Coming from a rural background, Kate Wolford was drawn to study abroad as a way to broaden her horizon. Once in London, Kate made the most of her semester exploring history, diverse neighborhoods, and even took up volunteering with a Member of the British Parliament. In class, Kate honed her skills in policy and economic analysis that have proved useful throughout her career in the nonprofit sector. After working on humanitarian efforts in Latin America early in her career, Kate went on to work at Lutheran World Relief, where she spent 13 years as president of the global grantmaking and advocacy organization. Since 2006, Kate has served as president of The McKnight Foundation, a Minnesota-based family foundation. In addition to overseeing the Foundation’s assets of $2.2 billion, Kate has led their sustainability efforts and implemented an innovative impact investing program that has become a role model for others in the field. In our interview, Kate reflects on her experience in London and shares why having a global perspective continues to be instrumental for her work today.

IES Abroad: Why did you decide to study abroad and what drew you to London?

Kate Wolford: I grew up and went to college in rural areas; I wanted and needed to broaden my horizon. During my sophomore year I read these lines penned by writer Samuel Johnson, "When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."  I suppose I wanted to see if that would ring true for me two hundred years later!

IES Abroad: What are one or two of the most influential memories from your time studying in London?

KW: While studying abroad, I had the opportunity to volunteer with a Member of the British Parliament. Doing research for the MP as well as meeting his constituents gave me a unique vantage point and appreciation for a different form of government. It was instructive to hear how U.S. history and politics were viewed from the other side of the Atlantic. I loved exploring the history, theater, and diverse neighborhoods of the city and interacting with students from colleges from across the U.S. 

IES Abroad: Were there any lessons learned that have remained a constant throughout your life?

KW: Bring respectful curiosity when entering into other cultures and communities; and be willing to be challenged, enriched, and transformed in the process.

IES Abroad: You spent much of your early career in Latin America and the Caribbean working for faith-based social service organizations. What inspired you pursue this type of mission-driven work and in what ways did studying in London help prepare you to work abroad?

KW: I was blessed to work in program, policy, and administrative roles in organizations that put faith into action for peace, justice and the dignity of all human beings and creation. My studies in London honed my skills in policy and economic analysis in ways that were useful for my subsequent professional duties.

IES Abroad: Since 2006, you have been president of The McKnight Foundation, one of the nation’s largest family foundations anchored in one state, and oversee around $2.2 billion in assets. What drew you to the Foundation?

KW: I was drawn to McKnight by its approach to philanthropy and the opportunity to work on some of the most pressing societal issues of our day. A major focus of our work is accelerating the transition to a low carbon economy, which is key to the future health of our global community and the planet on which we depend.

IES Abroad: In 2014, The McKnight Foundation launched an innovative Impact Investing Program dedicating $200 million, about 10%, of its endowment assets. An additional $100 million has since been allocated. What does the Foundation aim to achieve with this program?

KW: Private foundations are legally required to distribute 5% of their resources each year toward charitable purposes. Approximately 95% is invested in the market—through impact investing, we are aligning more of our investments with our mission; for example, in climate solutions, conservation, and affordable housing for low income families. In this way, we can provide more societal benefits with our resources.

IES Abroad: Although the Foundation’s work is primarily focused on Minnesota, significant support is also directed to strategies across the U.S. and in Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. How important has having an international perspective been throughout your career?

KW: It has been the common thread throughout my career. I knew McKnight because I led one of its grantee organizations, LWR. In addition to its international work, I was attracted to Minnesota-based McKnight because of the growing diversity of the state’s population. Minnesota is home to some of the world's largest diaspora communities, including Hmong, Somali, and Karen populations. I hope that understanding the context from which many of these newer neighbors have come makes me better able to recognize the assets and contributions they bring to Minnesota.

IES Abroad: Looking back over your career, what are you most proud of?

KW: I stand on the shoulders of mentors and unsung heroes who have paved the way for my leadership opportunities. I am committed to doing the same for others in ways that encourage them to act with purpose, integrity, and courage.

IES Abroad: Why do you believe study abroad is important for students today?

KW: The world is ever more interconnected and interdependent. Authentic engagement with other cultures and experiential learning opens our eyes and our imaginations to new possibilities. At its best, it takes us beyond our comfort zones, challenges our assumptions, and brings new insights and a deeper sense of our shared humanity.

Eager to see the world, Cincinnati native Tom Theobald studied abroad with three other classmates in post-war Vienna in 1956. The city was grim, but amidst the rubble, it was an exciting time of revival that exposed Tom to a variety of new perspectives. Motivated to work internationally, Tom’s experience in Vienna served as a building block, giving him skills necessary to succeed as an international banker and investor. After graduating from Harvard Business School, Tom started a 27-year career at Citibank, rising to Vice Chairman and head of international banking, and served as Chairman and CEO of Continental Bank Corp. until it was sold in 1994. Today, an active private investor, Tom takes us on a look back to his study abroad days 60 years ago.

IES Abroad: As a student at College of the Holy Cross, what led to study abroad in Vienna?

Thomas Theobald: I ended up at Holy Cross College without properly understanding what it was. I really didn’t much enjoy my time there (rest assured, the college is a lot less harsh now), and I was looking for some way out. I didn’t want to transfer to another school, and I heard by accident about the Vienna opportunity. Vienna was particularly interesting at that time in 1956. The Russians had just left. It was as grim as Berlin. You could walk for blocks, and there would be just wood fencing around rubble. It was devastated. Clean up hadn’t really begun because no one knew what would happen until after the Russians left. It was really exciting to be there. There were spies! Of course, it was a very plain style of life. In the winter, no matter who you were, the vegetables were sauerkraut and potatoes. The opera had just reopened. It was very different from the United States, which, of course, had not been war damaged. The other attraction, besides the political situation in Austria, was that I was coming from a German-speaking background from a hundred and fifty years before. My ancestors had come from Germany to Cincinnati. After studying Latin and Greek, which had no immediate prospects of usage, learning a living language, one that related to my family background, sounded like fun.

IES Abroad: What are some of your greatest memories from your time in Vienna?

TT: No sooner had the academic year started then the Hungarian Revolution occurred. It was the first big breakdown of the Eastern Block. The border opened, not in a true fashion, but the guards were overwhelmed, and 100,000 to 200,000 people left Hungary and walked over the border to Austria. They were pouring into Vienna, and the reaction was, “How do we help?” There were posters around the University about how you could go to some abandoned barracks used for military training in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The buildings were in terrible condition, and the rats were pretty big! People were streaming in with nothing but maybe a small handbag filled with clothes and big ambition. Students were recruited to clean barracks, cook, serve food, and so on. It was an amazing experience. It went on for a couple months. Ironically, not more than 10 or 11 years later, I ended up in Sydney, Australia working. All of the real estate moguls were Hungarians who had left in 1956. I probably had seen them in the barracks! 

Also, we went on cheap excursions, and certainly one of the more memorable ones was over Christmas break when a group of us went skiing and stayed in some farmhouse type place. I don’t recall any lifts. On Christmas Eve, we went walking through the woods looking for a chapel that was out among the trees lit by candles. There was a Christmas Mass there with probably thirty people in this tiny church. It was snowing. It is a fantastic memory that one would never see anywhere else. I think about it every Christmas Eve.

IES Abroad: What were the most formative experiences or classes you took while studying abroad?

TT: I went with a particular interest in history. We had some really outstanding teachers, people who later showed up as professors at Yale and elsewhere. Modern European history was being taught in Vienna by people who had lived through it until just a few years before. The intricate mess of different countries and cultures, what had been the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was now all these little countries with small populations. As an American, you are used to one big, open country; whereas, in Europe, it was all these little bits and pieces. It was an amazing reduction of perspective from the whole world into a bunch of narrow little valleys where people hated each other or got into wars over small disagreements. It taught us that the world was a whole lot more complex than the little attention American history books gave to the rest of the world. We came to understand that there was no talking about Europe – Europe was just pieces of geography. For example, the French are different from the Germans, but it didn’t explain how they got into wars and other unpleasantries, which doesn’t make much sense from the typical U.S. perspective.

That was really useful exposure. If you read newspapers published from different locations, even today, it is a different world. It really impressed me that “Hey, wait a minute, these people see it from a very different perspective!” That has been a very useful lesson. Another thing that I had not had exposure to was the world of art. You could go wondering free through the Kunsthistorisches (Art History) Museum or you could go to the opera with no advance preparation. I remember buying tickets for the standing section at the opera. It was 27 shillings, around $1.10 at the time. You could just drop in. We all saw lots of opera.

IES Abroad: You have had a remarkable career as a banker and investor: 27 years at Citicorp/Citibank rising to Vice Chairman and head of international banking, Chairman and CEO of Continental Bank Corp. until it was sold in 1994, partner with private equity firms William Blair and Chicago Growth Partners, and now an active private investor. What inspired you to become an international banker and investor?

TT: I knew growing up in Cincinnati that I wanted to see more of the world, even though I didn’t know what it was like. I went to Vienna because it sounded exciting to see some stranger parts of the world. It seems odd to say that about Vienna today, but back then, it was a dark, grim place. Studying abroad was along the path rather than a big turn in my interest to work internationally. All during the time I was at Harvard Business School, I took classes in international business. I went to work for Citibank because it was by far the most international bank or business of any kind at the time. They were operating in over 100 countries. It was certainly useful to have spent time in Vienna. Every time I got off an airplane while I was with Citi, I had to reassemble my bearings to adjust to the culture.

IES Abroad: Did your experiences in Vienna influence your career path?

