ETS Excellence Award for Overseas Advising Centers

Through the generous support from the Educational Testing Service (ETS), NAFSA is pleased to announce the 2007 ETS Excellence Awards for Overseas Educational Advising Centers.

Grant Award

Four awards of $2,500 were given to the following overseas educational advising centers that have demonstrated excellence and innovation in the programming of center activities.

The grant award will be used to benefit the advising center through the purchase of new equipment or supplies; support of professional development training for center staff; travel expenses for an adviser to attend a NAFSA national or regional conference; or any other activities deemed beneficial to the operation of the center's advising services.

2007 Recipients

Congratulations to recipients of the 2007-2008 ETS Excellence Award for Overseas Advising Centers.

• Osvita Educational Advising Center, Lviv, Ukraine
• ECE UNIFAE–EducationUSA Advising Office, Parana, Brazil
• EducationUSA Advising Center, US Consulate General, Sydney, Australia
• Institute for International Education, Hanoi, Vietnam
• Institute of International Education, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Advising Center Projects

IIE-Vietnam
IIE-Vietnam is proud to have been selected to receive the 2008 ETS Excellence Award for its EducationUSA advising centers in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. The funds were used to purchase computers and headphones for student use, a scanner for use in EducationUSA-related work, and a microphone and speaker set for selected outreach events. These purchases have contributed to our goal of providing quality educational advising services to the many students and parents who visit our offices. We are grateful to ETS and NAFSA for recognizing our achievements in this area and for supporting us in this way.

Mark Ashwill
Director
IIE-Vietnam

ECE UNIFAE–EducationUSA Advising Office, Parana, Brazil

Thanks to the generosity of ETS, the ECE UNIFAE–EducationUSA Advising Office was able to:

a) Purchase a notebook. Our office only had two computers, whose resources did not allow students to do their searches with ease. The notebook allows me to organize individual and small group sessions everywhere there is a wireless connection. I also use it when I travel so that I do not have to pay for computer use and do not have to wait to be back to office to answer emails. Moreover, by registering for Skype, I can keep in contact with several advisers without having to pay for distance calls.

b) Purchase a camera and a battery charger. As advisers, we write reports about the events we promote, such as Fairs, Presentations, and the International Education Week. My reports did not include pictures, and I always missed the opportunity to register visually the number of people present, the materials designed and the environment created. You know, the power of pictures!!!

c) We still have some of the award left. We are saving it to promote the Opportunity Grant Program, whose main goal is to reach out to qualified and talented underprivileged students.

Finally, I would like to say that initiatives such as this award contribute to strengthen our roles as advisers and allow us to expand the services we provide.

Areta Ulhana Galat
ECE UNIFAE
EducationUSA Advisor

Osvita Educational Advising Center, Lviv, Ukraine

I would like to inform our sponsors that our center has purchased a notebook which will increase adviser's mobility in our outreach activities. New notebook in combination with LCD projector which we already have will allow us to come to schools (especially in rural areas) and deliver presentations in PowerPoint, and demonstrate educational videos.

We also purchased the licensed software (Windows XP Professional) and installed it on our public access computers.

Annual subscription for broadband Internet access (starts on September 1, 2008) will allow our staff and visitors to have a reliable and fast Internet access to educational websites, to work with educational databases, search engines and test preparation software, as well as to use web-based communication tools (Skype, Google Talk etc) for communication between the center and U.S. colleges/universities.

On behalf of Osvita Educational Advising Center I would like to express our gratitude to Educational Testing Service and NAFSA for this award.

Andriy Hatalyak
Director
Osvita Educational Advising Center