In this year’s final edition of our Insights Newsletter, we want to reflect briefly on the high points of the last 10 months and extend our gratitude to our U.S. university partners for engaging with us.  

Since January 1, CEA has launched five new program destinations: Amsterdam, Budapest, Bogota, Milan, and Sydney. We expanded our internship program to Madrid, in partnership with the Universidad de Nebrija. In our commitment to STEM study abroad, we’ve brought an engineering program to Barcelona, Physics for Engineers to Dublin, engineering to Buenos Aires through a partnership with Instituto Tecnológica de Buenos Aires, and organic chemistry to Alicante. CEA Dublin now offers a Supply Chain Management program and Child Psychology, both during the summer. We’re excited to make international education possible for more students through these new programs.  

In 2019, CEA attended 20 conferences, 133 conference meetings, and 291 study abroad fairs. We sent students abroad from 304 U.S. colleges and universities and attended 1,286 university meetings. We welcomed 100 people at our FORUM Conference reception and 133 people at our NAFSA Conference reception. Our University Regional Directors and other event attendees enjoyed spending time with so many colleagues in person, learning from them and working with them to improve international education for our students.  

As much good as we have to look back on, we also have plenty to look forward to in 2020 and beyond, and we think you’ll agree our upcoming program updates are worth anticipating.  

Changes are afoot in Argentina! The Buenos Aires Study Center programs have been reduced by $1,000 for fall 2020. Starting in spring 2021, students will find new hybrid programs and an academic calendar that aligns with that of our Argentine partners.  

In continuation of our efforts to create programs for engineering students, we’re excited to launch a series focused on Computer Science. Many of these programs are opening with existing partners, but we’ve combed their course lists to ensure alignment with our U.S. partners’ degree programs. Highlighting where Computer Science students can find their courses will help make study abroad more accessible for them. 

International Education week every November is an exciting time to be thinking about how CEA can best respond to and anticipate the student and university trends in study abroad. To expand the opportunities in nontraditional locations for students in typically underserved majors, we will be opening a series of programs in South Africa. Starting in 2021, students can choose a semester study abroad experience in Cape Town. Keep an eye on our website for specific program details soon! 

CEA thanks you for your partnership, participation, support, trust, and collaboration in 2019. We look forward to growing our relationship with you in 2020, and we wish everyone on your campus a happy, successful new year.  

CEA’s Custom & Faculty-Led Programs team makes innovative study abroad possible, and our Sign Language Studies program in Paris is the perfect example. Developed in partnership with the University of California-San Diego, Sign Language Studies in Paris is a faculty-led custom program that allows students to focus on topics related to the deaf and hard of hearing community in an international context.   

The program enrolled 16 students for the summer of 2019 and will run again in the summer of 2020. One faculty member, Dr. Peggy Lott, teaches the program’s two courses: “The Historical Roots of ASL” and “Sign Languages and Deaf Culture in the U.S. and France”. The program is open to all students, with the ideal group being a mix of deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing students. CEA is capable of providing special accommodations for deaf and hard of hearing students who enroll, including remote captioning service and support for UCSD ASL interpreters who accompany the program.      

CEA facilitates various active learning activities to support Professor Lott’s coursework, including five site visits, four guest lectures, and an overnight excursion to Reims. Students visit the National Institute for Deaf Children of Paris, watch two performances at the International Visual Theater, view depictions of deaf culture at the Louvre Museum, and have lunches at the deaf-owned and operated Café Signes and 1000 & 1 Signes. In 2019, the group had the opportunity to attend the biennial international Clin d’Oeil Festival during their excursion to Reims.  

CEA takes pride in collaborating with U.S. universities on custom programs like Sign Language Studies in Paris, especially when given the opportunity to develop programs focusing on student diversity, access, and inclusion.  

If you have an exciting idea or proposal for a custom program at your university, please contact your CEA University Regional Director.  

For enthusiastic study and internship abroad alumni, the end of their program doesn’t have to be the end of their international education experience. CEA designed our Alumni Ambassador program to give ambitious and engaged students a way to process their time abroad through helping their peers. Ambassadors raise awareness of study abroad on their campus, serving as resources for fellow students who want to know exactly what to expect overseas. Our Alumni Ambassadors give back to their university community and the international education community at large, as they make their own transition back into life at home.      

CEA’s Alumni Ambassadors support their campus study abroad office in a variety of ways: tabling at fairs, presenting to student groups, helping CEA University Regional Directors during their campus visits, promoting study abroad on social media, and more. They provide prospective study abroad students with invaluable peer-to-peer consulting, sharing their own story of life abroad and answering questions about international education from a student perspective. CEA provides ambassadors with all the resources they need to be successful in their recruitment efforts, including training, print and digital materials, social media material, and support from the CEA Alumni Relations team.  

Alumni Ambassadors enjoy several benefits in exchange for their work, including a letter of recommendation, a go-again program discount, career-advising workshops, study abroad alumni conference coverage, a network of professional contacts, and access to CEA’s Middlebury Institute of International Studies’ Graduate School Scholarship. Ambassadors also have the option of participating in CEA’s Onsite Ambassador program, which allows them to return to their program location abroad and support students and program operations there.   

Shelly Ng, of Binghamton University, studied abroad with CEA in Prague during the Spring 2018 semester. She joined our Alumni Ambassador program for the Fall 2019 semester and returned to Prague as an Onsite Ambassador. For her perspective on the decision to become an ambassador, read her post on the CEA Student Blog.  

We’re currently accepting applications for the Spring 2020 Alumni Ambassador program. If you know of a CEA alum who would be a great fit for the program, we welcome your recommendation.  

CEA alumni can find more information about our Ambassador program here and submit their application here. The deadline to apply is December 4.