TT: My study abroad experience in Vienna was a building block. It was a piece of what sounded good to me. It was a reaffirmation that it would be rewarding to see the world. Another thing that may be harder to grasp today…when I got out of graduate school in 1960, it was sort of exotic, even in a big company, to go outside of the U.S. People would say, “It may not be good for your career path. Who is going to remember you? What you are learning may not be relevant to what goes on here in America.” It was a very different attitude. Now, people look at it as great experience as we move to being more global. Back then, it was dubious. You needed a certain amount of conviction that this would be a good idea, something that everyone today takes for granted. 

IES Abroad: What skills have been most important to successfully navigating your global career?

TT: There are cultural differences in the U.S. Growing up in the Midwest, people were considerate, willing to listen, and treated others with respect. I worked in New York for 25 years, and it wasn’t the same. If you didn’t go out in the morning wanting to ‘kill’, you probably wouldn’t have a successful day. I guess there are too many rats in the cage. You had better be the stronger rat. I had a big advantage, just by the accident of where I happened to be born, of being open. I was interested in the rest of the world and, even more fundamentally, I was curious. “Why is that happening?” “Why is so-and-so over there doing something?” I would find somebody to have lunch with and ask, “What do you do here?” That, I think, is one of the career advantages that I had. I was put in all sorts of different jobs – radically different – because I was curious. That is different than saying, “Here is my job. Let’s get the damn thing done and go home and have a nice party.” That is a universal value. In school you have a syllabus, and they are going to teach you A, B, and C. But when you are on your own, you have to open the doors and ask, “What is this?” That is fundamental career advice, no matter where you are. You want to distinguish yourself by having a broader understanding of where you are, and what you are doing.

IES Abroad: You have supported scholarships for students from economically disadvantaged Chicago families to study through IES Abroad. Generally-speaking, what drives your philanthropy?

TT: I have tried to use what resources I have in a fairly focused way on what I see is a big problem. The one that struck me, and that has seen the least progress, is educational achievement in the primary and secondary years, K-12. I have focused on trying to help on an individual level to achieve better outcomes. If a student is in a totally dysfunctional home, it can be terrifying. Homes matter, no matter what. You can offset a difficult family background, to a degree, by having a well-organized school that operates in a coherent way. I started several approaches on this in Cincinnati, Chicago, and New York. Mentoring is important in this success as well. I am intrigued by the IES Abroad opportunity for a kid to broaden his or her horizons.

IES Abroad: What advice do you have for students who are considering studying or interning abroad?

TT: Expand your horizon constantly by always asking, “Why is that? What just happened? Why does someone do that? What might happen next?” To me, curiosity is always a positive. There is a saying, “Curiosity kills a cat.” But I don’t think so. Looking and asking in a work situation or a social situation is very rewarding. It is an exercise to do all your life. You can learn constantly by just observing and asking why. It is a life skill!

Growing up in New York City in a family of artists, Sophie Elgort had plenty of exposure to travel and culture. But when she studied abroad in Buenos Aires, she took full advantage of every opportunity for immersion. From watching soap operas with her host mom to making friends with restaurant owners to interning in the ER at a public hospital, Sophie made certain this would be a standout experience. She learned lessons about taking risks and managing the unknown, skills that would prove useful as a young entrepreneur launching a multi-channel business in fashion photography. To date, her work has been widely published in publications such as Teen Vogue, Glamour, Elle, Paper, Tatler, Visual Tales, and The Financial Times; and she has shot for top brands including Bloomingdales, IBM, Clinique, Etienne Aigner, Mercedes Benz, and Vince Camuto. Learn more about Sophie, why she feels it is important to mentor aspiring young photographers, and what she is planning next.

IES Abroad: Why did you decide to study abroad and why did you go to Buenos Aires? 

Sophie Elgort: I was a Comparative Literature concentrator at Brown University, and they encourage all Comparative Lit majors to study abroad. I was also very interested in the opportunity as soon as I heard about it. I was studying both French and Spanish literatures within my concentration, but I picked Buenos Aires because I felt like it was a place I might not get back to as much in the future. I go to Europe a lot for work now, but it is true, I don’t really make it back to South America as much, so I am really glad I ended up studying there. 

IES Abroad: What are some of the most influential memories from your time in Buenos Aires? 

SE: Oh, so many. I had a really great host mom. She was single and loved soap operas. She was just the best. She wasn’t a very good cook. She would stick something in the microwave and heat it up for both of us. And she didn’t speak a word of English, not even one word, which was great. We really got along and loved watching soap operas together. One night I didn’t go out since I was exhausted after multiple nights out in a row, and she was so shocked she asked if I was sick. I will never forget her. She was a really positive experience. 

Also, I was lucky enough to be there at the same time as another friend of mine who I grew up with, starting in lower school in New York, who was in Buenos Aires on another program. We didn’t actually know at the outset that we would both be there. We had mutual family friends that let us know that we were both over there. We ended up having a lot of fun adventures together. In having one other person in each other, we were able to make a lot of friends locally and meet a lot of owners of small businesses, like restauranteurs and shop owners, and explore together. 

IES Abroad: What was your personal journey to taking up a profession in fashion photography, and how did your time in Buenos Aires influence you as you launched your career? 

SE: My time in Buenos Aires was a very formative time, in general. It was definitely one of the most standout experiences, even to this day. I’m comfortable traveling; I’m comfortable being in new places; I like exploring; and doing all of that. You learn how to take risks and are able to appreciate adventure. In the beginning of a career, especially when you are an entrepreneur, there is a lot of uncertainty. You have to be able to dive in, take the risk, and believe in yourself. Having studied abroad certainly helped prepare me for this. I remember the first week abroad was just challenging. You are in a new place, living in a new home, speaking a different language. I think it just prepares you for your career, and entrepreneurship, in particular. 

IES Abroad: Has the experience informed your photography work in any way?

SE: With photography, you pull things from a ton of different places and experiences. Randomly, the other day, I was looking at a photograph of mine, and it reminded me of an experience in Buenos Aires. I have been trying to figure out what I want to do my next exhibition on, but now part of me thinks I may focus on this one subject in Buenos Aires and go back to capture some of these images.

IES Abroad: You have had some pretty incredible assignments and have worked with several well-recognized brands and publications. What has been one of your most exciting or fulfilling assignments? 

SE: They are all fulfilling in different ways. One that was really exciting was photographing Coco Rocha, who is a pretty big super model. I shot her for a campaign earlier this year, and that was a really exciting moment for me because it just felt like it was at a different level. I felt like I had accomplished something by getting pulled into a job like that. Also, I was working with her and the team, working with these amazing teams of people. Every new opportunity is really exciting. I was just interviewed by Sotheby’s about their upcoming photography auction, and that was cool, because they are a huge global name. It’s always exciting, and part of me thinks, “Whoa, why would they want to talk to me?” But at the same time, you have to realize that every single little accomplishment is a win in your life, and you just appreciate it. 

IES Abroad: Last summer, you launched your own lifestyle website. Why did you decide to pursue this direction with your work?

SE: The “lifestyle website” is more like a diary. Actually, it’s funny because when I did an interview for it on Women’s Wear Daily, they called it a “lifestyle website” or something like that. Then, Hollywood Reporter picked it up and did this huge story about how I was launching this massive lifestyle website. I was like, “Oh no! I’m not launching a lifestyle website! I said a diary, an online diary!” It’s really more about sharing my personal pictures and experiences, the ones I am not commissioned to do. I was trying to think of where I could find a platform to put these images, and I thought a diary online would be a cool way to show them. For example, I was just traveling in Australia for ten days, and I took all these pictures. I want to be able to share them and write about the experiences. It is about showing people my voice – people who don’t know me – so, not only what do my pictures look like, but what do I sound like, and what do I sound like when I’m writing. I’m also going to do a video component soon, which I am still figuring out because it is a little more time intensive.

IES Abroad: Tell us how you have used your influence to support aspiring photographers, particularly among younger generations.

SE: There are so many young aspiring photographers in middle school, high school and college, and I get all these comments on my Instagram or via email asking me to check out their work. I always try to take the time to look at it or meet with them if they are in New York. A lot of times, I have them come meet me, and they are with their parents – they are that young – and then I look at some of their pictures, and I talk to them about what they are thinking in terms of career goals and going into college, how can they pursue it, or coming out of college, what makes sense next, because a lot of people don’t necessarily think of the arts as a career option. Especially if someone is talented, it is important for someone to be able to encourage them and for them to have a role model, see that this can be a career, and that you can make money doing it.  

IES Abroad: What do you aim to achieve with your work in photography and your other creative outlets? 

SE: There are a few goals I have been focusing on for the last couple of years. One is growing my photography career, meaning shooting more and more, bigger and bigger publications and campaigns. That is the commercial side. On the personal side, the art side, I really want to have my first solo exhibition on a topic that is important to me. I am also working to get more on-air opportunities. I would like to be a host or a judge having to do with fashion or photography on a TV network, or maybe now it is more current or modern to do it on a digital platform, but still video. That is what I am working on, but they all go hand-in-hand. As one of them grows, it will help the other, and vice versa. 

IES Abroad: What has been one of your most satisfying accomplishments to date? 

SE: There’s a lot of different things, but I would say just getting my photography career organized as a business. I’m in the arts, but it is so important to think about this other side. If you want to make a living in the arts, you also need to look at the business side and realize, “How am I making a living doing this? What are my financial goals? How am I looking at it on the business side as well as the creative?” I really think that I’ve managed to learn about, set up, and organize the business side pretty well. Probably in the last year, I have really focused on that, and I’m pretty excited about what I have done. That’s something I never really knew about, thought about, or thought I could do. It’s not the glamorous part, but it’s so important. 

IES Abroad: Why do you feel studying abroad is important? 

