Today, we're here to talk about how to support your child or student when they want to study
or volunteer abroad.
So right now, switching from the introductions slide to the purpose slides.
The purpose of the webinar, essentially A, what is your role and B, how can you support?
That's essentially the gist of this webinar.
So first, I think we'll go ahead and do, as the panelist is we'll go ahead and present
ourselves.
And just kind of as a note to, if you have questions, you can ask through the chat box
and then Monica will relay the question to us.
There will be a question session at the end, that's when we will be taking questions at the end of the webinar.
Apart from that, we hope you will enjoy the presentation.
Everyone is muted throughout the duration and annotations are prevented.
So my name is Justin and I'm a program coordinator with the National Clearinghouse on Disability
and Exchange, a project of Mobility International USA sponsored by the U.S. Department of State.
Annie?
Hi, everybody!
I'm Annie Tulkin.
I'm the director and founder of Accessible College.
I provide support for students with physical disabilities and health conditions as they
transition to college.
And I also work with groups and organizations and schools providing training and consultation
on transition. Thank you Annie. Why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself, Gretchen.
We have a couple of slides for you as well.
>> Hi, everyone.
My name is Gretchen and I'm assistant director at Pacer Center and I'll take this opportunity
to share about us and why we're involved in this webinar.
So Pacer Center has been a partner of Mobility International for many years. We started in Minnesota in the late 70s
when the federal special education law was passed to help train parents to understand
their rights under the special education system and we do individual advocacy and referrals
to both parents and professionals, develop family friendly resources and materials.
And also have a broad range of local states and national partnerships including with MIUSA like
I mentioned.
So if you move to the next slide, One of Pacer's programs is called the Nation Parent Center
on Transition and Employment.
Through that project our goal is to support families as youth transition from secondary
education to life after high school whether it's employment, post secondary education,
independent living or some combination of those aspects of life.
So certainly international travel and exchange in study could certainly be a part of that
for youth and young adults with disabilities.
So we're excited to partner with them on this webinar to give some parents more of an understanding
of that process.
I'll just mention our website, Pacer.ORG/transition.
We do have a lot of resources for families navigating that transition time and tools
to support their youth, you know, in terms of self advocacy and working together on plans
for life after high school.
So although they don't address international exchange specifically, there may be tools
on the site that many families on this Webinar may gain insight from.
So we hope you'll check it out and I look forward to the rest of the presentation.
>> Thank you, Gretchen.
I really appreciate it.
Now, going to the next slide, we talk about reasons.
What are the reasons to do international exchange?
There's a lot of them.
Professional development, when you solve problems disability and non disability related, getting
books and finding alternatives to reasonable accommodations and troubleshooting when a
place isn't acceptable, you develop those amazing problem solving skills that help you
succeed in a job.
Emotional intelligence is another part of that.
You go abroad, you're experiencing a completely different culture and different way of viewing
viewing the world and you're having to sound off your world view against people with different world
world views.
And also, all of the while, again, developing your professional skills, dealing with the
challenges that come with, that are both disability and non disability related.
You learn to be pragmatic and you learn to choose your battles and you develop that emotional
intelligence factor.
In terms of your global awareness, I think that's pretty self explanatory, learning about
another country outside of the United States, just broadens everyone's perspective.
My favorite is the foreign language.
We are in a world where we are more and more called upon to know a foreign language and international
international exchange, spending a semester or a year or a few weeks in another country are great ways
of doing that.
In the next slide, what is your role in all of this stuff?
Well, first of all, first of all, your role is to set an example.
So maybe we all agree that there's great reasons to study abroad, and yet students encounter all kinds of influences, peer pressures
and concerns at the moment.
I have my girlfriend or boyfriend and I don't want to be without them.
All of my friends say it's unsafe abroad or none of us know of scholarships and I don't
want to end up with a bunch of debt any more than I've already got or I need to finish to get to work.
You have to set that example and say, challenge that point of view.
There is, you know, there are some things like sport season, you might miss the season
but there's other things that things in the moment that seem big, that don't seem as big
later.
So you kind of bringing that experience level in there is valuable.
And finally, also, just providing guidance and being a sounding board.
Being supportive and also letting them solve problems for themselves.
And so part of this support is in the next slide.
We talk about certain questions you might ask.
