Cultural Engagement at AIFS Abroad
Cultural Engagement is crucial to international education, as it is a part of the health and safety of our participants. As a learning community, we all benefit from the varied perspectives, experiences, and values we bring to our programs.
Cultural Engagement is a cornerstone of how we see our work impacting the world. As a high-impact educational experience, our global programs have a positive effect on all participants. We take this seriously. Our programs have the potential to elevate all those who may change the world/their communities.
Cultural Engagement is a practice and an approach, we embrace that the work does not end but evolve, and that we must build an environment of real talk and take action to improve. We may not always get it right, but we are always committed to doing our best and learning in the process.
Cultural Engagement is integrative, not simply a marketing strategy or set of scholarships. This approach takes intentionality and continued work. Regular onsite staff training, partner workshops, webinars for our field, listening circles, cultural resources, participant support, and cultural incident reporting all impact a panorama of constituents (participants, families, AIFS Abroad staff, partners, and colleagues) to help us all learn and grow.
Cultural Engagement Initiative
Kory M. Saunders, Director of Cultural Engagement
Cultural Engagement Accelerators
The Cultural Engagement Accelerators Working Group was created to better implement Cultural Engagement into all aspects of the organization. Cultural Engagement Accelerators contribute to policies and procedures, goals, and ways to implement them within the organization. We work to strengthen existing practices, while providing ideas, comments, questions, feedback and expertise from their respective teams as we continue to improve our practices.
- Kory M. Saunders – Cultural Engagement
- Emma Freese – Internships Programs Team
- Laura Miranda Rivera – Study Programs Team
- Nele Thomsen – Global Program Directors – Berlin
- Angela Paniccia – Custom Faculty Led
- Carmen Chamorro – Internship Placements/ Career Readiness
- Michelle Ortiz – Enrollment Management
- Kelsey Bridewell – University Relations
- Andrew Parr – Alumni/ CliftonStrengths
- Lillian Read – Academic and Partnership Development
- Heather Lees – Global Onsite Teams