April 5th, 2019
AACRAO’s Annual Meeting held its largest meeting of higher education professionals from around the world this week in Los Angeles California. The Association of International Credentials Evaluators (AICE), of which ACEI is a Charter and Endorsed Member, joined more than 2,000 administrators to address the issues that affect our work, collaborate on goals and guidelines for meeting those challenges, and provide a forum for learning and sharing experiences.
The Annual Meeting provided an extensive program of over 200 sessions, roundtables, poster sessions, and workshops.
AICE Endorsed Member, ACEI, FCSA, Scholaro, shared their expertise in these workshops and several sessions regarding credential evaluation, country profile of Cuba and the AACRAO Cuba Project, the Alphabet Soup of International Credential Evaluators, updates on the standards for AACRAO EDGE, and how to conduct armchair recruiting.
The meeting was kicked off with half-day workshop on how to use the AACRAO EDGE, which AICE President, Jasmin Saidi-Kuehnert together with Drew Carlisle from AACRAO led.
The meeting then continued with the opening plenary featuring a warm awards ceremony, honoring the years of service of Janie Barnett, AACRAO’s Associate Executive Director. The awards ceremony also honored an AICE Affiliate and an Endorsed Member.
AICE is proud of the latest AICE Endorsed Member, Incred Evaluations, Inc., Leah McCormack, Director, who won the AACRAO award for Emerging Leader in the profession.
AICE Affiliate, Karee Head, International Admissions Specialist of University of Idaho, won the Thomas A. Bilger Award for her dedication to the profession. AACRAO was also the perfect arena to share the collaboration of AACRAO and AICE, as an MOU was signed by both parties to agree to partner on various issues surrounding applied comparative education. It was definitely a moment for AICE Endorsed Members and Affiliates to shine!
The plenary continued with a moving discussion led by Nightline’s Byron Pitts, who overcame many obstacles to reach his life goals. He provided motivation for change and gave us a sense of hope during these trying times in International Education.
The Annual Conference continued with several more sessions, including, “Alphabet Soup for International Credential Evaluation” with AICE Endorsed Members, Aleks Morawski, Jasmin Saidi-Kuehnert, and Robert Watkins.
Laura Sippel, AICE Director of Communications, represented AICE Charter Endorsed Member, Academic Credentials Evaluation Institute, Inc. (ACEI) through her session: “International Student Recruitment Without Leaving Your Office,” with California State University Northridge.
The International Luncheon brought together dedicated professionals for a inspiring informational presentation by Dr. Keith David Watenpaugh, Director of Article 26 Backpack Project, that assist refugees and displaced persons. He said through the Backpack enrollment, refugees guide their peers and this program also helps digitize their documents and create profiles that put a story to their accomplishments. AICE will be working with AACRAO to foster this initiative.
The evening continued with the lively International Educators reception sponsored by AICE Endorsed Member FCSA’s William Paver and the Paver Family Foundation. We then continued to an intimate gathering to truly honor the years of service of Janie Barnett, with AACRAO Executives and sponsors providing moving speeches, wonderful stories of working with Janie, and wishing her well.
On Wednesday, AACRAO Annual Meeting came to an end with the closing plenary featuring George Takei, Author, Actor, Director, and Activist, who used humor and warmth to address the large crowd. George Takei is of course well known as Sulu, on the USS Enterprise in the long running TV series, Star Trek. He spoke of his early days as a five-year old having lived with his family in the Japanese internment camps in Arkansas and California during WWII.
It was truly a week of collaborating, celebrating new partnerships, and honoring our colleagues and friends.
AACRAO indicates on their website, “Our programming reflects the diverse nature of our members’ roles and responsibilities, and strives to meet the changing demands and needs of the professions we serve. Join us in Los Angeles to gain the knowledge and skills that ensure personal, student, and institutional success.”
As the meeting closed, we felt the positivity of the meeting, as we discussed new initiatives, gave each other encouragement to be a strong advocate for our profession and have the right tools to serve those affected by our work so we can change lives.
As the sun set on the 105th AACRAO Annual Meeting, we very much looked forward to moving on to the AICE Symposium, directly following the productive meeting.
The Academic Credentials Evaluation Institute, Inc. (ACEI), was founded in 1994 and is based in Los Angeles, CA, USA. ACEI provides a number of services that include evaluations of international academic credentials for U.S. educational equivalence, translation, verification, and professional training programs. ACEI is a Charter and Endorsed Member of the Association of International Credential Evaluators. For more information, visit www.acei-global.org.