NAFSA: Association of International Educators Blog

By John Pearson, Awards Subcommittee Chair
I would like to congratulate the recipients of NAFSA’s prestigious annual awards and those honored with life membership. Rosemarie Arens, Janice Bogen, Sue Marlay, and Valerie Woolston will be recognized at the 2010 NAFSA Annual Conference and Expo in Kansas City during the Wednesday Plenary with Nicholas Kristof and on the Circle of Excellence at Kansas City Convention Center. Please join me in posting congratulations to the Award Recipients. The 2010 National Award recipients are:

Marita Houlihan Award

Rosemarie Arens for years was the sole Regional Educational Advising Coordinator to take care of 70 EducationUSA advising offices, paying visits to advisers, helping them with strategic planning and outreach activities to broadcast the U.S. as the leading destination to South American students. She has established partnerships with local institutions, binational centers, NGOs and Fulbright Commissions to host advising offices and to have EducationUSA advisers trained by her to broadcast study in the United States. Rosemarie produced several articles published in Adviser´s Quarterly, Connections, and other international education magazines about advising techniques to help advisers enhance their skills. Rosemarie Arens has been a long-term NAFSA member, bringing EducationUSA advisers from the region to act as liaisons in NAFSA between universities in their home countries and U.S. institutions. She was also fundamental in implementing in South America a U.S. State Department program, Opportunity Grants, that offered upfront costs for underprivileged students of high academic excellence to pay for testing and apply for U.S. universities. She trained all advisers on how to recruit non-traditional students as well as mainstream students to U.S. institutions.

Homer Higbee Award

Janice Bogen became active in NAFSA in the late 1980′s, serving on the Region IX team as ATESL Representative, eventually becoming Region VIII Chair, joining an outstanding Regional Council in 1992-93. The work of that council laid the foundations for enhanced partnership and accountability between the regions and the national organization that continues to this day. Since that time, Janice has played a number of leadership roles in NAFSA. She served as Vice President for Member Relations and Chaired the San Diego Annual Conference Committee in 2000 and has served on five additional annual conference planning committees. As a Board member-at-large, she chaired the Nominations and Elections committee, and later served on both the Board and Association Strengthening Task Forces when she worked closely with the new RAP-KC. Most recently, she was Chair of the Knowledge Community for International Students and Scholars Services. She is also one of the leaders of the new Healthcare Institutions Interest Group (HIIG). In 2006, she was given the Region VIII Award for Outstanding Contributions to International Education. She was a founding member of NAFSA’s New Century Circle and now serves as a member of the NCC’s Advisory Committee. In addition to her service to NAFSA, she is a member of the Board of Directors for the Nepal Foundation, based in Philadelphia. Currently she is the Director of the Office of International Exchange Services at Thomas Jefferson University.

Life Membership

Sue Marlay has served in various positions in international education at Arkansas State University (ASU) for twenty-eight years including International Student Adviser, Faculty Immigration Specialist, Director of International Student Services and Director of International Programs. She began her career as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines and is currently serving as Assistant to ASU’s Dean of University College. An active NAFSA member for over 22 years, Sue has received recognitions at the local, regional, and national levels. She was given ASU’s Princess Award for Dedication to Students. Sue was recently named as one of ASU’s 100 Outstanding Staff members as ASU celebrated its first centennial (1909-2009). NAFSA Region III recognized her for Distinguished Service to International Education and she was selected to participate in the Fulbright Program for International Education Administrators-Japan. A long-term member of the Trainer Corps, Sue has organized, chaired and presented numerous workshops at the state, regional, and national levels and presented at countless conference sessions as well. She was an F-1 Basics PPW Dean and one of the co-authors on the F-1 Regulations for Beginners Workshop Manual. She has held many, if not all, of NAFSA Region III’s leadership positions including State Representative, Treasurer, and Chair. Sue has also served at the national level as F-1 Working Group Vice-Chair and Leadership Cultivation Subcommittee Chair. She is the Poster Chair for the 2010 Annual Conference in Kansas City and also for the 2011 Annual Conference in Vancouver. Sue is clearly a life-long active NAFSA member.

Valerie Woolston has been working at the University of Maryland in the International Education Services department for over 30 years. She has been an active member of NAFSA and the NAFSA leadership for 38 years, beginning with her membership on the Government Relations Advisory Committee (1972-74) through her service as chair of the Task Force on Retirees for the NAFSA Membership Committee (2002-2009). Val has served NAFSA as a regional chair, workshop director, ADSEC chair, vice president for regional affairs, NAFSA president (1988-1989), and annual conference chair (1988 & 1996). She has helped initiate and lead the New Century Circle, represent NAFSA around the world, worked to establish a Phase-II SIG for those who are retired and/or about to retire. Valerie started in immigration advising and then went on to working in international admissions. In admissions, she both wrote and edited publications on various countries concerning the educational system in those countries. Ultimately she expanded her expertise and capabilities to encompass all aspects of international education from foreign student affairs to study abroad and the intercultural challenges that occur in all areas of the field. Valerie has mentored many younger people in the field and consulted at numerous institutions of higher education.