By Heidi Bohn, MA and Sora Friedman, PhD
What is international education? Or perhaps a more modern twist is: What isn’t international education (IE)? A field that once was defined narrowly as international student advising and study abroad in higher education has expanded significantly since its founding. The advent and commonplace usage of air travel instead of boats, the Internet instead of phones and postcards, and the spread of globalization have connected our world in ways we could never have imagined even two decades ago. The result is that working in this field can result in a career of travel, global reach, grassroots interactions, and substantive impact on the lives of others as well as our communities and world.
While most NAFSA members work in higher education settings, the field of IE is ever expanding and can lead one to work in citizen exchange, immigration, refugee programs, international leadership, education policy and advocacy, nonformal education, English as a Second Language, and foreign language learning programs, to name just a few. You can work for the government as a diplomat, field service officer, or program manager. Or perhaps you may end up in the private, nonprofit sector as an agent for social justice and social sustainability, a trainer for the Peace Corps, or as a professor with a PhD. And yes, still yet, you can work with international students or scholars, advising them on their studies and work in the United States, or with U.S. students traveling to study abroad in a high-school, gap year, or university program.
