enhance the internationalization of MSI campuses.
The summit will be held at the McNamara Alumni Center on the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus in Minneapolis. For more information, visit diversitynetwork.org.