SE: I think study abroad is really important. Everyone makes it into their own experience. It’s important to get out of your comfort zone and go explore. When you’re just traveling, like I just was in Australia for ten days – and I spent three days here, three days there, and so on – you don’t really get to know a city like you do when you study abroad. I think it is a really cool thing to be able to live in a different place and experience a different culture, not just as a tourist but as someone who lives there. I also think that language is important. It challenges your mind. Through language, you can also really understand other cultures – the phrases, the nuances, etc. It gives you perspective into other cultures the way nothing else can.

“Nantes chose me!” says Ambassador Howard F. Jeter who was selected to spend a year on the IES Abroad Nantes program in 1967-68. His foundation in language learning and intercultural understanding set the stage for a 27-year career with the U.S. State Department where he served twice as a U.S. Ambassador – first to Botswana and later to Nigeria. After retiring from the State Department, he pursued two more rewarding careers working to develop business relationships with African countries, and now is working on eradicating neglected diseases around the world. For Ambassador Jeter, it all started in Nantes.

IES Abroad: As a student at Morehouse College, how did you choose to study abroad in Nantes?

Ambassador Jeter: Morehouse has a longstanding relationship with IES Abroad, and every year they selected a group of students, known as Merrill Scholars. I was chosen as one of six students to study abroad on an IES Abroad program. I did not choose Nantes. I was told that because I was studying French I would go on the Nantes program. Other students went to IES Abroad programs in London, Vienna, Madrid, and Paris. I was really happy in Nantes. It was a small but vibrant city with a lot of history, and it had many advantages over a larger city like Paris. We went to Paris several times, but living in Nantes was preferable for me.

IES Abroad: What are one or two very special memories you hold from your time in Nantes?

HJ: The first week of orientation was a sojourn in the Loire Valley and a wonderful introduction to France and French culture. We also got to know our cohort of students. Even at that point, we were strongly discouraged from speaking English, and that really set the stage for intensive French language study.  My host family, M. and Mme Leland and their son and daughter were a close-knit family. Typical of many French families, they did a lot together. I was impressed with the warmth and inclusiveness with which I was received. Moreover, Jimmie Milhouse, a fellow Morehouse student, was my roommate and we often studied together and helped one another a lot. I liked all of my classes at IES Abroad, except for my phonetics class. I told the Center Director, Madame Hugues that I did not understand why I needed to take that class, but she said I did, and in the end, I did! The classes were very, very good, and the professors were excellent. I learned very quickly that the more I spoke the language, the better I became.

IES Abroad: What challenges did you face while studying abroad and how did you overcome them?

HJ: Adapting to a new culture and a new way of doing things and being away from my family were challenging. But I viewed these obstacles just as things I had to work through during the first few months and I did. Probably the biggest challenge concerned the Moped that I purchased when I was in Nantes. Learning to maneuver on French streets was difficult, and I did have one accident when I was there. It happened on a cold, rainy evening, when riding a moped was always a particular challenge. But I used it to go everywhere in Nantes. It was really essential to getting around in the city.

IES Abroad: What skills that you developed during study abroad did you apply to your 27-year career in diplomacy?

HJ: Oddly enough, I only occasionally used French in my career. Later on, I learned Brazilian Portuguese when I was assigned to Mozambique, and Kiswahili, which I used in Tanzania. But having learned French, it made learning Portuguese much easier. There were a lot of similarities. In retrospect, I realize how much the IES Abroad program taught me to adapt to other cultures. Living in Europe is not so different for Americans, but once you go farther afield, the differences are greater. Europe was a great stepping stone for me down that path. It also gave me a strong foundation for intercultural understanding and appreciation of other ways of life. It all began in Nantes. Otherwise, how could I have done it? I credit the program for that. IES Abroad Nantes left the most indelible mark on me of anything I’ve ever done. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I learned a lot. It was the springboard for me to do so many other things, and it was how I became involved in international affairs. Having been bitten by the “travel bug,” a year after Nantes, I took advantage of an opportunity to do three months of volunteer work on a rural development in Africa. The rest is history.

IES Abroad: You served as U.S. Ambassador to Botswana (1993-1996), Nigeria (2000-2003), and as Special Presidential Envoy to Liberia (1996-1997). When you look back at your career with the State Department what are you most proud of?

HJ: The most difficult assignment I had was as the President’s Special Envoy for Liberia because of the volatile issues we were dealing with in trying to end a very devastating civil war. Nigeria was one of the biggest players in that situation, and we had a difficult bilateral relationship with the country at that time. We had to gauge how to best handle that relationship, and that difficult task was entrusted to me.  I traveled to Nigeria over fifteen times during my assignment. The U.S. Government decided that while we differed on many issues, ending the war in Liberia, which was destabilizing the entire West African sub-region, was the one area where we and Nigeria had common goals. The Nigerians agreed. The job entailed an enormous amount of global travel, especially to Europe and West Africa. I think I clocked nearly a million air miles. It was difficult to deal with so many different interests and personalities, sometimes with warlords, governments, regional organizations, and civil society groups. So, to have played a role in halting that war is probably one of the most fulfilling things I’ve done in my career.

I am also proud of what I accomplished in Nigeria as Ambassador. Nigeria is such a big, hubristic country with a rolling set of challenges 365 days a year. It is the number one country in Africa in terms of influence, population, wealth, energy resources, and reach. The Nigerians are very active diplomatically. They are a very highly educated and highly motivated people. To grow the close relationships that we did with the Nigerians, gain their confidence and trust, and get them to do some things they might not otherwise have done took a lot of patience and hard work. Likewise, they probably got us to do some things we otherwise would not have considered. It was very professionally rewarding and intellectually stimulating. 

IES Abroad: Following your career with the State Department, what has been some of your most fulfilling work?

HJ: After I retired from the State Department, I joined Ambassador Andrew Young’s consulting firm, GoodWorks International. I helped to establish and managed their Washington, DC office. We did lots of work facilitating mutually beneficial business and investment relations between U.S. companies and Africa. When I left GoodWorks International, I served briefly as Interim President of the Leon H. Sullivan Foundation. Subsequently, I started my own small consulting firm, including service on the Boards of two small but promising start-up oil companies.

But what I’m doing now, as a volunteer, is probably one of the most fulfilling things I’ve done in my life. As a member of the Board of Directors of the Sir Emeka Offor Foundation, I work in my spare time with three well known non-governmental organizations: Books for Africa, The Carter Center and Rotary International. Through Books for Africa, the Foundation is now the largest donor of books and computers to schools, libraries, and universities on the African continent. So far, more than 2 million books and over 1,000 computers have been donated with a cumulative value of more than $22 million.

The Foundation’s work with Rotary International is primarily focused on polio eradication, although our founder has provided hundreds of thousands of dollars to Rotary programs on maternal and child health care, education and literacy, and peace studies. His donation of $2.5 million to Rotary’s global campaign on polio eradication was matched 2-to-1 by the Gates Foundation and is one of the largest individual donations made to the Rotary Foundation. In Nigeria within the next 22 months, if mass immunization continues on its current trajectory, the World Health Organization will declare Nigeria polio-free. This will be a huge victory over one of the world’s most debilitating diseases. I have seen the human suffering that polio causes and if one can claim even a small role in its eradication, this is something very meaningful, very special.   

Nigeria has over 40 percent of the world’s cases of River Blindness, a disease which could potentially affect up to 30 million people. You have probably never heard of River Blindness. That is because it is a truly neglected tropical disease. Few donor governments, global foundations or major non-governmental organizations have paid much attention to this sight-robbing disease. To help meet this challenge, The Sir Emeka Offor Foundation has entered into a partnership with the Atlanta-based Carter Center with a pledge of $10 million to accelerate The Carter Center’s field work to eliminate River Blindness in Nigeria. With continuing support from the Government of Nigeria and Merck and Company, and the Carter Center’s outstanding field work to eliminate this disease, we at the Sir Emeka Offor Foundation are confident that this six-year goal can be achieved.

My work with these philanthropic endeavors has given new meaning to my life. The empathy, kindness, caring, commitment, and generosity of the people and organizations that I have encountered and with whom I work have made me a better, more hopeful, and a much more determined person. For this, I am grateful. 

IES Abroad: Having perceived the world from so many vantage points, in what fields would you most like to see U.S. college graduates apply their skills?

HJ: Young people today need to understand that we now live in a global society, a global economy, and a global political system. In order to be competitive, they are going to have to do things that perhaps their peers did not have to do several decades ago – like learning languages. Because if they don’t, they will not be competitive. They’re not just competing with their classmates in their town, city, state, or even their peers in the United States. They are competing with people from all over the world. So, if you want to work for a multinational corporation, for example, you may be competing with people from China, Britain, France, Brazil, Malaysia, Egypt, Nigeria, and beyond. I look at some of the big oil companies in the U.S., and they don’t only have staff from the United States; they have Nigerian and Angolan headquarters staff, for example, because that’s where they operate. They want those employees in their U.S. offices because they speak the languages of their home countries and they know what is going on there. You’ve got to know at least one foreign language, and two or more if possible, because your competitors will know several. You have to be able to adapt to different cultures and be culturally sensitive. Students in college today need to understand that studying abroad is really not a luxury, but rather a necessity for career success in our inter-dependent, globalized world.

IES Abroad: Where will you encourage your grandchildren to study abroad and why?

HJ: There is always value in learning a romance language, so study abroad in a European country where a romance language is spoken is still very valuable. (My daughter studied in France, Italy, and the UK, and is currently studying Chinese in Shanghai, where she lives with her family). But there are several emerging countries that now warrant exploring that are going to be big players in the years ahead. The so-called BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) come to mind. It would be good to learn Portuguese, Russian or Hindi, and Chinese is especially valuable. In Africa, learning Hausa or Kiswahili would be useful because those languages are widely spoken in multiple countries. What I’ve found in my work and travel is that if you go to a country and can speak even a few basic words and greetings, the people are more receptive. And, if you speak the language conversationally, you are then set to be ‘in’ the culture, and people will share more with you than they otherwise would.

