Eduard Shevardnadze (ედუარდ შევარდნაძე), 25 January 1928 – 7 July 2014

Eduard Shevardnadze (ედუარდ შევარდნაძე)

25 January 1928 – 7 July 2014

Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991 and President of Georgia from 1992 to 2003 understood the value of international educational and cultural exchanges.

It's fascinating to read about how "General Agreement on Contacts, Exchanges, and Cooperation in Scientific, Technical, Educational, Cultural, and Other Fields" between the United States and the Soviet Union [one of smaller outcomes of the Geneva Summit in November 1985] came about:

"Pact on Exchanges: 200-Hour Wrangle" via The New York Times, November 27, 1985

"General Agreement on Contacts, Exchanges, and Cooperation in Scientific, Technical, Educational, Cultural, and Other Fields" between the United States and the Soviet Union

How accurate is Louis CK in talking about a school trip to Guatemala?

The part about the school trip to Guatemala begins at the 2:38 mark but the entire clip is worth watching!



 Disclosure for those of you with sensitive ears: there are some #$%@! words...

The Twitter Back Channel from the 2014 NAFSA Conference in San Diego

Tweets about "#NAFSA14"

Lily von Klemperer on Standards of Good Practice for Education Abroad

As many IHEC Blog readers know, I enjoy learning and writing about the history of international educational and cultural exchange and I'm quite excited about the formation last year of the AIFS/AIFS Foundation Education Abroad Special Collection which is a project of the Forum on Education Abroad in partnership with Dickinson College, the American Institute For Study Abroad (AIFS) and the AIFS Foundation.  I enjoy the history of the field so much that several years ago I created the Bury Book Internaitonal Education Library & Archive and have received donated materials from some of the biggest names in the field and get several requests a year about visiting for research (it's currently in my home office which adds some challenges to have visitors).

This week the Forum on Education Abroad held a celebration at the Special Collection at Dickinson to honor the establishment of the center and to showcase some of the donations made thus far.  You can see photos from the event on the Forum's Facebook page and Twitter account.

In the May 23, 2014 Forum News, a note about an interview from 1988 by Tom Roberts with Lily von Klemperer was released on the Forum's YouTube Channel.  Both are pioneers in the field and I'm honored to have met Tom and to have shared a beverage (or more) with him but I never met Lily.  I'm a huge fan of her work and to watch this brief video made my day!

AAA Commercial: Emma spends a semester in Barcelona that she'd call "school"...

I have been wanting to post about a relatively recent (aired primarily January through March) AAA television commercial here in the U.S. that mentions study abroad and I'm now getting around to it as I wonder what IHEC Blog readers think.

In sum, the commercial is the voice of a father (Kirk) recounting his memories of his daughter Emma's life beginning at her wedding and working back through her life to her birth with the premise that AAA Insurance coverage was along with her every step of the way!  Along this journey, Kirk expresses that he didn't know Emma would "spend a semester in Barcelona that she'd call [pause] School".  The commercial is shot in freeze-frame and it shows Emma during her semester in Barcelona at School hiking in the mountains (presumably in the Pyrénées although the beauty of studying abroad is that she could be in the Alps).

My interpretation of both the audio and visual parts of this segment pertaining to Emma's academic time in Barcelona (5 seconds in length) suggest that study abroad (in Barcelona and beyond) by U.S. students is less than the rigorous academic experience we all know that it is...

In my view, this commercial perpetuates the view of study abroad as more of a vacation and less of an academic experience.  What is you view on the commercial and what, if any, impact do you think it has on viewers?




As usual, just looking to stir thoughts and dialogue in the field!

Also, I'm well aware of the impact studying abroad had on my undergraduate GPA (you?)!

'Game of Pawns: The Glenn Duffie Shriver Story' - Advice for U.S. College Students Abroad - A 28:08 FBI produced dramatization

A 28:08 dramatization entitled 'Game of Pawns: The Glenn Duffie Shriver Story' (produced by the FBI Counterintelligence Division) was released yesterday morning via the FBI News Blog and can be viewed below:



You can read more about the Glenn Duffie Shriver story at: http://1.usa.gov/1qYKPSm

You can also watch a 4:34 minute interview with Glenn Duffie Shriver from Federal Prison entitled 'Don't Be a Pawn: A Warning to Students Abroad' below:

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