Sessions

Pedagogical Strategies for promoting Meaningful Intercultural Learning (Part 1 of 2) with Melanie Baker Robbins, East Carolina University and Jami Leibowitz, East Carolina University.

In Part 1 of this two-part session, participants will be introduced to nine evidence-based pedagogical strategies that enhance intercultural learning. These strategies, including intentional instruction, active learning, self-reflection, and supported exposure to diversity, among others, are designed to cultivate key intercultural skills such as empathy, perspective-taking, adaptability, inquisitiveness, and openness. Participants will explore the theoretical foundations of these strategies and how they contribute to effective intercultural teaching and learning, laying the groundwork for deeper application in Part 2.

Debunking Myths of Intercultural Competence Development using the ABCs for Intercultural Learning with Kelsey Patton, Purdue/CILMAR and Kris Acheson-Clair, Purdue/CILMAR

The 4-level framework (unconscious incompetence, etc.) has often been applied to intercultural competence (IC). While this framework can clarify how people experience the phenomenon of IC development, it also leads to several myths. In this session we will unpack the four levels and apply an Affective-Behavioral-Cognitive model to counter misconceptions of IC development. Participants will examine case studies and reflect on their own experiences to better understand how to support learners’ and their own development.

The Significance of American Identity on Study Abroad Success with Polly Penter, Arcadia University and Ash Trebisacci, Brandeis University.

Study abroad promises benefits including increased intercultural awareness and the ability to see one’s own country from a new perspective. Providers seek to facilitate such intercultural gains through detailed orientations and tailored co-curricular opportunities. This session presents new research exploring the significance of American identity to the Study Abroad experience, questioning who really makes those gains, and how we can better prepare and support students whose identities are reshaped as a result of studying abroad.

Making the Case for International Education in Community Colleges: Linking Global Competence to Workforce Readiness with Fabiola Riobe, Kansas City Kansas Community College and Candice Scott, Kansas City Kansas Community College

This session explores how Senior International Officers (SIOs) can advocate for international education at community colleges by linking global competence to workforce readiness. Through case studies and interactive discussions, participants will learn strategies for demonstrating the value of internationalization to institutional leaders, aligning global learning initiatives with local workforce needs, and building partnerships. Attendees will leave with actionable steps to enhance global education programs that prepare students for today’s interconnected, diverse job market.

Pedagogical Strategies for promoting Meaningful Intercultural Learning (Part 2 of 2) with Melanie Baker Robbins, East Carolina University and Jami Leibowitz, East Carolina University.

Building on the foundation from Part 1, Part 2 of this session emphasizes the practical application of the nine pedagogical strategies through interactive, hands-on activities. Participants will engage in exercises designed to develop the intercultural skills introduced in the first session. Guided debriefs will provide opportunities for participants to reflect on the effectiveness of the strategies, discuss their impact, and brainstorm ways to adapt these approaches to their own teaching contexts. This session is open to all, but content from Part 1will not be repeated.

Foundations of Intercultural Learning: Exploring Global Equity and Awareness with Christina Thompson, Compear Global Education Network and Ebony Ellis, Aventurine Global.

In this session attendees will explore a new peer-reviewed published framework that integrates self-awareness and global consciousness. Presenters will address biases and cultural aspects and how can reshape international education approaches. Participants uncover genuine inclusive intercultural and equity strategies, equipping them to positively influence future global citizens.

Starting a Conversation: Supporting Queer International Students Studying Abroad with Patrick Bingham, Wake Forest University and Rayna Harris, Wake Forest University.

This session explores international students seeking degrees in the U.S. and study abroad in a third country. What are the visa requirements to study abroad? How does support operate at home and abroad? We engage with what it means to be queer in their home, the U.S., and new cultural contexts to be queer and international. This dynamic, interactive session will engage practitioners to consider each stage of student support for this under-discussed population of students.

Fostering Intercultural Learning among Staff: Leveraging COIL/Virtual Exchange with Paloma Rodriguez, University of Florida and Sebastian Rodriguez Natali, University of Florida.

This session introduces COIL/Virtual Exchange for Staff, a modality of telecollaboration that enhances intercultural learning and professional development. This program matches professionals in any given field (student affairs, human resources, marketing, etc.) with their counterparts abroad. During virtual sessions they compare operations, engage in intercultural activities, and work on collaborative projects. Presenters will share insights from a COIL/Virtual Exchange for Staff project between the University of Florida and the CEU Cardenal Herrera University (Spain).

The Impact of Hands-On Learning: A Means to Enhance Cultural Understanding and Global Competencies with Rene Just, Forsyth Technical Community College (NC).

This session explores how hands-on learning experiences during a faculty-led study abroad program to Costa Rica enhanced students’ cultural understanding and global competencies. We’ll examine specific activities, community engagement strategies, and assessment methods that fostered meaningful intercultural learning. Participants will gain practical ideas for designing impactful experiential programs abroad.

Let’s Play with Emojis: What can they teach us about intercultural communication? with Annette Benson, Purdue University/CILMAR: Center for Intercultural Learning, Mentorship, Assessment and Research.