For students who are contemplating a career in international affairs, study abroad is a must. And international affairs is not just the State Department or other agencies of the U.S. Government. That is only a small part of a much larger mosaic of career possibilities. There are so many career opportunities in multinational corporations, journalism, international institutions, and non-governmental organizations. Study abroad is one of the best things you can do to enhance your career prospects and broaden your life choices.

From traveling behind the Iron Curtain to watching the Berlin Wall go up, Tom Tusher took advantage of every opportunity study abroad had to offer. At a time when few American companies had international divisions, Tom returned to the U.S. determined to pursue a career in international business, even if it meant charting his own path. In 1969, he joined Levi Strauss & Company and was instrumental in building the company’s international brand from the ground up – navigating their entry as one of the first American companies into Hungary, Poland, and Czechoslovakia – places he had experienced first-hand while studying abroad. In our interview, Tom explains how studying abroad laid the foundation for his professional success as President and COO of Levi Strauss & Company, and why he supports study abroad scholarships for today’s students.

IES Abroad: What led you to study abroad in Vienna?

Tom Tusher: I was born and raised in Oakland, California, and my parents were not world travelers, but I always had an interest in things outside of California and outside of the Bay Area. It appealed to me to spend some time abroad. I then started to look at what programs were available. IES Abroad stood out from all the rest in terms of being the best of the programs, and it was important to me that I could receive credit for all of the time I would be spending abroad. Vienna didn’t have a specific draw for me going into the process. It was the best program available. That was the main draw. Once I got to Vienna, of course, I loved Vienna!

IES Abroad: You studied in Vienna during a period of continuing recovery after World War II. What was it like to be in Europe at that time?

TT: This was the 1960s, almost twenty years removed from the war, and you would have thought that things would have changed dramatically or have been forgotten. That wasn’t true at all! In the capital of Bucharest, there were billboards with anti-American slogans, basically associating Americans with Nazis. It was amazing! I was struck by how stringent life was for people who were behind the Iron Curtain, how little they had, and how stunted they were in their knowledge of the world by their governments. The other contrast was going into Germany. The West Berlin side of the Wall was either already fully reconstructed or well on its way to being reconstructed. The place was rebuilt. When you went to the East Berlin side, every building was either bombed out or had bullet holes in it. It was incredible to me that within a couple of hundred yards there would be this contrast. It wasn’t just the couple of hundred yards of distance, it was twenty years of time! That had one of the biggest impacts on me.

IES Abroad: What were some of your most memorable experiences studying abroad?

TT: I remember going into Berlin when the Wall was going up. I went into East Berlin, which was easy to do, and even at that time, it was supposedly easy to get out. On my way out, when I got within 100 yards of the Wall, suddenly the German shepherds and the police made it very clear that I wasn’t to come any closer. I suddenly had the sense of what it was like to be behind the Iron Curtain. I was there on a Friday and was planning to leave that same day. When I got ready to board the train to exit, I was told that I had to have a visa to get out. I didn’t need a visa to get in, but I needed one to get out. “Ok, where do I get that?” They said that I had to go to the other side of town. It was an hour to closing, and if I didn’t get there in time to get my visa, I was going to be stuck for the weekend. That was another experience of not having the freedom we are used to. In any event, I did make it in time and got out. I made a point when the Wall came down of going back to Berlin. I saw it go up, and I saw it go down. 

IES Abroad: You began your career at Levi Strauss in 1969 and went on to become President and COO. How did studying abroad influence your career path?

TT: We traveled a lot behind the Iron Curtain. I went to Hungary, Poland, and Czechoslovakia. That certainly influenced me when I got into my corporate career. Those were the three first Eastern European countries Levi Strauss set up in. Hungary was number one. We were one of the first American corporations to go into Hungary, and subsequently into Czechoslovakia and Poland. We set up a large production facility in Poland that is still there today. Studying abroad influenced my life, there is no question about it.

When I came back from Vienna, my career objective changed focus to international business. Interestingly, I ran into one of my classmates from IES Abroad while standing in line to register for business school at Stanford. We were the only two people in our class at Stanford who had an interest in international business. My classmate went to work for an international bank while I was interviewing with consumer product companies with the objective to be part of the international division. What I discovered is that very few corporations at that time did much internationally or, if they did, they did it through third party distributors. They didn’t have their own programs. The only one that did was Colgate Palmolive, so I went to work for them after graduating from Stanford.

IES Abroad: Were there lessons learned in Vienna that helped you in the early days of your career?

TT: I think the main thing was being exposed to cultural diversity abroad, which led me to want to pursue an international career. It was a unique opportunity, since very few people were pursuing international business careers. Nor were there many American companies that had programs focused internationally. Whereas the world has changed today. My belief, at the time, was that my exposure to international cultures was going to benefit me in a business career. You could just see that the world was changing and that there was going to be a bigger, broader world. Having had the opportunity to be an early adopter at the time was going to be advantageous. It turned out to be the case.  

IES Abroad: How important has having an international perspective been for you in your career?

TT: Huge! When I joined Colgate Palmolive, their company, which was always thought of as an American company, did 55% of sales volume from overseas but over 100% of their profit came from international. Therefore, the international part of Colgate was significantly important to them. They had a full-scale international program where they brought in six to 12 new graduates and put them through a training program and then assigned them to posts overseas. This is what I wanted to do, so it was a perfect company for me to join. I was exposed to a highly, highly, highly, internationally global organization. When I joined Levi’s, on the other hand, it was not at all. It was only a $200 million dollar business – a small business – almost all in the U.S., with a small amount of export business. They had a president of international, whom I was working for initially. Of course, the brand was iconic, but they had to build the brand internationally. It was a real opportunity for me to grow the international business from the ground floor. I had assignments in Mexico, Australia, the UK and Europe, and then returned to San Francisco to run the entire International Business.

IES Abroad: What is one thing you learned while abroad that remains a constant in your life today?

TT: If I had to put it down to a couple of words, it would be “cultural diversity.” It made me more tolerant of different cultures, whatever they may be. Traveling through Turkey, an Islamic country, as a college student, I had met a lot of Turkish Muslim students. When I was in Morocco, same thing. Even traveling in France, I experienced when they were having problems with the independence of Algeria. I stayed in hostels and met a lot of Algerians students. Cultural tolerance and diversity is probably one of the things I took away most from my experiences in Europe – learning to get along with people and tolerance of other ways of thinking, other religions, and simply cultural differences. I met some wonderful people. I got invited into homes to have meals. Sometimes it was a student who invited me home who spoke some English and their family would speak no English, but we always found a way to communicate.

IES Abroad: Since retiring from Levi Strauss in 1997, you and your wife, Pauline, have devoted yourself to philanthropy, including establishing the Thomas Tusher Scholarship for Study Abroad at Haas School of Business. What motivated you to pay it forward, enabling students for whom study abroad would be out of their reach financially, to have this life changing experience?

TT: I didn’t come from a strong economic background. That is an understatement in terms of “lack thereof.” I recognize how expensive college has gotten. I have been very fortunate to have done very well in the corporate world and have the financial ability to do something. Sometimes you try to do things that mirror your own background. In my case, it was having had the opportunity to study abroad and how it impacted me in terms of my business career. Having come out of the very parochial U.S. environment and seeing that in a lot of the students I met when I was on the Advisory Board at the University of California-Berkeley, I wanted to try to encourage students to study abroad, particularly those interested in a business career. This is why we started the scholarship at the Haas School of Business, rather than the full university. It was to take students interested in a business career in the undergraduate program and give them an opportunity to have some time abroad at an early age, recognizing that not everybody necessarily would be desirous of an international career or would come back and pursue one. But at least it would broaden their horizons in whatever they were going to do for the rest of life or their business career, by giving them exposure to other cultures and other ways of thinking.

IES Abroad: What advice do you have for students who are studying abroad today?

TT: For students at large: apply to go abroad. Many students do not even begin to realize what an opportunity study abroad is and all that they would get out of it. For students studying abroad: be adventuresome. Get out there, meet people, see the world, and experience! I stood in line the day before for some of the special operas in Vienna. I am not an opera buff nor have I become one since, but it was important to me to experience some of the culture of Vienna. It was stepping outside of my comfort zone. I would encourage students studying abroad to also step outside their comfort zone, to go find things that they might not even know they have an interest in. Having traveled throughout Europe, going through the great museums of the world on my own, I began developing a greater appreciation of the art world. When I came back from Vienna, I enrolled in some art appreciation courses to develop an appreciation of the cultural things that probably would have taken many more years to develop had I not had that exposure. I continue to have a life engaged with the international world, with homes in New Zealand and Mexico. We own a lodge in New Zealand (www.blanketbay.com) where we host guests from around the world.

When Fred Zollo studied abroad in IES Abroad’s first London class in Spring 1974, he didn’t expect the experience would help lay the foundation for a future career in theater and film. From going to the theater three to four times a week, including seeing Laurance Olivier’s final performance, to producing a one-man show for a class – Fred lived and breathed theater in London. Coming from a family of Italian anarchists, Fred was brought up in the tradition of social justice. But witnessing the coal miners’ strike first-hand while studying abroad brought the issues of social justice to life – themes he has continued to focus on as a producer. Winner of six Tony Awards and 18-time nominee, Fred is best known for his work on Best Picture Oscar Nominees Mississippi Burning and Quiz Show. Read on to see how studying abroad impacted his career and why he believes every American student should study abroad.

