Living in Rennes

July 19, 2012 I arrived in Rennes, the capital of Brittany, as an exchange student in September 1975. I was a 19 year old sophomore, who, along with 29 American students from my college, would be living with French families and taking classes at the university. My host family, the Louis, were a clan of […]

Embracing International Students: Lowering Standards for the Almighty $$$

May 3, 2012 As we seek ways to attract international students to our college campuses, lowering our standards and accepting candidates solely to boost revenue and clout doesn’t seem to be a smart way of going about it. But, it is exactly what’s happening. As states cut back on subsidies, slashing budgets and tightening belts, […]

Packing My Bags & Heading South to NZ

April 12, 2012 While catching up on my backlog of newspaper and magazine articles, my eyes caught sight of this headline in this piece from April 2, 2012 in the NYT: ”New Zealand Casts Itself as Destination for International Students.”. It seems that our friends in the island country in the south Pacific have a […]

Reflecting on 9/11 and its impact on International Students

September 15, 2011 Ten years ago on September 11, 2001, I was on a Thai Airlines flight heading back home to Los Angeles after a successful two-week fact finding trip to South Korea and Japan. I had met with representatives at the South Korean and Japanese Ministries of Education, visited and toured schools and universities […]

Taking Charge: The Art of Assuming Responsibility

August 18, 2011 It’s been a month since I last blogged, and it’s not because of a lack of material. A few days ago I heard a story on the radio about a guy whose job at one of those high-end boutique hotels in the Big Apple is to collect the mobile phone #s of […]

Foreign Credential Evaluation: Looks can be deceiving!

July 14, 2011 Pedro* is from Cuba where he received the Titulo de Tecnica de nivel medio en Organizacion de la Produccion Industrial, a technical high school diploma, after completing the nivel medio superior (upper secondary/senior high school) cycle of education. Now he is applying for a job and his employer wants to know if […]