I’m proud to be part of the SPS community because Cate has developed a truly collaborative and encouraging environment. I first found SPS when I was still in grad school searching for career paths in the field of International Education. Ever since that first class I knew I had found a key ‘go to’ resource... | Read More »
Latest Blog Post
Re-Entry Reality: English muffins and American salad
It's Re-Entry Reality Monday! Dr. Regina Higgins is outreach director at the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies. In this podcast, Regina shares her experience with re-entry after studying in Oxford, England... Read More »Featured Blog Posts
Re-Entry Reality: It’s OK not have a set path for the future
It’s Re-Entry Reality Monday! Alexa Hart is founder and host of Atlas Sliced, an interview-based web show and podcast about living abroad. She spent two years teaching English in Korea. Prior to that... Read More »
Re-Entry Reality: Two very different experiences
It’s Re-Entry Reality Monday! Kristin recently graduated from the University of Minnesota with a Masters Degree in Sport Management. Her passion for sports and love of travel led her to Trondheim, Norway on a Fulbright grant... Read More »
Re-entry Reality: Exploring the Other You
Though I have never "studied abroad' through a school setting, I have been through many re-entries as a Third Culture Kid (I moved 9 times in 28 years). My toughest 'reentry' experience is when I mevisit/return to Japan, my "home" country. Read More »
Re-Entry Reality: It Happens to Everyone
It’s Re-Entry Reality Monday! I got to know McKay Roozen at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and have been following her current adventure teaching in rural China. McKay is a recent UNC grad who hopes to focus on education and social entrepreneurship in the future. Read More »
Re-Entry Reality: Ramblings from the Re-Entry Periphery
Today's Re-Entry Reality is a little different. I'm delighted to share this guest post by Jaimie Farel, who writes about her experience helping her best friend through re-entry. Jaimie is a marketing professional in Minneapolis, MN and alumna of Gustavus Adolphus College. She hopes to travel to England, Sweden, and one day, Spain with her friend Katie. Read More »
Beyond Abroad: My Review of a New Re-Entry Tool
Missy Gluckmann of Melibee Global and I collaborate here and there because our vision for international education is so similar. So it came as no surprise when I discovered that Missy and her awesome team were also working on an innovative re-entry tool. I was delighted to receive a copy from Missy to review and I'm even more delighted to share my thoughts with you. Read More »
Is LinkedIn Intercultural?
Get our latest LinkedIn freebie "5 Tips for Creating an Intercultural LinkedIn Profile" and join our no cost LinkedIn virtual meet-up on Friday, March 22! Read More »
Re-Entry Reality: Making Peace with the Unresolved
It’s Re-Entry Reality Monday! Jessica Plaunt is a mechanical designer for a winch and crane company, but her true passions are traveling, salsa dancing, and Spanish speaking. She shares her Re-Entry Reality after living in Spain. Read More »
Re-entry Reality: A Chronic Malaise
Today's Re-Reality is by Kate Kirk, an international recruiter for a bilingual school in Honduras and an intern for Melibee Global. Read More »
Travel 20 years ago vs. today
I recently saw a Facebook meme that outlined all of the ways young people today have it easy. As I'm currently in Germany, the country where I first lived abroad, I chuckled at the meme because I'd just been thinking about how easy I have it these days when I travel. I've been experiencing nostalgia overload since arriving in Germany, and have been thinking about what it was like to go abroad that first time (20+ years ago) vs. now. Read More »
7 Top Tips for LinkedIn Success
Today we've got 2 things for you. First, Sabrina shares her LinkedIn story and we started working together to expand the LinkedIn class I create last year. Second, we're sharing our 7 Top Tips for LinkedIn Success 10-page handout. Download this freebie PDF at the bottom of the post! Read More »
Re-Entry Reality: Seated at the Wrong Table
It’s Re-Entry Reality Monday! I'm delighted to share Missy Gluckmann's Re-Entry Reality today. Missy and her Melibee Global team have created a fantastic re-entry resource and are cooking up a bunch of other neat things. Missy is also a SPS faculty member. Read More »
Re-Entry Reality: New Every Time
It’s Re-Entry Reality Monday! This week's interview is with Ashley Houston, a globetrotting activist for peace and global citizenship. Read More »
Re-Entry Reality: What Travel Cannot Do For You
It’s Re-Entry Reality Monday! Dale and I talk about travel, intercultural learning, and re-entry all the time in our work with DaleTrekDek.com. Since Dale lived abroad for several years as a kid, I wanted to get his take on re-entry. Read More »
Re-Entry Reality: Re-Entry Doesn’t Equal Failure
I've got another Re-Entry Reality podcast for you! Sabrina Ziegler is an intercultural trainer who just returned to Vancouver, Canada after living in Ireland, the Netherlands, and Germany for the last eight years. In this podcast, Sabrina talks about re-entry as she's currently experiencing it. Read More »
Re-Entry Reality: the IDI, literature & crepes
I've got another Re-Entry Reality podcast for you! In this podcast, Seth shares how taking the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) helped him prepare for his second re-entry experience, why literature is a fantastic re-entry resource, and why re-entry is like a French crepe. Read More »
Re-Entry Reality Interview: Harder than Culture Shock
It's Re-Entry Reality Monday! This week's interview is with Carrie Niesen, SPS's Re-Entry Reality Intern. Carrie has not only experienced re-entry, she wrote her Master's Thesis about it! You'll get to hear more about re-entry from Carrie in our March 12 Re-Entry Reality virtual event. Read More »
Re-Entry Reality Podcast: Creating a Life, Not Settling In
It's Re-Entry Reality Monday! Leslie Forman is the perfect example of someone who has re-launched themselves after being abroad - twice. In this podcast, Leslie talks about her re-entry experiences after living in Chile and China, shares a simple strategy she used to survive reverse culture shock, and describes the importance of acknowledging how you've changed as you re-negotiate life back home. Read More »
The Fun Way to Create a New Habit
Do you make New Year's resolutions? Two years ago I did away with resolutions. Instead, I committed to doing something new thing each week. Read More »
8 Ways to Visualize Culture
I'm starting a unit on intercultural communication and competence in the class I teach at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (a service-learning class called Intercultural Education in K-12 Classrooms) and one of the things we're talking about today is the various ways to visualize culture. I thought I'd share the images (and video!) we'll be working with today. Read More »
Re-Entry: A Taboo Subject? {Podcast}
In this podcast, I talk with Vanessa Shaw about her most recent re-entry experience after spending several months in Mexico. Find out why Vanessa calls re-entry a taboo subject, how she used her blog to help her through the re-entry process, and more! Read More »
Pam Slim Talks Navajo Greetings {Video}
Pamela Slim of Escape from Cubicle Nation talked about a traditional Navajo (Diné) greeting in her keynote at the 2011 World Domination Summit. She was nice enough to explain the greeting again after her talk, so I could share it with you. Read More »
The Great Italian Pizza Fiasco of 1994
We're convinced the waiter scammed us. Overcharged us because of our U.S. citizenship. Because we're young women. Because we can't speak Italian. We leave Italy with a very bad impression of the entire country. All based on one experience in one restaurant in one city. We decide we'll never go back to Italy. But then, the more I think about the incident during the next few weeks, the more uneasy I become. Is it possible that the waiter hadn't scammed us? Read More »
5 Tips for Being More Effective in Intercultural Situations
Have you ever been in an intercultural situation and found yourself growing confused, frustrated, annoyed or even angry? I sure have, and definitely more than once. The good news: There are simple, though not always easy, things we can all do to improve our intercultural effectiveness. Here are 5 things* we strive to do every day. Read More »