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GEO Center
International Calendar

Frequently Asked Questions about Study Abroad

A MassArt student studies for 6 months in Brazil!

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GEO CENTER QUICK FACTS:

• The GEO Center is located at Simmons College in
Suite E-110

• The GEO Center staff works directly with COF students, faculty and administrators/ staff
 

ABOUT GEO CENTER

Don't miss this!
Students share photos and projects about their travel course
Berlin: Cutting-edge Contemporary Architecture and Public Art in Germany
.
Thursday May 15, 7pm , Massachusetts College of Art and Design,
Trustees Room. Tower Building, 621 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA
For more information contact Christina Lanzl at
christina.lanzl@massart.edu
or 617-879-7973

 

Services
Initiatives
Programming
Meet the GEO Center Staff
Committees
Global Ambassadors

Services

The GEO Center provides a myriad of services to the COF schools and their students. GEO Center services include but are not limited to:

  • Provide guidance to students and faculty seeking international experience

  • Work with faculty/staff for travel course development

  • Event planning for internationally themed events

  • Outreach to underrepresented populations in study abroad

  • Development of forms, applications, etc. for study abroad and travel courses

  • Work with administrators and faculty to advise students about study abroad

  • Marketing and promotion of COF International events (including Culture Shock, art exhibitions, lectures, film screenings, etc.

Initiatives

  • Global Ambassadors Program – returned study abroad students share their knowledge and experience with COF peers

  • Faculty/staff Workshops – preparation for leading a travel course

  • Students of Color Lunch – information on study abroad for students of color

  • Re-entry Social – information for returned student on how to incorporate their experience into daily life

Programming

  • COF study abroad fairs (one per semester)
  • Pre-departure orientations
  • Career Workshop


Meet the GEO Center Staff

Robin Melavalin
Robin Melavalin, Director of the Global Education Opportunities (GEO) Center, is an internal consultant to the six Colleges of the Fenway schools. She is involved in all aspects of internationalizing the campuses, which includes working with faculty and administrators as they prepare to take students abroad, streamlining procedures and policies, and working with the campuses to develop their strategic vision for internationalization. An anthropologist, photographer and teacher, she has been in the field of international education for over 20 years and has led student groups to Cuba, Cape Verde, and other countries. She has also traveled in Kenya, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Bali, Uzbekistan and China. In her spare time she leads outdoor adventure trips for the Appalachian Mountain Club.

Atina White
Atina White is the Assistant Director of the GEO Center. She leads the Global Ambassador’s program and coordinates all events run through the GEO Center including the Study Abroad Fair, Pre-departure Orientations, Social for Returned Study Abroad Students, Students of Color Lunch, and Faculty/Staff Workshops. Prior to joining The Colleges of the Fenway, Atina worked as a consultant for various organizations, including Harvard Medical School and the Boston Public Health Commission, for which she did work related to cultural sensitivity and diversity. She comes to us with international work experience, having worked for EF Educational Tours in Stockholm, Sweden. Atina recently completed a Master’s Degree at Lesley University in Intercultural Relations. And, she earned her B.A. in Organizational Behavior and Management from Brown University. Her passion for travel and various cultures has led her to live in Seville, Spain and travel to Western Europe, Egypt, Japan, Kenya, Morocco, and most recently South Africa. She is fluent in Swedish and proficient in Spanish. In addition to traveling, Atina loves dancing, skiing, photography and the outdoors.

Elisabeth Robart
Elisabeth Robart is the graduate intern for the GEO Center. She recently completed a Masters degree in International Educational Development at Teachers College, Columbia University. Prior to coming to the GEO Center she worked as a Graduate Assistant in the Office of International Services as well as the TESOL Certificate Program both at Teachers College. She also taught English in China for 18 months prior to completing her Masters degree. She earned her B.A in Psychology and Music from Bryn Mawr College. She comes from a bi-cultural family with a French father and an American mother and grew up living in France for the first 16 years of her life. She has traveled extensively through Europe and China, is fluent in French and beginner level in Mandarin Chinese. In addition she loves to sing, cook, go for long walks near the water, and see any foreign films she can find.

Committees

The GEO Center works with four committees, the Study Abroad Council, the Advisory Board, International Student Advisors and International Recruiters, in order to fulfill its mission of internationalizing the campuses and providing cross-cultural opportunities for students. The committees foster collaboration among individuals, departments and institutions with regard to all aspects of internationalization.

Study Abroad Council
Nine COF members who are directly involved with helping students travel on semester, year and short-term programs meet to share best practices and collaborate on marketing, orientations, fairs and other projects.

Lisa Larson Read
Lisa Larson Read handles study abroad and international student advising as Emmanuel College's Director of International Programs. Her ten years of international education experience at several Boston-area colleges includes these areas as well as general academic advising, language proficiency assessment, and intensive English program management. She holds an Ed.M. in Administration, Planning and Social Policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a B.A. in Literature from Wesleyan University. Lisa considers her own eight months studying in Paris to be the major turning point in her life, and loves helping students begin their own journeys. Having traveled throughout Europe and to Japan, Cambodia and Thailand, her next dream destination is Morocco.

Mary Weber
Mary Weber is the half-time International Programs Assistant at Emmanuel College, where she helps students consider and choose study abroad programs and manages the application process. Prior to her arrival at Emmanuel, Mary completed her BS in Psychology at the University of Mary Washington. While an undergraduate, she studied for a semester in England and interned for a year in the International Academic Services. She is currently in the Intercultural Relations Graduate Program at Lesley University.

