For Universities
Universities need efficient, cost-effective solutions for intercultural competency development and employability outcomes.
Our services
Studying abroad is the opportunity of a lifetime. We need to do better at helping our students make the very most of these experiences, in every way possible:
Balancing challenge with support: taming the amygdala’s “threat” response to their new environment — reducing stress while keeping the excitement
Transforming stereotypes into curiosity: interrupting the brain’s negative judgements with questions that ignite the impulse to learn
Employability: translating their experiences into “employer speak” — specific words and phrases to use in cover letters and interviews to stand out from the crowd
Our courses provide concrete skills in all of these areas on a low cost-per-student basis.
Skills
Everything we do is focused on application. Students learn best when they’re doing, reflecting, and doing again. This is how skills are built.
Studying abroad is the ideal setting for building transferable skills that will equip students for rewarding, impactful careers and lives. Our courses guide them throughout their journeys.
Measurement
We are qualified administrators of several leading global leadership competency assessments. Have your students take the assessments before and after your programs. Note their gains, and report them to the powers that be.
Assessment doesn’t have to be painful or complicated.
Ease and flexibility
Our courses are easy to enroll in, pay for, and take. Sign up for as many seats as you need. Use our LMS, or integrate into your university’s LMS.
It shouldn’t be hard to make learning happen for our busy students. We make everything smooth so that students can focus on their learning, and you don’t waste precious time.
Value
Our courses are designed to incur minimal cost per student.
We know your budgets are stretched to the limit, and that you have hard choices to make. We smooth the way by providing best-in-class courses without breaking your student development budget.
Interested in learning more?
“I got eight interview offers three job offers to choose from. Honestly, I don’t know how that would have been possible without the workshop.”
— Employability course student
Expertise
For two and a half decades I have been shepherding students through the pre-departure, onsite, re-entry, and employability stages of their journeys abroad. I’ve done this work in a number of settings, including as director of the Stanford Program in Beijing, as American co-director of the Hopkins–Nanjing Center for Chinese and American Studies, and as director of the Robertson Center for Intercultural Leadership at International House UC Berkeley.
Universities need efficient, cost-effective solutions for intercultural competency development and employability outcomes. This often ends up being an ‘add-on’ because it’s so hard, and expensive, to find and hire specialized staff – when it should be central to the student experience. Having worked with hundreds of students on all inhabited continents, I know how central this is for the student experience, and for their ability to find work.
Our most popular workshops include
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The Complete Study Abroad Toolkit: Everything students need to make the most of studying abroad
Students need support before, during, and after their experiences abroad — support that staff and faculty desperately want for them, but don’t know how to provide in a cost-effective way. With pre-departure, onsite, and re-entry modules, this course equips students with transferable skills that they need in order to keep them out of the panic zone and maximize learning.
We all want to challenge our students. What we don’t want is for students to suffer needlessly, and in ways that actually impede their learning. Whether it’s culture shock, adjusting to foreign academic or work culture, or struggling to re-integrate after returning to their home country, students all face challenges unique to studying abroad. This course equips your students with the tools they need not just to successfully navigate their study abroad experience, but to thrive.
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“What is DEI?” for International Students
When international students come to the United States to study, they are often confused about how we talk about topics like diversity, equity, inclusion, race, ethnicity, sex, gender, and religion. The countries they’re coming from have vastly different histories, and current social realities, from those in the U.S. They might find themselves labeled in new ways that are confusing and uncomfortable. They might say things that hurt others in ways they don’t expect. Faculty and staff are rarely equipped to support international students through these challenges.
This course provides your international students with context for understanding how diversity, equity, and inclusion looks on U.S. campuses today. As a result, they will feel more confident discussing these topics, and will make connections with their own identities, opening up untold possibilities for themselves and their futures.
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Global Career Edge
Do you ever wish you could prove how valuable your study abroad programs are in preparing your students for their careers? The research is clear: studying abroad has the potential to offer students an advantage in the competitive global job market.
The challenge students face? Articulating their skills in ways that matter to employers. “Global Career Edge” uses our proven TEST™ method: a precise recipe for translating specific experiences from abroad into cover letters and interview responses that hiring managers will see as real assets to their organizations.
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Global Leadership and Innovation in the 21st Century
If you’re looking for a short-term course where your students will develop skills for leading and innovating globally, look no further. In this two-week virtual program, students from across the globe will:
Build skills and strategies for leading globally diverse teams
Practice innovation through team projects grounded in the latest design thinking methods
Gain an understanding of the brain science that underlies our challenges and opportunities in leading and innovating globally
Learn from instructors who have taught at top global universities, including UC Berkeley, Stanford, and Johns Hopkins
We have done programs on global leadership and innovation with students from Australia, Chile, China, Egypt, Japan, Peru, Russia, Switzerland, Turkey, Uganda, the United States, and other countries.
