A group of 60 middle school and high school girls had the unique opportunity to present and pitch their own tech-savvy ideas for innovative mobile applications at the first ever WeTech Pitch Event, which was held at the Ritz Carlton in Bangalore on July 19.

Women Enhancing Technology (WeTech) is a program helping more women and girls enter into and succeed in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) education and careers. Launched last fall at the 2013 Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Annual Meeting, this program is led by IIE and carried out with a consortium that includes Goldman Sachs, Google, and Qualcomm Incorporated as lead collaborators.

For the past three months, 24 senior leaders from Goldman Sachs and Qualcomm have mentored female students to develop mobile apps and comprehensive business plans that will fuel economic and technological growth in India, utilizing curriculum by our partner, Technovation, which engages girls in 45 countries worldwide. With the support of their WeTech mentors, the students have invented a wide-range of creative apps that address community problems ranging from assistance with career planning and finding study buddies to organizing patient medical histories and creating doctor profiles. 

Emil Levy, program manager of the Bulgarian Young Leaders Program at IIE, shares training insights gained as a participant in the Price Babson Symposium for Entrepreneurship Educators. "Babson has developed some tools to capture the acquisition of key entrepreneurial skills and behavior in its graduates," writes Levy. "The point of the tool is to also demonstrate that entrepreneurial thought and action are necessary ingredients for success not only in start-ups, but also in large established companies."

The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) and CollegeWeekLive, an online enrollment solutions provider, are partnering to conduct virtual college fairs to encourage more international students to study in the United States. This partnership spotlights the strength and diversity of U.S. higher education and assists the State Department’s EducationUSA network to provide accurate, current, and comprehensive information on U.S. higher education to students around the world. 

One-quarter of all scientific papers now have co-authors from two or more countries, according to the National Science Foundation, yet higher-education observers say that joint efforts of university international and research offices are uncommon. Karin Fischer writes for the Chronicle of Higher Education about the difficulties faced by universities to increase these efforts and shares about a few institutions embracing strategies to foster greater cooperation.

Marybeth Gasman and Felecia Commodore write for HBCU Lifestyle about efforts by Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU's) to create global citizens. "HBCUs empower their students to see beyond narrow limitations," write Gasman and Commodore. "In that same spirit, HBCUs must also empower their students to see the same about the world."

In a New York Times Op-Ed, William Alexander shares about his attempt at learning French at age 57. "’French resistance’ took on an entirely new meaning as my brain repelled every strategy I employed," writes Alexander. "Yet my failure was in fact quite unremarkable." His attempts yield some unexpected benefits.

Creative Connections recently shared an interesting TEDx Capetown talk by Steve Sherman, the Managing Director of an Educational NGO called Living Maths, who describes managing his global classroom of 4500 students.

An article in The Local offers a few reasons why a record number of foreign students are currently enrolled in German universities, third behind the United States and the United Kingdom. The attractiveness is partly explained by a welcoming environment, in particular lower tuition costs than other similar destinations, such as Sweden.

 

 

The Association of International Education Administrators (AIEA) has released a call for proposals for the 2015 AIEA Conference. All session proposals should be targeted to Senior International Officers (SIOs) and relevant to the 2015 theme, "Leading Global Learning: Envisioning New Paradigms."

 

The following subthemes for the 2015 conference are strongly encouraged:

• The Senior International Officer (SIO) and Campus Leadership
• Diversity and Global Learning
• The SIO and Accountability
• Technologically-Facilitated Global Learning
• Global Responsibilities

The Institute of International Education (IIE) is currently updating our www.StudyAbroadFunding.org database. IIE will re-launch the Study Abroad Funding website this fall as part of the Generation Study Abroad initiative and in an effort to provide students with better and more opportunities to find study abroad programs and scholarships. Generation Study Abroad is a five-year initiative of IIE to mobilize resources and commitments with the goal of doubling the number of U.S. students studying abroad by the end of the decade.

With hundreds of scholarship and grant opportunities listed, www.StudyAbroadFunding.org is a comprehensive directory on finding study abroad funding opportunities for study abroad professionals and candidates. It features detailed descriptions of grants, fellowships, and scholarships for undergraduate and graduate study, and doctoral and postdoctoral research all around the world. Basic listings are free of charge and we provide many affordable opportunities - now including video - to better publicize your institution’s programs.

