Michele Arellano

Michele Arellano has been in the field of higher education administration since 1999 and more specifically in education abroad since 2002. She currently serves as the associate director-student services of study abroad and global engagement at the University of Kansas (KU). Her main responsibilities are managing all student services functions including enrollment management, scholarship and financial aid processing and advising for study abroad. Previously, Michele was employed by the financial aid office at the University of Kansas and currently serves as study abroad liaison and main adviser to the financial aid office, registrar’s office, enrollment management office, KU Military-Affiliated Student Center, as well as the Veterans Administration Certifying Official on campus. Coming from a military family that has traveled the global, Michele has a passion for working with underrepresented groups; especially first generation, low-income and military-connected students in helping them navigate the education abroad process. She presents often on financing education abroad and veterans affairs topics and has served on numerous internal as well as external scholarship review committees. As a member of NAFSA's leadership team, she currently serves as chair of NAFSA's Education Abroad Regulatory Practice (EARP) committee and was the former chair of the EARP Financial Aid Subcommittee. Michele holds a MSEd in higher education administration and a BS in sociology both from the University of Kansas.