IES Abroad: What led you to study abroad and why did you chose to go to London?

Fred Zollo: I had always planned to go to the London School of Economics (LSE) for undergrad but didn’t. The IES Abroad program was a perfect way for me to attend LSE (one of IES Abroad’s foreign partner universities at the time), so that is why I chose it. I eventually went to graduate school there. What was so wonderful about IES Abroad was that I ended up making lifelong friendships with members of the faculty that I had met during the spring of 1974. It couldn’t have been more perfect.

IES Abroad: What are some of your greatest memories from your time in London? 

FZ: It was a very tumultuous time in the United Kingdom. There was a coal miners’ strike and elections, which brought back Harold Wilson. We witnessed that first hand. Many of us were even active in the campaign. I spent some time in Wales where I observed the strike first-hand and went down in the mines with the striking miners. It was a remarkable period. We also went to Germany, traveling in the Black Forest, and to the University of Freiburg in Germany. It was a very tumultuous time not only in the U.K. but across Europe. The Vietnam War was finally coming to an end. It would take another year. In retrospect, it seemed like any other year, but it wasn’t. It was a profound time to be in Europe. I look back on it as one of the most important six months of my life.

IES Abroad: How did your experiences, classes, and the people you met while you were studying in London impact your interest in theater?

FZ: I did a little bit of theater while I was there. I worked on a project that was actually involved with Philip Windsor’s class at the LSE about George Bernard Shaw. I did a one-man show related to this called, Conversations with Myself. It was some random thoughts of Shaw shuffled together in a 25 minute presentation. When I think of it now, it is rather embarrassing. The great thing about IES Abroad and the LSE is that they welcomed us and embraced us. It was a very special and rare experience. Everyone got to do stuff that was unique to them. They encouraged things that we were interested in. I don’t know what it was like for those who followed us, but remembering back, we couldn’t have been more excited.

As far as an educational, cultural, and social experience, study abroad was extraordinary. I think we went to the theater at least three times a week, sometimes four. In those days, the West End was extraordinarily inexpensive. For two and a half pounds you could go to any of the West End theaters, and I was able to see some legendary performances. They were building the new National Theater, and it was Laurence Olivier’s last season. During this period – my spring 1974 term – Laurence Olivier performed in his last three plays. I saw all three. In fact, I saw the last performance of his final performance. It was a watershed time. It was a remarkable place for the theater. I was young, of course, and had an interest in the theater, and little did I know that I would go into it professionally.

IES Abroad: After graduating, how did you get your start in theater? Were there skills learned abroad that helped you in the early days?

FZ: My start in the theater is, of course, based on nepotism. My father was involved in theater and film production. We did some things together before he died. He passed away in 1977. The first thing I worked on on Broadway was a play by David Rabe, with Al Pacino, about the Vietnam War, The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel, which my father did just before he died. I had the good fortune to work on that with him. I have done a number of plays with Mr. Rabe since. I thought that it would be an experience in my modest life, but it turned out to be a career.

IES Abroad: A recurring theme in the plays and films that you have produced is equality and justice. Did your experiences while you were in London help shape your attitudes and ethics? If so, how?

FZ: I come from a family of anarchists, very much of the tradition of the early twentieth century and the immigration of Italians to the United States, many of whom were abused, mistreated, and, eventually, deported. The whole social justice movement, the anarchist movement, is highlighted, of course, by the execution of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti in 1927. This was the tradition that I come from: of looking at the world a little bit differently. Being in London, in England, and on the Continent in 1974, in particular, was very important because it is not often you are in a country that basically shuts down for a couple of months because of a miners’ strike. It brought to the fore all of the issues of social justice. I don’t remember the exact average pay of a miner in 1974 (40 or so pounds), but the notion that somebody would think someone else would do that incredibly dangerous job for a pittance in the 70s—we are not talking about the 1870s—put the world in a clear light.

Again, the Vietnam War was still going on, and those of us who were of age had to deal with the possibility of having to go there and the injustice of the war. Theater and film were a platform for social justice. To quote H.L. Mencken, the purpose of what we should do is “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” That is the intention, with some exceptions, for most of the work I’ve done – whether it is Angels in America or Pavlo Hummel, or all of the August Wilson plays that I have had the honor to be involved in, or films like Mississippi Burning, Quiz Show, Ghosts in Mississippi, and others – all attempt to do that, some with more success than others.

IES Abroad: You have won six Tony Awards, have been nominated for a Tony 18 times, and won many other awards for your work. What are you most proud of?

FZ: That I’m still here. I’ve been doing this for forty years. I am just happy that I’m still doing it and that we are able to continue to do films and plays about things that matter. When I started making movies, we had a company called Movies That Matter. We hoped that the movies we made would matter. So, when a movie like Mississippi Burning was on the cover of Time magazine in those days, it was very rare. It wasn’t an article about a movie star; it was an article about a film. The second Mississippi film was about the murder of Medgar Evers and the thirty-year hunt for and prosecution of his murderer, Byron De La Beckwith. Rick Bragg of the The New York Times described it as telling our history through celluloid. For better or worse, and some more successfully than others, the idea was to try to earn conscience with celluloid. That is what the greatest filmmakers have done, and that was always our hope. In terms of theater, I have been very blessed to do plays by people like David Rabe, August Wilson, David Mamet, Marsha Norman, Wendy Wasserstein, Tony Kushner, Christopher Hampton, Eric Bogosian, among others.

IES Abroad: Without revealing a ‘spoiler’, what projects are you engaged in or considering?

FZ: We have a whole list of things coming up. In terms of the theater, I’m redoing a play that I did with Mike Nichols 20-25 years ago about social justice in Chile called Death of a Maiden by the great Ariel Dorfman. We are also in the process of making a film about the murder of Emmett Till in Mississippi in 1955, which galvanized the Civil Rights Movement.

IES Abroad: What is one thing you learned while abroad that remains a constant in your life?

FZ: I think that study abroad is the best thing for Americans. Again, I’m a pacifist. My parents were Italian, so I had been out of the United States several times. The most important thing we Americans can learn is that it is a big world out there. It is very important to see how we are perceived and how what we do in the world is perceived by others. You learn a lot about how we are perceived when you are in Britain, France, Germany, the former Soviet Union, or Asia. You begin to see that the world does not rotate around us. Just because we say it, doesn’t mean that it is true. It is a great learning lesson for Americans to understand different cultures, languages, literature, music, and history. All of it is very, very important. All of us were very fortunate to be taught the lesson that our place in the world may not be what we thought before we studied abroad. Plus, LSE would not be described as a conservative place. I was inspired by Bernard Shaw and others. The lesson that we all learned there tilted us a bit, and should have. I also remember Edward Mowatt (Founder of IES Abroad London and Center Director). We played cricket in his backyard in Kent. He was lovely, talented, giving, thoughtful, and supportive. He was an extraordinary influence on me and all of us. He welcomed us in a terrific way, and he ran interference for us with the very impressive people at the LSE, like Philip Windsor and Frederick Northedge. We couldn’t have been more fortunate.

IES Abroad: What advice would you give to a student who is considering studying abroad today?

FZ: Study abroad should be a requirement for American students. And if they can’t afford it, there should be scholarship funds. I’m talking about a national scholarship fund where the government helps them, and not a government loan that some bank is going to hound them for the next 20 years. It is an essential part of every American’s education, regardless of class, creed, or economic standing. You will have a much different discourse in this country if people actually spent six months or a year abroad in an important institution studying and thinking and looking at the world. Americans are more insular than they have ever been. If more young Americans were able to avail themselves of a program like IES Abroad, it is a life-changing thing, not just for them but for the country.

Growing up with a strong sense of her Haitian identity and deep belief in the value of education, Nedgine Paul seized as many opportunities as she could to learn languages, develop intercultural competencies, and understand different systems of education and associated socio-political, economic, and historical pressures. Studying on summer programs in Arles and Salamanca, she refined her French and Spanish language skills while solidifying for her the importance of community and context, lessons which would open doors and prove immensely useful as she launched her career in global education development. Coming full circle back to Haiti, Nedgine co-founded Anseye Pou Ayiti, a local non-governmental organization (NGO) that leverages collective action to train educational leaders in existing schools and bring about education equity throughout Haiti.

IES Abroad: Why did you decide to study abroad in Arles and then again the following summer in Salamanca?

NP: The main factor was refining my language skills. My family instilled a sense that one cannot be close minded, and that means interacting with other cultures. I appreciate that IES Abroad gave me the opportunity to do a summer program. Spanish and French were two languages that I had wanted to keep up. I was looking high and low for a program that had substantial time in-country. Through IES Abroad, I had time on my own, with our groups, in classes and cultural immersion activities, and in a homestay. The programs were an all-inclusive, integrated experience that I appreciated.

IES Abroad: What are some of the most influential memories from your time in both Arles and Salamanca?

NP: In Arles, I was excited to be living in a community that had an immigrant population. Actually, one of the courses was about the cultural migrations of France and the immigrant populations, and it was just so powerful to actually come into contact with families and individuals who had had that experience and could add the cultural lens to my linguistic learning. To be truly immersed in a language includes taking in so much of what makes the context unique and authentic, and so that was a highlight, for sure. In Salamanca, I loved the fact that we were really integrated into what it was like to be part of the university atmosphere. But more than that, IES Abroad did such a great job at integrating cultural exposure, just like in Arles. So, whether it was seeing a bullfight for the first time face-to-face, meeting with local students and families, visiting some really amazing cultural sites – that for sure was a highlight.

IES Abroad: After graduating from Yale, you worked for organizations committed to increasing access to education. Were there lessons learned from studying abroad that you were able to apply as you launched your career?

