Reentry Resources

Register NOW for the 2009 Conference!

Access materials from the 2008 conference:

Graduate Degrees Abroad
StoryTelling Guide
Strategies for Working/Living Abroad Additional resources on the topic can be found here.
Taking Your Professional Career Abroad
Work, Intern and Volunteer Abroad
Think Globally, Act Locally

Coming Home: Making Personal and Professional Use of Your International Experience

Third Annual, Minnesota
Re-entry Conference

Saturday, September 19, 2009

All Minnesota college and university students returning from a sojourn abroad are invited to attend the third annual MN Re-entry Conference. The 2009 conference will be hosted by Augsburg College and is a partnership between a dozen institutions from across the state.

The conference begins at 9AM with registration and a continental breakfast. Join over 150 students from around the state who have just spent part of their academic career abroad. A full day of activities is planned to help bring your study abroad experience full circle.

Keynote speaker, Jenn Bottke, Gustavus alum, nurse and author will inspire us with her tales from abroad.

Jenn was a typical college student in 2001, floating through her freshman year at Gustavus Adolphus College when study abroad found her. She spent a semster in India, and returned home with a new outlook on life. Jenn finished her degree in Nursing, and is working as a Registered Nurse in a small community hospital. While on bedrest with her second pregnancy, Jenn was so bored that she decided to write her study abroad adventure into a book, entitled "Barefoot in the Kitchen". It was published last year. Study abroad changes lives and Jenn is a walking example of it's power to transfom.

A student panel comprised of 2008 conference participants will address the topic of study abroad as a privilege and the challenge it is to become a Global Citizen. Small group table talk will allow for discussion and debate from conference participants.

Lunch is included with your conference registration.

Students will choose to attend three rotating sessions from the seven on offer.

Go Abroad Again: Teaching, Short-term Working, & Volunteering Abroad: You've studied abroad now go and live your dream of teaching, working short-term, or volunteering abroad! This session will give an overview of strategies, programs, resources, and things to consider so that you can make your dream a reality. You'll also have the opportunity to ask questions of the presenters who advise on these opportunities and have worked, taught, or volunteered abroad themselves.
Graduate School: Are you interested in attending graduate school abroad or staying stateside, but focusing on international issues? This presentation will address many of the common questions associated with applying for graduate school in other countries. In addition resources will be provided about internationally focused programs in the US.
International Careers at Home & Abroad: This panel will include individuals who have worked abroad, are working for an international corporation here in the United States, or have found other careers in the international public sector or in the social justice field to remain globally connected.
Myths & Realities of an International Career Abroad: Ready for the “real world”??!! After graduation many study abroad returnees wish to take their professional career abroad, but it may or may not be a simple process. Factors to consider include language skills, previous experience, and ability to secure a visa. Learn about the realities of the search process, and gain insights into what employers are looking for when hiring internationally.
Please note: This session is highly recommended for anyone interested in attending the “International Careers at Home & Abroad” panel.
Resume Writing Session: What is the best way to include your study abroad experience on your resume; in the education section, under other activities? It is important to present your experience well to potential employers. Career professionals will present tips and tricks for illustrating the great impact of your study abroad and the transferrable skills which you learned.
Craft Your Study Abroad Stories for Interviewing: You studied abroad… so what?! Oftentimes students have incredible, life changing experiences during their time abroad, but when they return and try to describe to others about how important the experience was, they are at a loss for words. During job or internship interviews, there is no time to grapple for the words to describe the transferrable skills that you have learned through study abroad. This session will help you to begin to formulate those anecdotes which will capture the essence of your experience.
Travel writing: Documenting your Journey: Capturing the essence of your study abroad experience for an on-line blog, printed magazine or your private travel journal is an art; and like any art, it takes a lot of work. This session will offer advice on how to share your study abroad experience through a different lens. Information will also be presented on how to submit your travel stories to National Geographic Glimpse Magazine and other formats.

The day will wrap-up at 3:30PM with door prize drawings.

View the 2009 Conference Brochure!

Register for the Conference

Registration is now available through a secure, on-line site. Please note that you will have to pay the $10 Conference Registration Fee at the time of application. The fee will be charged to all participants attending the conference to help cover the costs of meals.

