Education abroad offices are a great place for students to grow and thrive. The experience of working in an office setting bolsters the professional development of the student staff member, fosters future international educators, and provides critical support to operational and support functions.
This resource was created to help Education Abroad Offices support their student staff. It serves as a central location to outline different models and sample project ideas. The resource will help offices that are creating their first student staff positions as well as provide inspiration for offices with well-established student staff roles or highly collaborative student organizations.
The contributors for this resource are from the 2024 Education Abroad Knowledge Community (EAKC) Regional Liaisons:
- Alli Reed, St. Norbert College
- Daniel Solomon, University of Denver
- Lyndsi Jones, Towson University
- Michelle Melish, Northern Kentucky University
- Emily Dougherty, Cornell University
Model Practices
This section outlines different student worker models to consider. Not all models are feasible in all offices, so be sure to consider professional staff workload and possible student tasks when creating your model practice. See the next section below for example student worker tasks.
Basic Structure
- Paid vs volunteer
- Graduate vs undergraduate
- Hourly vs project-based
- Focused on EA vs working in overall international office
Enhanced structure
- Internship or practicum
- Student staff offering a final project, presentation, or write-up for their course/degree
- Specialized roles
- Examples include graphic design, social media, reporting
- Hiring international students and/or study abroad alumni
- Supervisory roles within student staff structure, such as senior peer advisor
- Upperclassmen who have more experience in the office to help oversee and mentor newer student staff
- Ratio of student staff to size of office/professional staff
- One person office or small offices
- One student staff member might have a dynamic role in the office
- Student organizations expand outreach for the office
- Large offices
- More specialized student staff roles
- Specialized professional staff supervising student staff
- Student groups/organizations
- Collaborate with student orgs for events and outreach
- EA staff as advisors for student orgs
Incentives for student staff
- Paid positions
- Free access to institutional events to attend with EA office
- Examples include institutional workshops, conferences, trainings
- Office perks such as kitchen/snacks/coffee/branded clothing
- Professional development
- Personalized workshops for student staff members and/or study abroad alumni
- Opportunity to provide direct feedback on student experience to EA office
- Flexible hours if time off needed for exams, holidays, study abroad, etc.
- Opportunity to pay it forward to prospective students
Sample Responsibilities
This section outlines various tasks with which student staff could assist in an Education Abroad Office. Not all tasks are appropriate for volunteer roles and some tasks require additional training (such as FERPA). Some tasks can be assigned by the student’s supervisor while others offer students autonomy to create their own project from ideation through completion.
Advising
- Offer drop-in hours
- Organize and host drop-in advising hours
- Market, recruit and keep accurate records of student attendance
- Peer- advising appointments
- Available to take introductory student appointments
- More program-specific or detailed advising is referred to professional advising staff
- Compose and send promotional email
- Refer to Marketing & Communication below
- Staff tables for outreach and on-site engagement tabling
- Refer to Presentations below
Collaboration
- Study abroad alumni/international student organizations to assist with outreach and events
- Partner with international student advisors
- Funded positions through EA office and/or with provider alumni organizations
- Third-party alumni group that collaborate with currently enrolled students
Marketing & communication
- Manage/use central office email accounts
- Answer introductory-level questions
- Forward messages to appropriate advisors
- Send out information on behalf of the office
- Manage/support social media accounts
- Brainstorm content for future posts/videos
- Outreach to onsite/returned students for photos, testimonials
- Support social media strategy and outreach (e.g. Organize social media takeovers, organize followers and who the office account follows: follow current student orgs and other experiential learning programs on campus, etc.)
- Host student-led podcast about studying abroad
- Collaborate with other offices on campus such as Student Life, Career Services
- Create video content
- Draft outline, record, and edit - examples include health & safety abroad, identities abroad, navigating the application/study abroad process
- Collaborate with other offices on campus such as Student Life, Career Services
- Create various promotional materials, such as:
- Study Abroad for Student Athletes brochure
- “Ask Me About Study Abroad” button
- T-shirt design/logo for Global advisor/ambassador
- Event fliers based off of a standard layout
Presentations
- Host general information sessions
- Steps to study abroad
- Application process
- Scholarships and funding ideas
- Visit classrooms
- Reach out to faculty
- Present in their classes
- Focus on large, first year or introductory courses
- Liaise with student organizations
- Reach out to organization leadership
- Present to their organizations
- Formal presentation or Q&A with student org
- Staff informational tables around campus
- Focus on buildings with a lot of student traffic
- Collaborate by tabling during campus partner events (e.g. Career Fair)
- Create presentation(s)
- Pitch presentation ideas and organize from ideation through completion
Events
- Support Study abroad fairs
- Event planning
- Assisting during the event
- Tabling at the fair
- Organizing volunteers
- Communicating with campus visitors
- Coordinate Pre-Departure Orientation
- Event planning with booking rooms, reminder emails, reviewing presentations
- Assisting during the event with check-in, food, activities
- Serving on panels
- Tracking attendance
- Engaging with outbound student participants
- Host campus visitors
- Organizing visitor schedule
- Meeting with campus visitors as part of itinerary
- Campus tours
- Joining meetings
- Offer Workshops
- Examples include visas, passports, travel tips, know before you go, homesickness, etc.
- Organize International Education Week & National Study Abroad Day
- Execute various events on campus
Administration
- Upload student documents to online application platform
- Review transcripts for grading scales
- Generate insurance letters
- Generate reports for other campus partners
- Complete first stage of Open Doors data collection
- Review release notes for application software updates & integrate changes
- Email reminders for application deadlines and submitting forms
- Collect feedback and create report from program evaluations
Other responsibilities (as assigned)
- Specialized resource generation
- Examples include guides for country information, sustainable travel, on-site accommodation details
- Focus groups
- Topics can include general input on new programs, idea generation for outreach/events, and overall feedback on processes
- Social media scavenger hunt
- Examples include posts in advance, clues on social media, hide prizes or tickets around campus, offer prizes for winners or large prize (e.g. scholarship) drawing for those who participate
- Research for projects and program development
- Review available partners/providers in a specific location and give feedback on program development from a student perspective
- Identify potential transportation companies for faculty-led travel
- Events with International Student Organizations on-campus
- Co-host events like bingo, trivia, or karaoke