NP: Knowing languages opens doors. I can’t say that enough, and it is one of those lessons that my parents instilled in me. I am just so grateful that I had a window into that reality early on in my career. That was important because a lot of the work that I did was pulling at global education trends and being able to dig deep into materials that were not necessarily written in English all of the time – either French or Spanish. A lot of the cases I worked on were in the Americas region, so, knowing the language was such a benefit.

The other thing I would say was the power of context and community. I love that it wasn’t just sitting in a class learning a language for either IES Abroad experience but really exploring – how did Spanish evolve, and why is it a little different if you are in Salamanca as opposed to in Madrid as opposed to in Barcelona, for instance. And I loved that a lot of the courses integrated a social, cultural, and political lens on our discussions. One of the things these experiences have encouraged me to do as an educator is start first with context and communities. So often in education, we think we know the solution when actually we are so much closer to getting at real education equity if we are doing it alongside community members and hearing from people whose voices are often unheard.

IES Abroad: Already on an exciting path having worked for Achievement First, the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut, and WorldTeach, why did you decide to pursue your graduate degree in International Education Policy from Harvard?

NP: One of the things that I was introduced to at Achievement First was that there was a whole group of people around the world who believed that someone’s zip code or place of birth did not have to determine their destiny as related to their capacity and academic success. That was thrilling for me because you have this incredibly difficult challenge in Haiti about how where you are born, in many cases, determines access to quality schooling and your pathway to professional careers. I sought to receive my Master’s degree because I wanted to understand what it would look like to take work of equal educational opportunity internationally, specifically back home. I enrolled in a Master’s program that was geared towards helping me understand the global trends across countries that looked very different from the U.S. and some very different from Haiti, so that I could really understand who is out there talking about not a silver bullet but the really difficult and messy job of fixing a broken school system. That is what the Master’s degree equipped me to do and think about, though the real life experience really helps you put the study into practice, which is what happened as I planned for and launched Anseye Pou Ayiti.

IES Abroad: What inspired you to focus your efforts on Haitian education and development?

NP: I am driven a lot by my faith and my belief in equity and social justice, so I don’t think it is by coincidence that my past led me to where it did including the IES Abroad experiences. It has set me up in ways that I couldn’t have charted myself. When I was quite young, I traveled back and forth to Haiti with my family and visited with peers who were just struggling to get access to quality schools because they knew education was powerful. And yet they didn’t have access to high schools in their communities, within rural communities in particular. That lit a fire in my belly from early on, during my teenage years, spurring me to study the history of education in Haiti as an undergraduate, and then the fact that I was able to be exposed to the world of global development as an adult further reinforced for me that social transformation is possible.

IES Abroad: When did you found Anseye Pou Ayiti and how did it materialize?

NP: I love that our co-founder is brought up in a lot of conversations, because he was there from day one. His name is Ivanley Noisette. He is Haitian American, has a human rights background by training, and he is currently in law school. He has been an integral part of our development. In terms of how we started, I use the phrase “slow and steady” because we took a very deliberate, inclusive approach to developing the organizational model several years before launching. I never would have thought that I would be a social entrepreneur. Yet I am forever grateful to be part of this movement for change, because I am surrounded and working alongside allies every day.

About five or six years ago, we came together – myself and Ivan and a few other people that we called a “brain trust” – because we wanted to sit and understand what exists in Haiti, what has existed in Haiti, and what is Haiti at its best. If we are really looking to redefine quality education via collective action and make it truly accessible at all, we asked: what has worked, what hasn’t, and where can we go with this. We took a few years to really think this through, going back and forth to Haiti, having a ton of conversations with community members, students, parents, and families. All of that culminated into a business plan, and subsequently a theory of the problem, theory of change documents, and all of the different nuts and bolts that go into making an organization tick. We were officially an organization as of late 2014. Our board was in place at that point for a few months, and then we officially launched all of our activities for Anseye Pou Ayiti’s first fellowship cohort in January 2015.

IES Abroad: What is your vision for Anseye Pou Ayiti?

NP: Anseye Pou Ayiti is a movement rooted in the belief that Haiti can be a global leader again through education equity. We believe that we can equip a powerful network of education leaders and allies who are redefining effective leadership based on collective action, who are proving that education equity is the foundation for real freedom and social justice. We know it is through collective action and education equity that we are going to show a Haiti that is for Haitians and by Haitians, and that is truly celebrating our culture, customs, and community. That is our big vision 10 to 20 years out. That is the “what.” And then there is the “how”: every year we recruit a cohort of teacher leaders locally. We are placing them in existing schools to fill gaps, or to have them continue as teachers if they are already there. We have sustained training over a two-year fellowship program that focuses actively on pedagogy and leadership. Last but not least, we are building a network of leaders who are operating in multiple sectors yet always as active advocates of education equity, whether they are psychologists or policymakers or long-term career teachers. That “how” is based on this big “what” vision that says we can redefine effective leadership here in Haiti by truly changing the game of education.

IES Abroad: What has been one of your/Anseye Pou Ayiti’s most satisfying accomplishments to date?

NP: I would say it was matriculating our first cohort and seeing them through what was an intensive summer program of training, because, to be honest, this is a big leap of faith for so many of us. Yes, there are allies in Haiti and abroad. Yes, there are partners. Yes, there are people saying, “Go! Go! Go! You can do this!” But until you have people who can sign up and say, “This is risky. This is the first cohort – but I am signing up, and I will be one of the strongest advocates Anseye Pou Ayiti has ever seen,” that inspires me to keep pushing forward, every time I see this group of 30 teacher leaders together, because they took a chance, and they are incredible trailblazers for this mission.

IES Abroad: Considering the difference in level of access to education that Anseye Pou Ayiti is striving for versus the access to international education that IES Abroad is striving for, do you feel that studying abroad is an important component of one’s education?

NP: Study abroad is a privilege. I can’t tell you how many people I meet who are very eager for a chance to study abroad only to come back stronger for their country. With that lens, it is critical and transformative, and I am excited for how study abroad can become more accessible and closer within reach, whether it’s through shorter term trips or mutual exchanges. It goes back to what my parents instilled in me – and they are correct, in my opinion – regarding the importance of being exposed to different peoples, cultures, and histories so we can become truly critical thinkers. While technology can and must play a role in modernizing education, I hope we never overlook the power of sitting face-to-face or in relationship with someone who is pushing on your frameworks or your existing mindsets, so that critical thinking and global citizenship can truly evolve. So yes to study abroad!

An architecture major at the University of Virginia, Diana Hage embarked on a semester in Vienna to view some of the most stunning architecture Europe had to offer. What she discovered was what she really wanted was a global career. She returned to the U.S., changed her major, and upon graduation, studied for and passed the Foreign Service Exam. Waiting to be posted, she took a job with IBM, which led to a 20+ year career there. Now CEO of RFID Global Solution, Diana is leading a fast-growing and dynamic enterprise software company that has designed and led some of the world’s largest radio frequency identification deployments for global aerospace, airline, and electronics manufacturers. In our interview, Diana shares how studying abroad helped her develop language and intercultural skills that she drew upon throughout her global career.

IES Abroad: As a student at the University of Virginia studying International Relations, how did you get interested in this area of study and why did you decide to study abroad in Vienna?

DH: When I enrolled at the University of Virginia, I was in the architecture program and was very interested in European art, design, and architecture. Because of this interest, I decided to spend time overseas and visit major European capitals – Rome, Paris, and others. Vienna was definitely on the list. Part of my family history is German. My grandparents were of German heritage and spoke German, and my dad’s native language was German. So, I had a family affinity for Germanic regions in Europe, and I was interested in architecture. The German-speaking programs that were available at the time were in Freiburg and Vienna. I opted for Vienna because of its deep history, music traditions, and architectural prominence.

IES Abroad: What were some of the most influential memories from your time in Vienna?

DH: Growing up, my parents traveled frequently. My father worked for IBM and often travelled to Europe. On occasion, I would go on trips with them, but this was my first time being abroad alone and for that length of a period. I truly took advantage of being in Europe. I studied and took an interest in my courses, but I also took advantage of the culture and events that were continuously being promoted by the Center, which most certainly included the Staatsoper (Vienna State Opera). I went and saw Leonard Bernstein for 10 cents! I also remember the beautiful Christmas markets. Throughout the semester, I lived in a dorm with other international students from all over the world – Japan, Turkey, and other parts of Europe – but I wasn’t meeting as many Austrians as I had wanted. I opted to stay over Christmas break because the Center staff had arranged for us to stay with local families in a mountain village, Kitzbühel, for the holidays. The family I stayed with made smoked trout for our Christmas meal, and I remember the incredible torch-light marches and all the townspeople parading through the snow-covered village streets. It was magical and gave me a profound interest in the Austrian alpine culture.

IES Abroad: What type of personal and professional impact did the experience have on you?

DH: Studying abroad made me even more aware of the very rich cultural heritage that precedes American society. It made me profoundly aware of the art and design that dates back thousands of years, and I had a heighted interest in history as a result. Additionally, I decided I wanted to go into a global career. When I returned, I changed my major to International Relations. While I was at IES Abroad, I studied international law, and took several foreign languages – German and Russian. I still liked architecture and design, but I decided I wanted to go into international business as it would give me the opportunity to travel and meet people from other cultures and interact with them.

IES Abroad: How did you find your way from being an International Relations major to the technology sector?

DH: I was interested in joining the State Department, so I took the Foreign Service exam in December before I graduated and I passed. I was waiting for an appointment to be posted to an embassy from the list of candidates. In the meantime, my father, who worked for IBM, suggested that I interview with IBM and get experience working for a company that has large global reach. I was hired and worked for IBM for four years before going back to business school. Then, I returned for a 15-year career, working in a variety of areas including corporate strategy for emerging businesses. I worked on market strategies for several new business units, including one focused on RFID, which stands for radio frequency identification. It was the potential of the sector that was so exciting. It was viewed as the “next big thing” after the internet. The internet was viewed as technology for people; RFID as technology for assets and machinery to interact through a global interactive web. I was leading IBM’s global business unit for wireless sales and services for several years.

