NAFSA Blog

Michigan’s Friendliness to Immigration Seen as Key to Economic Development A need for economic transformation in Michigan has lead to some creative thinking and a new initiative from Republican Governor Rick Snyder that international educators should applaud. The Global Michigan Initiative aims to

Stories from the Peace Corps: Family, Acceptance, and a Cow’s Head When do Peace Corps Volunteers know that they really belong? When does that moment come that we look back and say: “Wow, I was just one of the kids.” Over the years, I have asked Volunteers this question, and I’ve heard in their

From the Back of an Envelope: How NSEP Was Born Yesterday evening, I had the opportunity to hear former Senator David L. Boren (D-Okla.), now president of the University of Oklahoma, recount the creation of the National Security Education Program . I found the story to be so interesting and

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: A Personal Hero For the last 30 plus years, my favorite memorabilia item has been a basketball, signed by the Los Angeles Lakers, and handed to me by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The event was the pregame ceremony at an exhibition game between the Lakers and the Milwaukee Bucks

Why Study Abroad Matters… As former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said, “In the 21st Century, a quality education is an international education.” The global skills, knowledge, and experiences that are gained while studying abroad have a profound impact on a student’s ability to compete and

Using NAFSA’s International Education Professional Competencies for Team Development and Hiring Purposes: Part 2 Earlier this year, I kicked off this two-part blog series examining how NAFSA’s International Education (IE) Professional Competencies can be used for team development and hiring with a

Experience the NAFSA 2016 Expo Soundstage The Expo Soundstage at the NAFSA Annual Conference & Expo is hard to miss. Last year’s inaugural Soundstage kicked off with the booming sounds of ShinDaiko’s traditional Japanese drumming. The experience continued throughout the week with Boston musicians

Workshop Preview: Building Your ISSS Crisis Management Plan Last week, I kicked off the 2016 Annual Conference Committee's inaugural Workshop Preview series by featuring my conversation with Jin Abe , lead trainer for the Current Topics Workshop (CTW) Experiential Learning to Facilitate

Plenary Connections: Kailash Satyarthi Most of us will never have the opportunity to attend a Nobel Peace Prize ceremony. All of us attending NAFSA conferences, however, have had the good fortune to hear Nobel Laureates speak at plenary sessions. If you are like me, you were inspired by words from

Positive Momentum Builds to Restore Relations with Cuba U.S. academic travel to Cuba was decimated by severe executive branch directives in 2004. Consequently, most study abroad programs conducted by American institutions in Cuba shuttered, effectively abandoning one of the only avenues of