What a start to 2012!

The past two weeks passed in a blur. The faculty group arrived on January 4, and the action was non-stop until they left on January 10. Their development workshop was across-the-board successful based on both the formal evaluations and the personal emails received from many participants. While the Yucatan program was not necessarily the focus of the workshop, for the first time in a long, long time, I feel the program is secure. I feel faculty will be recommending more of their students travel here now that they understand the breadth and diversity of options available. I also feel I will have a visiting professor each semester instead of just an occasional visiting prof.

The purpose of the workshop was to help the faculty develop their own international/intercultural skills. It turned out that while many faculty are experienced international travelers and have lead programs, 7 of the 22 participants had never traveled outside of the United States. All had expressed an interest in leading short -term international programs which is the current trend in study abroad. We arranged for them to experience much of what the students experience when studying here. Some were great; others fell apart. Interestingly, several of the highly experienced travelers had the most problems adapting to the activities. Each portion of the program included intense discussions, required readings and journaling.