IES Abroad: What led you to your current position at RFID Global Solution?

DH: I was recruited out of IBM by a business partner, and I joined ODIN Technologies. The company had a very compelling vision for how this industry and technology could evolve. Shortly after I joined, we won a contract with Airbus. I was the only member of the management team who spoke German, and most of Airbus’ manufacturing took place in Germany. So, I was traveling back and forth to Europe, launching and establishing the relationship with our European customer. I supervised 4-5 engineers from the Budapest Technical Institute, and we conducted all our business in German. All of my prior background came into use in this small start-up company. I had built very successful relationships that I have maintained for years since then. I was then recruited as CEO to lead RFID Global Solution. The firm was looking for someone with both large company and small start-up experience, who also understood the airline industry. I happened to have those three skill sets. It was a very seamless fit.

IES Abroad: What are some of the most exciting and innovative projects RFID Global Solution is working on today?

DH: Our company offers an asset management solution to companies using wireless technologies. We primarily track assets in the technology industry (automated inventory management for data centers), healthcare industry (tracking hospitals’ mobile equipment), and the aerospace and oil & gas industries (tracking parts in the assembly line and work orders). Most of our clients are large Fortune 1000 companies who have a global, complex supply chain and are looking for ways to keep track of their global assets for compliance, productivity, and inventory management purposes. We are working on really innovative, global supply chain projects for the electronics and airline industries. We have grown very quickly, and have been on the Inc. 5000 list the last three years.

IES Abroad: What skills have been most important to successfully navigating your global career?

DH: Being in Vienna was the first time I was by myself for 4-5 months, and I had to learn how to navigate my surroundings and interactions with people from all over world. Everyone in my dorm was from a different country; it was incredibly interesting. In my career, I have been able to fit in easily in a variety of international settings. I appreciate and respect the value of different cultures, and I have a desire to learn enough about the culture so I can operate effectively socially and in business. Being reasonably fluent in a European language has certainly helped my career, as well as knowing how to incorporate culture into different business settings. For example, I led a number of large global teams while I was at IBM. Being conscious of how to interact and build personal rapport and being open to cultural differences has been essential in building relationships.

IES Abroad: You sit on the Board of RFID Professional Institute, an international education and certification group providing certifications for the RFID Industry. Tell us about your role as co-founder and why it was important to establish this non-profit organization.

DH: In the wireless industry, there are a number of certifications, for example, Cisco offers certifications in networking technology. Nothing comparable existed in the RFID industry, and there was a need to formalize the professionalization and certification process. We are setting the global standard and raising the visibility of the industry. We have brought together training organizations, marketing and PR firms, hardware companies, etc. I joined the board to network with individuals throughout the industry and help establish standards. It is a global board, and we have contributors from every geography. The first exams were launched in 2014 and are now offered several times a year in U.S. and Europe. They are also available in Latin America and South America.

IES Abroad: What advice do you have for STEM students, or any student interested in technology, who is on the fence about studying abroad during undergrad? 

DH: STEM students should find opportunities over winter break or summer session for travel overseas. It is incredibly important. They should work on collaborative research teams with participants from all over the world. U.S. colleges are intentionally bringing students to the U.S. for these types of programs. It is important to create opportunities for shorter overseas stints so that all people have the opportunity to see the world from other perspectives.

As an undergraduate at Morehouse College, Dr. Donald Hopkins received one of four Charles E. Merrill Jr Scholarships to study abroad in 1960-61, and was the only recipient who went to Vienna. Since before the age of six, Donald knew he wanted to be a doctor, but it was on a visit to Egypt during that year abroad – when he saw flies around people’s eyes as they suffered from an infection causing blindness – that he knew he wanted to focus on tropical diseases. After graduating from University of Chicago Medical School, Dr. Hopkins went on to serve at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, then joined The Carter Center in 1987 to lead their efforts to eradicate Guinea worm disease. Under his leadership, the number of cases worldwide has been reduced from 3.5 million in 1986 to just 22 in 2015, and it is slated to become only the second human disease in history to be eradicated, after smallpox. Now semi-retired, Dr. Hopkins takes a look back at how studying abroad inspired his desire to serve underserved populations and impacted his career in international public health.

IES Abroad: As a student at Morehouse College, what led you to study abroad in Vienna?

Dr. Hopkins: Charles E. Merrill Jr was on the board of trustees at Morehouse College at the time, and he was awarding four scholarships to Morehouse students and two to Spelman students each year. I was selected for one of them. I elected to go to Vienna because I was pre-med and my biology professor said German would be most helpful to me in medical school. Another Merrill Scholar attended Vienna the year before me and had a really good experience. My family would never have been able to afford a trip like that. I am deeply grateful to Charles E. Merrill Jr because there is no way that I could buy back that experience in my life later on. It was a great, great year.

IES Abroad: What are some of your greatest memories from studying abroad?

DR: Because of my interest in Africa, I attended a Friends (Quaker) House lecture, and I met a young Austrian graduate student who was studying African music and who had recently come back from hitchhiking all over Africa for over a year. He had a jazz band in Vienna, and I hung out with him and his friends. We both played the clarinet, and so we became lifelong friends. Gerhard Kubik is now a distinguished music ethnologist at the University of Vienna. Another lifelong German friend I met during the boat going over to Europe. He had been in Canada visiting his grandmother and was on his way back to Germany. After my year in Vienna, I visited him near Hannover. From Hannover, I went to Berlin with him on a moped in August 1961. While we were in Berlin, I stayed with him and his grandmother, and we watched the nightly news together. I noticed that the lead story was always about how many refugees had crossed over into West Berlin that day. I left Berlin and headed to Copenhagen, and it was there that I read a newspaper and realized that just after I left Berlin the East Germans had begun building the Berlin Wall. My parents were worried because I told them I was going to Berlin, but a week later, they did get my postcard from Copenhagen and knew I was alright.

IES Abroad: What any significant challenges you faced during study abroad?

DR: For me, there really weren’t any daunting challenges. Learning German was difficult, but the benefit of studying German was that I learned a lot about the English language that I didn’t know previously. You should also know that I came to Morehouse on an early admission scholarship that was also courtesy of Charles E. Merrill Jr. I arrived at Morehouse after my 10^th grade year, still 15 years old at the time and all of 87 ½ pounds. I had not studied English a lot by that time. So, in studying German, I learned a lot about precision in the English language, and that became very important to me in my professional career. Even now, I’m a fanatic about the usage of pronouns because if you aren’t careful, people won’t know which proper noun to which you are referring. In German, you have three cases, so you could be very specific that way. And that is just one example. I also studied Russian a little bit while I was there.

IES Abroad: Did you have an 'ah ha' moment during study abroad that changed the way you think?

DR: During that study abroad year, four of us got together and went during the break by train to Istanbul and through Greece and then by ship to Egypt. When we were in Egypt, I began noticing all the flies around people’s eyes. I didn’t know what it was, but I noticed they had pathology in their eyes – a disease called trachoma. I was struck by that, and that experience made me decide there in Egypt in February of 1961 that I wanted to study tropical diseases. I was fortunate in that when I got to the University of Chicago Medical School, I got to work with Dr. Lewert who was researching tropical diseases. We had elective time for research, which was unique in medical schools at that time. He helped me write and present my first scientific paper. I knew from before the age of six that I wanted to be a doctor, but that experience in Egypt really set me on my way and helped me focus on my specialty.

IES Abroad: Can you point to any specific things you learned or experienced in Vienna that contributed to the skills you have drawn upon throughout your career in public health?

DR: The main thing that Vienna gave me was a burning desire to serve underserved people. I was one of 10 children in my family. My mother was a seamstress and cleaned other people’s houses. My father was a carpenter. We didn’t have a lot of money. We didn’t consider ourselves poor, but money was a constraint. I felt so much empathy for the people I saw in Egypt. At Morehouse, before and after Vienna, I was buried in science and math classes, so I didn’t have time to study the humanities and I had no time to study history. In Vienna, I could revel in all of that. I remember walking past the Habsburg crypts in Vienna. That experience helped me when I later on wrote about the history of smallpox. It gave me the context that those archdukes and duchesses and Emperor Joseph I all died of smallpox. I did research at the Austrian National Library, and I found out in a daily gazette that two weeks prior to his illness Emperor Joseph I had visited a hospital. That was a classic way that people contracted the disease. Smallpox devastated the Habsburg household under Maria Theresa.

IES Abroad: After you first started leading the efforts to eradicate Guinea worm disease in 1980, there were an estimated 3.5 million cases in 21 countries in 1986. Now, it is down to 22 cases worldwide in 2015. What are the next steps, and are you optimistic the disease will be eradicated in your lifetime?

DR: I started working on it at the CDC in 1980, and then in 1986, we were able to get President Carter and The Carter Center interested. I came over to The Carter Center in 1987. I definitely expect that Guinea worm disease will be eradicated soon. In 2014, we had 126 cases remaining. In 2015, there were 22 cases. In December 2015 and January 2016, we had no cases worldwide. We may have a few cases this year, or we may have no cases. When I started there were cases in Africa, Pakistan, Yemen, and India. The few recent cases have all been in Africa. 

IES Abroad: You have improved the lives of millions of people through your work to eradicate Guinea worm disease, smallpox, and river blindness. When you reflect back on your career, what are you most proud of?