It isn't to say you sit down with them and interview them and tell us the answers to
what country you decide and how much time do you plan to spend abroad and do you need
credits and what are your disability concerns and of course, I would add funding.
It is isn't just an interview but these are questions you should take into account and
your students should take into account more importantly.
It could be, for example, the credits.
Not to touch on that but not every exchange necessarily requires that your student get
credit for their major, for their classes.
For example, if they're going to spend a semester abroad or a year as a contrast to a few weeks
or a summer, maybe that's an important factor.
So checking in with an adviser to make sure they're going to walk away with credits.
In addition, funding, I don't mention funding on this slide but funding and definitely a
factor and again, all of these things, you know, just kind of making sure your student
is taking into account these questions.
Disability, sometimes we see a lot where people with disabilities, when we go abroad, when
you have been in high school and maybe you finished your first year in college.
A lot of stuff has been taken care of for you.
I spoke with a friend with a disability, who is blind like me and he sent it to Syracuse and they buy the
books, bring them in and digitalize them and he just has to wait and it just pops up to
a nice little drop box and he down loads it and reads it.
When you go abroad, you don't realize how much of that is being done for you.
When you go abroad, you end up having to do it yourself.
There's not necessarily going to be a disability office that writes a letter on your behalf
to the professor or goes and takes care of making sure you get extra time or digitized
books.
So especially asking some of those questions.
You have this reasonable accommodation at home.
How are you going to take care of that while abroad?
Because it's definitely many ways of doing things abroad with a disability accommodation
wise but it's just that you have to take some time to think about how that's going to work.
Safety in the next slide, we talking about safety.
So everybody probably thinks it's self explanatory too.
There's the smart traveler enrollment program from the U.S. department of state.
It's a mailing list.
They send you updates about protests or any sort of issues of unrest.
If there's anything going on the host country, they will receive an alert and you will receive
one.
So you can check with them and say, what's going on.
Apart from that, a lot of the safety guidance, caring copies of your documents and making
sure your child is paying attention to what the program is advising.
Safety can look different depending on the country you're going to.
The number you call for an emergency who you turn to for a crime, whether it's the police
or somewhere else.
When I was in Mexico, our guidance is you do the last the last thing you do is call
the police.
So taking guidance from the program is extremely valuable when it comes so safety.
Going on to the next slide.
We're talking about everything being very different when your child goes abroad and
they're going to experience a little bit of culture shock.
For you, you're hopefully keeping in touch with them.
You're probably going to see a lot of this.
We're just making sure you have support and you know what you expect.
So when we talk about culture shock, I heard a great description that helps a lot.
There's three phases, the honey moon phase, the frustration phase and the acceptance
phase.
So essentially in the honeymoon, they just arrived.
The market is exciting and everything is colorful and the fruit is really fresh and the vendors
are really nice and in the next few weeks, things get annoying.
The market is musty.
The vendors are nagging and asking for tips and things and the fruit might be rotten and
then finally comes acceptance.
Acceptance is when the student has come to accept, this is just the way it is.
It's not better, not worse.
During that adjustment phase, your student can seem a little bit depressed.
Going to the next slide, you do have a role to support.
Keep in touch.
That's the first point.
Keep in touch every couple of weeks.
Maybe once a month, once every three weeks is important.
Calling through things like Skype or WhatsApp is another popular communication tool.
Face time, like, if your student is studying in Mexico or Canada, phone them up.
Keeping in touch and just seeing how they're doing and listen to them and see how they're experiencing the country and just being a sound board.
Not keeping in touch too much because students do need time to accustom themselves to the country and really
experience the culture and if they're talking to you every single day, that can be kind
of hard.
So also, finally, just avoid the temptation right away.
Unless they're saying something that makes you think they're going to harm themselves, or something.
avoid the temptation jump and get involved for them and being that fighter for them that you have been in their high school years.
Just be a sounding board and support them in resolving the issues that come up.
Going on to the next slide, now, we talked about how you support them.
This is some quick background information to get a better idea of what exchange looks
like.
So in the types of programs we have, consortium programs.
They are third party providers.
If they do for a semester or a year, this is probably the program they're on.
It's a program that contracts with multiple Universities to provide programs.
Being a third party provider and having this design, it has more scale.
It can have offices in 60 countries around the world and it can offer a greater variety
of programs.