To evaluate the affordable upgrade options, click here. If you have any questions, contact iiesupport@naylor.com.

The U.S. Department of State and the National Geographic Society have announced the five young professionals selected as the first Fulbright-National Geographic Digital Storytelling Fellows. This new component of the Fulbright Program provides a unique platform for U.S. Fulbright awardees to build awareness of transnational challenges, comparing and contrasting cross-border issues.

Fellows will share their stories on nationalgeographic.com, using a variety of digital storytelling tools, including text, photography, video, audio, graphic illustrations and/or social media, the two institutions said in a news statement. Over a nine-month period, the five Fellows will create stories on globally significant social or environmental topics, including cities, cultures and energy.

"We are thrilled to partner with the U.S. Department of State for the first Fulbright-National Geographic Digital Storytelling Fellowship," said Keith Jenkins, National Geographic's executive director, digital. "This platform is exactly in line with our mission of inspiring people to care about the planet. Our editors are excited to work closely with the five Fellows on their projects throughout the coming year."

Fellows will receive funding for travel, living expenses and health/accident insurance as well as a materials and reporting allowance from the U.S. Department of State. Editors from National Geographic will mentor the Fellows, helping them tell their stories to a wider global audience. IIE is administering these fellowships in partnership with the U.S. Department of State and the National Geographic Society.

The application deadline for most awards is August 1, 2014 | Apply Online

The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program offers nearly 600 awards in teaching, research or combination teaching/research awards in over 125 countries for the 2015-2016 academic year. Opportunities are available for college and university faculty and administrators as well as for professionals, artists, journalists, scientists, lawyers, independent scholars and many others.  

To learn more about opportunities in Sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Eurasia,  

Middle East and North Africa, South and Central Asia, Western Hemisphere, visit our website.  To view the full range of awards, by country, region, or discipline visit the Catalog of Awards.

Explore the Fulbright Scholar Program in greater depth by reading recent blog posts, viewing short video features, following us on Twitter, participating in program webinars, or joining the MyFulbright community

Be a part of Generation Study Abroad! Help us engage K-12 educators and their students to build global awareness and to develop interest in study abroad in the future. We value your input and would be grateful if you would take a moment to give us your suggestions on this survey as we plan our outreach to educators.

In early March, the Institute of International Education (IIE) launched Generation Study Abroad, a five-year initiative that brings leaders in education, business, and governments together to double the number of U.S. college students studying abroad. IIE has already identified more than 300 lead partners who have committed to specific, measurable actions that will help reach this ambitious goal; the result will be thousands more American students graduating with the international experience necessary for success in a globalized world.

To be successful, we recognize that it is very important to begin reaching out to students at a younger age, to help create a pipeline of students who plan to study abroad when they are in college. In the coming months, IIE will work with several organizations who work in the K-12 arena, such as National Geographic, the College Board, the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), and OneWorld Now!, to reach out to teachers across the country. We are setting a target to identify at least 1,000 high school teachers who will pledge to make their students aware of study abroad, and we will develop materials to help them.

The outcomes from IIE’s Generation Study Abroad Think Tank have been documented in the IIE green paper, "What Will it Take to Double Study Abroad?" This paper lays the foundation for an ongoing discussion around how to increase the number of students studying abroad in the short term and to shift the paradigm over the long term. We encourage you to share your insights and best practices with the community by commenting on the 11 Big Ideas outlined in the paper.

Financial aid, scholarships and the process of applying for study abroad are broken at worst and convoluted at best at many campuses. These systems are not set up to "talk to each other," and the user experience is frustrating for students. Resources should be centralized and processes simplified for today’s digitally minded students. In addition to the problems with the systems, the "softer side" of the process is not always organized and clear, and the messages and advice surrounding study abroad are not always consistent and integrated.

The Beacon will feature news items about innovative program initiatives and the academic achievements of rescued scholars, as well as messages from IIE-SRF allies on why they have committed their essential resources: time, expertise, wisdom, and funding to the mission of rescuing threatened scholars and national academies.

"Every day, scholars around the world are threatened with violence, imprisonment, surveillance, censorship, and even death on account of their academic status," writes Mark Angelson, Chairman, IIE Scholar Rescue Fund. "In this inaugural issue, our remarkably able staff sets forth some of the most critical areas of our current work, such as helping scholars from Syria and Iraq."