Tony Laing
Tony Laing is Diversity and Programs Exchange advisor. In this role, he works with students interested in semester study abroad or domestic exchanges. Tony is also responsible for helping to promote diversity programs. Prior to MassArt, he worked at The New School in NY and has traveled throughout Africa as an exchange student, teacher and researcher. Tony was nominated twice for the Fulbright Teacher and Administrator Exchange Program and received a Rotary Ambassadorial scholarship. Tony holds a BA in political science and an MPA in management and international development.

Natalie Vinski
Natalie Vinski is coordinator of the Office of International Education Programs at Massachusetts College of Art. She provides a range of services and programming to students, faculty and staff including oversight of the college’s faculty-led international travel courses and advising/support to the college’s international student population. As an undergraduate student, Natalie spent a semester studying art and social change in Prague, Czech Republic through the School for International Training, followed by two months of solo travel through Europe. Her most recent travels have included Ireland, Ecuador, Mexico, Newfoundland, and Egypt (as part of MassArt’s spring 2007 travel course, Egypt of the Pharaohs, led by Professor John Russell).

Lauren Thorman
Lauren Thorman is Associate Director of the Center for International Education, Leadership, and Innovation at Wheelock College. She has been involved in international education and child and family policy issues for nine years. Her duties at Wheelock College include coordinating the Wheelock College International Visiting Scholar Program and the International Service Learning Program, which provides faculty-led overseas learning experiences for students; researching and developing new international markets; and assisting in the launch and administration of current overseas programs. Lauren’s areas of expertise include international program development, international student recruitment, and project management. Before coming to Wheelock College in 2007, Lauren worked with a range of programs and services for international students at Suffolk University’s Center for International Education. She has traveled extensively throughout Asia and is a graduate of the NAFSA Academy, an intensive two-year training program in international education offered by NAFSA: Association of International Educators. Lauren holds a B.S. in Human Service Studies from Cornell University and an M.P.A. from The George Washington University.

GEO Center Advisory Board
Eleven COF administrators and faculty guide the GEO Center strategic planning process, major projects and budgets.

International Student Advisors
Committee members provide support to international students through tax and career workshops; they also share best practices for international student support and retention.

International Recruiters
In three meetings, this committee of academic and student life deans, admissions administrators and international advisors analyzed and recommended collective strategies for recruiting international students to the COF.

Global Ambassadors

The global ambassadors program is an opportunity for students who have returned from study abroad to share their experience with students on the COF campuses. Global Ambassadors conduct info sessions in residence halls, hold weekly travel talk tables, volunteer at GEO Center events, and may be available for one on one peer consultations regarding study abroad.

Spring 2007 Global Ambassadors

Amy Dipalcido
Amy DiPlacido is a senior fibers major at Massachusetts College of Art. She studied at Oregon College of Art and Craft her junior semester through the AICAD mobility program. In addition, she traveled to Vietnam with the MassArt travel course “Art and Culture in Vietnam”, and in Italy. She encourages any student to travel in order to inform personal artistic growth. Amy plans to study at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan next fall for graduate school.

Kate Woodford
Kate Woodford, a junior at Wheelock College, studies Human Development and Early Childhood Education. She has spent a significant amount of time traveling around Peru, Nicaragua and other parts of Latin America. Most recently, she spent the spring semester of 2006 studying in Lima, Peru. Her travels abroad have opened her eyes to what she is not generally exposed to on a regular basis, from differing cultural beliefs and practices to extreme poverty like she has never seen in the States. She has learned so much that she will be able to apply to her studies, her career and her future, it is immeasurable. She would recommend an abroad experience to anyone she meets!!!!

Lauren Zanotti
Lauren Zanotti is a junior at Emmanuel College. She studied abroad in Galway, Ireland in fall 2006. She became a Global Ambassador because she wanted someone else to be able to have as incredible of an experience as she did. A few highlights from her semester abroad were meeting new friends from all over the world, traveling to five different countries, and fully immersing herself in the "Galwegian" style of life.

Kelly Kilday
Kelly Kilday is a senior at Emmanuel College. She is graduating in May with a BA in Health and Counseling Psychology. She enjoys most everything that has to do with the outdoors and being active! She loves music, art, her family and friends, the ocean, and of course travel. She studied at the University of Queensland Australia in spring 2006 and is planning her next adventure abroad for after graduation.

Whitney Oliver
Whitney, a junior at Emmanuel College, studied for a semester in London, England. Studying abroad gave her the confidence to do things she never would have done when she got home. She feels that being out of her comfort zone for a semester was just what she needed to challenge herself at home now as well. Being in London opened her eyes to living and working abroad and helped to broaden her horizons.

Kathleen Fitzgerald
Kathleen Fitzgerald is a senior at Simmons College. She studied at the London School of Economics (LSE) for the year 2005-2006. She had the opportunity to make friends from all over the world, challenge herself in a different academic environment and travel all over Western Europe, including a 17-day backpacking trip.

Emily O’Brien
Emily is a senior at MassArt and she spent a semester in Holland. Planning her trip, she had no idea how valuable the life experience she gained from going abroad would be. Everyone should be so lucky to have an opportunity to travel while in school and she would like to pass on whatever advice she can give.

Erin Murphy
Erin is a senior at Simmons College. She spent four months traveling the world with Semester at Sea. Erin is continuing her international travel by moving to Japan after graduation to teach English.