Faculty led on the other hand are programs sponsored directly by the University that
your student is going to.
Those programs, like I said, they will be directly sponsored by the University and finally,
the other possibility, well, maybe if your student decides to go to grad school over
sea, that's direct enroll.
That's where your student applies directly to say the National University of Mexico and they're enroll
as a full time student.
Going on to the next slide, you have to pay for it somehow and there's a variety of different
scholarships.
Starting off, there's scholarships from the U.S. government such as the Gilman award,
the Fulbright or the BOREN.
Fulbright provides scholarly and study options and BOREN is for your student when they have time abroad and
they discovered an amazing language they want to study or they can idea about a language they want to start.
BOREN is for intense language study but you don't need to have proficiency in the language
that you take on when you go abroad.
It's an excellent opportunity.
Going to our next slide, we have after scholarships from other governments.
There's the Chinese government scholarship to study in Chinese.
The Generation Study Abroad award, Benjamin Franklin award from the French government
for a semester in France.
Japanese bridging scholarship and one we talk about here today is the Congress Bundestag, that allows
a combination of studies of college and high school programs for studying in Germany.
Finally on the next slide, scholarships from private entities.
So I mentioned third party providers.
One of them is CIEE.
Others are AIFS on this slide and others that are not on the slide, for example, AFS or
ISEP.
Those programs often will offer scholarships in addition to offering exchange opportunities
and there's other foundations as well.
One example here is the Freeman Foundation which offers funding for studies in Asia.
I'm getting to the end of my part here, resources.
So again, don't do it alone.
There's plenty of resources out there.
There's the study abroad adviser at your student's University or their program they're applying
to.
There's the disability service office.
They should also provide support.
There's also the host center in the country where the student wants to study and of course,
there's Mobility International USA and Pacer Center.
With that, I'm going to hand it to Annie who will tell you more about disability accommodation
and troubleshooting details and I appreciate her being here and I'm going to pass it on
to you, Annie.
>> Great, thanks Justin!
So Accessible College provides students with disabilities and health conditions and their
families supports to ensure a successful transition to higher education.
Part of that is working with students who are interested in studying abroad.
So I also work with organizations and groups and schools to provide training and consultation
and just a little bit about me.
I have over ten years of experience of work in the field of disability and six of those
years were spent at the academic resource center at Georgetown University which is Georgetown's
disability support office.
It's there at Georgetown, I got to work with a number of students with disabilities who
were studying abroad and that's where I really got a better understanding of the challenges
where students who want to study abroad might face and how to over come the challenges.
I was also a Peace Corps volunteer in Mongolia and a Fulbright fellow in Mongolia as well, where I studied teachers perceptions of students with disabilities in the classroom.
So I want to talk a little bit about today about things that students can do to explore
and prepare for international volunteering and studying abroad.
I can bring in how parents can support their students in this endeavor.
If you're a parent, this presentation will provide you with a blueprint of the steps
to take and things to consider.
There's a few specific steps with college students with disabilities.
The first is to connect with the disability support office at your University.
So there, the student can ask about the programs that people with similar disabilities have had success in and get ideas
about navigating specific issues.
The disability support office is a great place to start that search and conversation.
So you should always encourage your student to start with those folks.
Students can meet with the adviser on the study abroad office to see what options are
available through the school.
The folks in the disability support office might point you toward a specific person in the study abroad office too so that's another
reason to connect with the disability support office first.
In terms of best practices, the last piece is to prepare the questions, right.
Know the resources for the students and be patient and persistent because you might, your student may
not get the response they are looking for initially, so they need to be patient and persistent and continue to ask questions and finding solutions.
The rest of my presentation is more about the how to aspect.
So today we're going to focus on three key key details and points.
The first one is the details.
Second one communication and the third is context.
These are things that both parents and students need to be prepared for.
You can go to the next slide.
So in terms of details.
Individuals are going to have different technology needs and different needs based on their condition
so there's a few things to consider.
The first thing is, assistive technology.
If you're going abroad, you have to think about, you know, what am I going to bring
with me.
If you don't know what assistant technology is, it could be medication management apps
for your phone, a screen reader, magnifying equipment.
Essentially any tool that a person uses to perform a task.
First we need to identify, does the person who is going abroad have the appropriate assistive
technology and then the next piece is, will it work for them in their host country.