DR: Number one is the reduction of the needless suffering of human beings and people who, through no fault of their own, are born into circumstances where they face challenges that are preventable. Secondly, my work with students and encouraging and inspiring them to take up public health as a career, including international public health. I am gratified although my parents and teachers are gone. I want to recognize their faith, devotion, and help they all provided to me over the course of my career to be able to accomplish what I have done.

IES Abroad: You recently retired as Vice President for Health Programs at The Carter Center, but have remained active as their Special Advisor for Guinea Worm Eradication. What other activities are you pursuing in retirement?

DR: I’m going to finish the Guinea Worm Eradication Campaign. And then I will write a book about the story that talks about the lessons we learned from this life work so that students in the future can have the benefit of this experience even though they didn’t live it.

IES Abroad: What advice do you have for pre-med students today who are considering study abroad but worried about fitting it into their busy academic curriculum?

DR: Students should leap at the opportunity to study abroad. As a physician, most people can learn the technical side of medicine. Your ability to understand other people as human beings will be greatly enhanced by spending a year abroad at that point in your life and career. I also advise them to read as much as they can before they go, relevant to what they are studying abroad. If you are going to Vienna, be sure to see the movie, Woman in Gold, which tells an important historical story. I would caution students today not to be distracted by their devices, social media, or email that might keep one engaged in American culture. The great part of study abroad is being able to immerse yourself in another culture, and you should take every advantage to do that while you are abroad.

As an international relations major at Claremont McKenna College, Shaw Wagener studied abroad as a sophomore in Freiburg in 1979. Traveling throughout East and West Europe, the experience instilled in him a sense of flexibility and a sensitivity to other cultures that he has continued to use in his career as an international investor at Capital Group, where he now serves as Portfolio Manager and Chairman of Capital Group International, Inc. In our interview, Shaw reflects on his study abroad experience and why he supports study abroad scholarships for students today.

IES Abroad: As a student at Claremont McKenna College, what led you to study abroad in Freiburg?

Shaw Wagener: CMC had just started an international relations major, which had a language requirement and a study abroad requirement. The German program at CMC was small and intimate, so I chose German beginning my freshman year. I also did a summer course at University of Colorado, as I’m originally from Boulder. I studied abroad my second year of college. Today, I don’t get to use my German. I wish I did!

IES Abroad: What are some of your greatest memories from your time in Freiburg?

SW: Two immediately come to mind. One is all of the traveling around we did. During those days, the Berlin Wall still existed, so we had the division between East and West Europe. The easiest and cheapest way to travel was by bus, which we did quite frequently. My friends and I went to places like Prague and Budapest. Before traveling, we’d exchange money on the black market, and then we’d be like kings and queens. We’d eat wonderfully because it was so inexpensive. I remember one time being in Budapest and eating at the best restaurant there. Here we were, basically backpackers – we had exchanged our money at a really attractive rate, and we’re eating Chateaubriand.

On the academic side, we took a course on political party development in Germany. For the last seminar, we went to an inn in the Black Forest. It was owned by Freiburg University, I believe, so it was more like a dormitory. For that period, we each had to represent a political party. Mine was the Communist Party. I had to describe how the Party had developed and evolved and what their platform was. We are doing this in German, of course. I was totally panicked. At that time, the Green Party, Die Grünen, had literally just begun in Germany, and the Communist Party reflected more of what Die Grünen wanted for social policy. The Green Party then took on the environmental aspect, which the Communist Party didn’t do. The Communist Party had representation in the Parliament at that time because they had enough votes on their platform.

Die Grünen would organize protests in various cities, primarily in Bonn against nuclear power. They would have trains that would collect people. It would start in Basel, and then make its way to Freiburg, up the Rhine, and then to Bonn. Other trains would come in from different directions. The train would stop in the outskirts of Bonn, and you’d have to get off and march into town. In the middle of Bonn, there would be a rally. Again, my friends and I would use this at a great way to travel. We’d get a free ride up to Bonn. It was a lot of fun because everyone on the train was there to celebrate this protest. It was just like you’d think…people playing guitar. It was crazy!

IES Abroad: What were the most formative classes you took while studying abroad? 

SW: My father was an architect, so I’d grown up around building. I took an art history class, which was mostly about architectural design in Germany. We spent a lot of time in Freiburg at the münster looking at how the church was designed and built. It was a beautiful building. Freiburg was relatively unscathed by the bombing in WWII. “Relatively” is a factual statement because they did have some bombing. The Allies were careful about not bombing old parts of German cities because they wanted to retain the history, with some obvious exceptions, like Dresden. Because of that, there was some interesting architecture that existed over three or four hundred years in Freiburg. Our teacher was a young guy, probably a post graduate student from the University. He was really passionate about it, so it was a “good deal” to go around with him. It was formative since it pulled together much of what I had learned growing up with a much more traditional view of architecture that they have in Germany.

IES Abroad: What inspired you to become an international investor? Did your experience in Freiburg influence your career path?

SW: I’ve been with Capital Group for 35 years. I came here directly from CMC. At that time, investment houses were recruiting from all the same top-ranked MBA programs. Our management in the 1970s looked around and said, “Why are we recruiting from these programs?” Like nearly all senior investment people at that time, they all had undergraduate, mostly liberal arts degrees, and they were successful. “We’d have more variety if we didn’t recruit from the same business programs as our competitors,” they said. So, they started a program in 1981 to recruit from undergraduate programs, when I graduated from CMC. I was in the first class of a program, which we still do today. It was brilliantly designed. Instead of immediately locking someone into a role, they rotated new hires to six different locations in two years. In fact, we’ve added a seventh: a rotation at a non-profit. We continue to pay the new hire, but they work for a non-profit organization. This gives a young person a broad sense of what we do and what the world offers. At the end of two and a half, or three years, the individual has a better sense of what they want to do and whether they fit with us. It is a very robust career starter. So, I did that. The reason that I came here with my international relations degree is that we had just opened up a London office, a Geneva office, and were about to open a Tokyo office. This was pretty unique for an investment management firm. And I have been interested in the stock market since I was about ten years old.  Capital Group was a natural fit for me.

IES Abroad: The investment team at Capital Group represents thirty nationalities with accompanying language abilities. How has this spectrum of cultures influenced the work environment and success of Capital Group?

SW: We recruit internationally now. We look at people who have studied abroad or are looking to move to another country, and we appreciate that they are willing to take a calculated chance…that they are well prepared to take a chance AND they do it! Sensitivity to different cultures is really important. We feel that we have one culture at Capital that is independent of geographical region. In our culture, we like initiative; we like collaboration; we like integrity. These qualities are omnipresent regardless of where you come from. Below that, obviously, how you execute can be different in Singapore or Hong Kong vs Indianapolis or San Antonio. You want to be consistent with the overriding cultural characteristics. How you execute them in a particular location can be very different. It is a challenge, particularly in a service industry, to have enduring characteristics of culture that are important to your organization, yet at the same time, be flexible and sensitive to what is happening in a local culture. We are true to our associates. We are true to our clients. It is a complex thing to really do it! It is an interesting challenge, and study abroad helps because you then automatically see that they are just people. You can identify integrity when you see it, even if it is expressed differently than the way you’d see it in the United States.   

IES Abroad: What skills have been most important to successfully navigating your global career?

SW: Curiosity is the most important skill set. It is amazing to me how many people are just not that curious about how others are organized or how others go about doing things. In the investment business, you have to be really curious because it is all about trying to understand why people do things in a particular way, and is it durable and will it lead to a numerical thing, which is profits, generally. There is a heavy dose of willingness to be curious, taking calculated risks, and being flexible enough to change if things move in the wrong way.

IES Abroad: You and your wife have established the Wagener Family Global Scholars Fund at Claremont McKenna College for students at your alma mater to study abroad, with a preference for students enrolling in an IES Abroad program. What led you to direct your philanthropy to establish this scholarship fund?

SW: CMC is a bit of a microcosm of U.S. higher education today. When I was in school, there was definitely a European focus. This is natural when you consider that American political history has such a basis in European thought and philosophy. People are naturally inclined to look at what is going on in Europe, in particular the U.K. When I became re-engaged with CMC after living for a long time in Singapore, my passion was to say we have to break this Anglo-Saxon bridge. It is a very safe and natural bridge between English-speaking countries and ourselves. I felt pretty strongly that for CMC, I wanted them to turn more towards Asia. They have done this, not just because of me but also because of the direction CMC leadership wanted to take. When it came time then to think about helping the school, and given the experience I had had with IES Abroad and how important I think study abroad is, we started to design a program. Going back to the issue of curiosity and risk taking, we thought, let’s find these kids who are willing to step outside of their comfort zone to speak another language, and let’s support that. We’ll see how this develops. It is brand new. The concept behind it, considering the breadth of program offerings and that the expansion of IES Abroad has been so significant, it is much easier to say, “This is going to work!” We are excited about it!

IES Abroad: What is one thing you learned while abroad that remains a constant in your life today?

SW: It is scary when you get on that plane to study abroad. You learn that laughing together with your classmates and doing crazy things, like eating Chateaubriand and going to a protest in Bonn, and as hard as it was to take classes in German, laughing about it is important. This whole idea of having fun is an important factor. Not getting overwhelmed by circumstances and being able to laugh at yourself comes home in spades when you study abroad. You have to have fun in everything you do. Even if it is difficult, you have to find some element of fun.  

IES Abroad: What advice do you have for students who are considering studying or interning abroad?

SW: Do it! I can’t imagine any downside. If the hurdle is getting course credit, take classes in the summer or an extra heavy load during a semester. If the hurdle is cost, look for support like what is provided by IES Abroad alumni to current students. There are all sorts of reasons to say “no.” Just do it. The payoff will be huge!