The ubiquity of emojis makes them an accessible vehicle for teaching verbal and nonverbal intercultural communication for both the resistant and the avid learner. Bring an electronic device for this fun and interactive investigation into what a few simple keystrokes can teach about our own and others’ cultures.

Localizing Global Engagement Across Intercultural and Intergenerational Divides: Stories and Strategies with Danielle Lake, Elon University; Sandy Marshall, Elon University; Rony Dahdal, Elon University; and Hector Perez, Power & Place Collaborative.

This session will share strategies for cultivating meaningful intercultural and intergenerational learning that have emerged from a place-based storytelling project led by a community-university partnership located in Alamance County. The Power+Place Collaborative is an ever-evolving collaboration between diverse community organizations and Elon University faculty and students from diverse disciplinary backgrounds. Session facilitators will share lessons learned from the six years of collaboratively codesigning, facilitating, and assessing a wide-array of community-based counter-storytelling projects.

Balancing Act: Walking Ethical Tightropes in International Education with David Puente, WorldStrides and Meg Ramey, World Kind.

This interactive session foregrounds and invites audience input about ways we as international educators must live with our contradictions. The two panelists will unveil a series of ethical quandaries involving our identities, our carbon footprints, our commercial incentives, and our ‘WEIRD’ moral matrices as we discuss, and perhaps tip over, a sacred cow or two. Rather than tiptoe around the taboos, we will ask session attendees to share in what may prove a cathartic airing out of our field’s innate paradoxes.

Building Global Engineers: Cultivating Intercultural Competency Through Internships Abroad with Pingchien Neo, University of Florida and Chris Lawlor, Learn International.

This session explores innovative approaches to integrating intercultural learning into engineering curricula through internship abroad programs. It highlights the design and impact of a two-course framework, where one course, Global Culture, focuses on intercultural communication and skills crucial for engineers in a global marketplace. Through this framework, students engage real-world engineering projects, working alongside international colleagues to develop essential intercultural competencies that are increasingly sought after in today’s globalized workforce.

Global Perspectives on Faculty Development: Enhancing Educator Capacities in a Multicultural World with Vivian Shannon-Ramsey, Bowie State University and Andre P. Stevenson, Elizabeth City State University.

As higher education becomes increasingly globalized, the need for effective faculty development programs that transcend cultural and geographic boundaries is more critical than ever. This session explores the challenges and opportunities of designing and implementing these initiatives internationally. Drawing on case studies, we will examine best practices that foster cross-cultural competence, promote equity in diverse learning environments, and encourage sharing pedagogical innovations across borders all while highlighting the importance of adapting faculty development strategies to fit different countries’ unique cultural, institutional, and technological contexts.

Paying Attention: Mindfulness Practices for Mental Resilience and Increased Engagement Abroad with Sean McGlynn, CET Academic Programs; Ashley Hawkins Parham, Wake Forest University; and Kylie Holloway, Wake Forest University.

Mindfulness skills have the potential to improve students’ study abroad experience by preparing them to proactively strengthen their mental health, be present and engaged during their time abroad, and set social media boundaries. Walk, journal, and breathe your way to an improved understanding of mindfulness and resiliency practices as we discuss methods for embedding them in study abroad preparation. Attendees will be provided with a mindfulness abroad guidebook to share with their students.

Addressing White Supremacy in Higher Education: A Call to Action with Angela Luedke, UNC Wilmington; Asher Persin, UNC Wilmington.

White supremacy (WS) culture hinders our intercultural skills enhancement and as higher education professionals, we are responsible for identifying, challenging, and disrupting WS. This presentation addresses WS culture within higher education through the lens of different lived experiences and identities, while emphasizing the work that white folks especially need to put in. Attendees will leave with words to articulate WS characteristics and solutions to disrupt within micro, meso, and macro ways through an action plan.

Navigating Cultural Complexities: Tools and Challenges in Preparing Students for a Global Workplace with Lisa B. Miller, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and Valerie Slate, UNC Chapel Hill.

This session explores the use of tools to teach students about cultural differences in the workplace. While dimensions of culture, commonly used by businesses, can boost cross-cultural understanding, challenges include oversimplifying cultures, questionable data sources, and the risk of reinforcing colonial narratives. Through interactive activities we will introduce a dialogue about these issues and how to better prepare students for a globalized workforce.

The Transformative Impact of Education Abroad: Theory, Research, and Application with Jeff Cohen, Appalachian State University and Diana Falco, University at Albany – SUNY.

This session begins with the presentation of a qualitative study of the transformative impact of faculty-led study abroad. The presenters offer insights into the transformative potential of study abroad and suggest promising practices for program directors and international education professionals. Participants will engage in an interactive activity aimed at helping them identify ways to incorporate transformative learning principles and practices as they design and deliver high impact education abroad opportunities for students.

Designing Curricular Interventions to Foster Intercultural Competence Development among UG Students with Purification Martinez, East Carolina University and Laura Levi Alstaedter, East Carolina University.