Please check with your home college or university as the study abroad office may provide transportation to the conference and/or reimbursement of the registration fee.

The registration fee is not meant to prohibit anyone from attending the conference. Sponsorship is available to students with financial need. Please contact pretka@csbsju.edu for more details.

Cancellation Policy: Refunds for the $10 registration fee will be granted if notice of cancellation is sent to pretka@csbsju.edu by Friday, September 11. No refunds will be given after this point.

Institutional Representation on the Planning Committee:

Carlson School of Management and the Learning Abroad Center

University of St. Thomas

A Very Special Thanks to Our Sponsors:

2008 Conference Details

The second annual re-entry conference was held on Saturday, September 27, 2008 at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Campus. This event brought together resources from across Minnesota to provide support to recently returned study abroad students. One-hundred twenty-three students attended, representing 12 institutions. Thirty volunteers from across the state helped to make this day a reality.

Students shared their stories from study abroad experiences; discussed their transition back to student life in Minnesota; attended rotating sessions on international careers, volunteering locally and internationally, working and interning abroad, effective story telling, travel writing, and resume critiques; participants won great door prizes and listened to impactful speakers.

Meredith McQuaid, Associate Vice President & Dean of the Office for International Programs at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, opened the conference and welcomed all to the campus.

Amanda Saum, a student from the College of Saint Catherine shared her perspective as a study abroad participant in Chile and Mexico.

Sitting on the plane, I found myself simultaneously more terrified and more excited than I had maybe ever been, a feeling perhaps some or many of you can relate to. As I embarked on an adventure, and it truly was a complete and total adventure, where I would take all of my classes in Spanish, live with a Chilean family, really and truly get culture shocked, and make some of the best friends of my life, I didn’t understand how much I would be impacted and later obsessed with the study of culture, people, and language.

My time abroad changed my perspective on my life, my country and culture, and what it means to be educated. It engaged my passion for Spanish and gave me a love of far-away places that I never knew I’d have.

Since returning from my study abroad experiences I have found myself with what I feel to be a new identity, a greater ability to embrace the unknown, a profound appreciation and value of culture, and a great comfort in my language skills that I never thought I’d have. I wouldn’t say that, by any means, I became fluent through my time in Spanish-speaking countries, but I know for a fact that the skills and experience I gained there propelled me to the level I’m at (probably more so than I have realized) and inspired me to involve myself with the Latino population here in my home country and home city.

The 2008 keynote speaker was Kerala Taylor, Editor in Chief of National Geographic Glimpse; a publication about real life abroad. Its stories focus on personal experiences, with the larger goal of promoting cross-cultural understanding. Their contributors immerse themselves in a foreign culture and share their stories, helping you to see the world in a new way.

Kerala's remarks were grounded in her own international experiences in Australia, Fiji, Ghana, Indonesia, Mexico, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and all over Europe. In addition, her own study abroad expereince in Bolivia informed her worldview and helped with the creation of Glimpse. Kerala contends that Glimpse can play an important role in the media to inform Americans, US college students in particular, about the day-to-day in other countries.

Amazingly, at its most basic form, the human experience is remarkably similar no matter where you live: you wake up, you go to work or school, you spend time with family and friends, you eat, you sleep. By honing in on these smaller details, we wanted to remind people that hey, maybe what we think of as “foreign” isn’t really so foreign after all. But at the same time, we wanted to draw attention to those details and nuances that make cultures so compelling, so confusing, and so stunningly diverse.

It’s such a cliché to say that study abroad is a life-changing experience... But the fact is, it’s nearly impossible to immerse yourself in another culture for an extended period of time and come back home unchanged. Sure, there are superficial differences—maybe you prefer tea to coffee now, or you’ve gained an appreciation for hip-hop, or you’ve started wearing scarves. But on a deeper level, an entire portion of the world, which was once distant and two-dimensional, has now been humanized, brought to life. From now on, whenever you hear your host country mentioned, whether it’s on the news or during a lunchtime conversation, you will inevitably perk up, because now you care.

Contact the study abroad office at your home school for more details about re-entry activities taking place on your campus.

Conference brochure and agenda - 2008