This session will discuss the design, implementation and assessment of a community of practice (CoP), called the Intercultural Competence Summer Institute at East Carolina University, whose aim is to develop curricular interventions that increase the intercultural competence of undergraduate students. The session will focus on why and how the CoP has evolved and share concrete steps and recommendations to implement similar CoPs at other institutions.

UNESCO Story Circles – Train the Trainer (Part 1 of 2) with Darla Deardorff, UNESCO; Maureen Vandermaas-Peeler, Elon University; and Mizuho Tatebayashi, NC State University.

This two-part session introduces the UNESCO Story Circles methodology, developed by Dr. Darla K. Deardorff, as a means for fostering cross-cultural empathy, respect, and understanding through personal narratives. Participants will gain a deep understanding of the methodology and hands-on experience in facilitating this powerful approach to promote intercultural dialogue. Ideal for educators, community leaders, intercultural trainers, and professionals seeking to foster understanding and enhance communication across differences. To get the most benefit, participants are encouraged to attend the second part of this session during the next block.

Building Intercultural Capacity Among Faculty & Staff: An Ecosystems Approach with Tara Harvey, True North Intercultural; Paloma Rodriguez, University of Florida; and Hal Knowles, University of Florida.

Building intercultural capacity among faculty and staff is critical on today’s increasingly global campuses. How can we do that within a complex institution? We’ll share how the University of Florida has intentionally, yet organically, been building a “global learning ecosystem” to support intercultural development among faculty and staff, and through them, students. You’ll leave with concrete ideas and resources to build your own “ecosystem” to foster intercultural development among faculty, staff, and students.

Global Perspectives, Local Connections: Utilizing Partnerships for Campus Internationalization with Ashley Szulak, Study Abroad Association; Teresa Hall, Central Piedmont Community College; and Lauren Rogers, Charlotte (NC) International House.

This session examines how local and global partnerships can enhance campus internationalization efforts, focusing on Central Piedmont Community College’s pilot program for intercultural professional development. Participants will explore how partnerships and collaboration add value and hear specific examples from Central Piedmont, a nonprofit community organization, and a study abroad provider. Through interactive discussions, attendees will reflect on leveraging similar partnerships to advance internationalization at their own institutions, sharing insights and resources for actionable implementation.

Multilocal Mapping for Inclusion and Intercultural Learning with Margaret Hass, Purdue University.

In this workshop participants will learn about a mapping project developed for first-year international students that encourages them to go beyond national affiliations and share their “multilocal” experience, thus developing more complex narratives of themselves and others. Workshop attendees will engage with questions of place and belonging, view sample maps, learn about mapping tools, and have the opportunity to create their own multilocal map.

UNESCO Story Circles – Train the Trainer (Part 2 of 2) with Darla Deardorff, UNESCO; Maureen Vandermaas-Peeler, Elon University; and Mizuho Tatebayashi, NC State University.

This continued session introduces the UNESCO Story Circles methodology, developed by Dr. Darla K. Deardorff, as a means for fostering cross-cultural empathy, respect, and understanding through personal narratives. Participants will gain a deep understanding of the methodology and hands-on experience in facilitating this powerful approach to promote intercultural dialogue. Ideal for educators, community leaders, intercultural trainers, and professionals seeking to foster understanding and enhance communication across differences. Anyone may attend, yet content from the earlier session will not be repeated.

Assessing Global Experiences for Future Educators: Synthesizing BEVI and Journal Data with Kristofor Wiley, James Madison University.

Educators in K-12 classrooms are facing unprecedented cultural diversity in their learners, while still often unaware of their own positionalities and those of their institutions. Scaffolded global experience is a powerful way to augment existing coursework in the interrogation of identity and the development of cultural facility in future educators. Join us to look at combined data from journals and the Beliefs, Events, and Values Inventory for a small cohort of participants across three programs.

Beyond Neutrality: Fostering Empathy and Challenging Bias in a Globalized World with Rey Sirakavit, University for Peace – Costa Rica.

In today’s interconnected world, the ability to engage in respectful and understanding dialogue across cultures and perspectives is more important than ever. However, biases and prejudices can often hinder our ability to communicate effectively and build bridges with others. This interactive workshop will equip participants with the tools and strategies to interrupt biased conversations, foster empathy, and challenge harmful stereotypes.

Leading from Within and Out: Self-Awareness as a Catalyst for Leadership Development and Learning with Li Miles, Wake Forest University.

This session equips faculty, staff, and community leaders with tools to develop self-awareness as a foundation for fostering leadership and intercultural competence. Participants will explore the dual concepts of ‘leading from within’ and ‘leading inside out,’ acquiring practical strategies to create inclusive learning environments, enhance communication, and prepare leaders for intercultural excellence.

Building Effective Partnerships for Transformative Learning Experiences under the Northern Lights with Kristal Funk, Global Education Allies and Sara Gailey, Weber State University.

Explore how dynamic partnerships can revolutionize intercultural learning experiences both domestically and internationally. This session will showcase how collaborative efforts between Global Education Allies and Weber State University have transformed study abroad programs and educational practices. Attendees will learn strategies for creating impactful intercultural partnerships, gain insights from Finnish educational practices, and develop actionable plans to enhance their own programs.