So especially with the self phone, you need to think about whether the U.S. phone will
work in the other country or how you can make sure that your things will work in the other
country.
Thinking about things like do I need to ship equipment over?
Is there something I can use that's already there?
That type of thing.
So kind of the logistics around the assistive technology.
If your student uses the wheelchair, thinking through how will I get the wheelchair to
the other country.
You know, what's the topography like?
Do I need a different wheelchair?
The other thing regarding wheelchairs is thoroughly researching airlines and their policies and
reviews around wheelchair handling, transfers and supports.
There's so many disability travel blogs now with people who use wheelchairs that are sharing
their experiences.
I feel like this is something that is a lot simpler to research nowadays.
So you can look into that and see what are people's view on that airline so you know
how your student is going to navigate that airline situation.
You know, if your student's wheelchair uses a battery.
Thinking through that piece.
Is it the right voltage for that country?
Do they need to bring a back up battery or another type of chair with them just in case
their power chair breaks down?
If your student uses a service animal.
Can the host accommodate the service animal?
They may not actually be required to accommodate the service animal so that's something you
would have to bring up if it's a college student, you would bring that up.
You know, with the school first to have that conversation about whether or not the service
animal would be able to travel with the student.
Then working through the pieces that go through it.
Also thinking about, are there people with service animals in that host country, whether
foreigners or host country nationals.
The other piece of that is thinking through like how will the student navigate other people's
perceptions?
I know it's not always perfect in the U.S. when folks use service animals but for the
most part, the general public knows what a working dog is and understands they're not
supposed to touch them.
However, in other countries, it's quite unusual to see someone walking a dog on a leash.
Let alone assisting them down the street.
So it's important to be cognizant and aware of the cultural distances.
And help your student think through those pieces.
And finally, and probably the most helpful piece here is connections.
Do you have connections with people with disabilities in that country?
Thinking through, where can I find more information and connect with people with disabilities?
Sometimes a simple goggle search can yield a lot of information.
You might be able to find some disabled people's organizations for that specific country or
some other resources online.
You can always contact Mobility International to see if they have contacts or thoughts or
support they can share with you.
You can go to the next slide, please.
The next piece is communication.
So communicating with that host organization or with that host institution is key.
So students should assume nothing.
So you won't be able to be prepared for everything.
So your student won't be able to plan every piece out.
So getting a good sense of that location and of the people will help your student be really
supported.
So one way parents can help is to work with students in assisting them to think through
their typical day at home.
This might sound like a mundane task but it's something I do with college students a lot.
It's kind of a time management component.
Thinking through each piece of their day and working through all of those pieces.
So students will want to ask questions about housing and transportation and daily living
and working through those things so they can ask their host a lot of questions so that
they can be prepared so they'll know, like, if I'm staying in a dormitory and I'm a wheelchair user, how far
is it to get to the cafeteria.
What is the terrain like to get there?
Is the cafeteria accessible?
Does it have an entry way I can get to independently or do I need someone's assistance in getting
to it.
So if you work with your student to actually plan out what their typical day is like here
and see how transferable that is to the host country, then they can ask the right questions
when they're working with that host institution to see where they might have challenges or,
you know, maybe they can bring some assistive technology with them to mitigate some of those
pieces but those are important things to talk through before they actually get on the ground.
The other really helpful thing is to have a pre call.
With that institution.
That can be a video chat, it can be a phone call.
Having those conversations ahead of time can be really helpful for both parties because
maybe the institution on the other end hasn't had a lot of experience with students with disabilities
before so they may have just as many questions as your student.
It's important to have that pre call and conversation so you can work with those pieces.
You can go to the next slide.
It's also important for students to do research about their host country.
So parents might want to do research too.
We're on a set context, perfect!
Parents may also want to do that research too so specifically look about what the culture
around disability is in that country.
That's something really important.
It's good to be prepared and we need to understand that people in different countries may have
less exposure or different perceptions of people with disabilities who are going to
school or who are employed and usually when we have less exposure to something, we have
a lot of questions or we have created our own narrative about people.
So doing a little research around the cultural perceptions and life for people with disabilities
in that specific country can help prepare you.
Another tactic is to see if there's other people with similar disabilities that have
been to that specific country that you can connect with.
So mobility international has a lot of information on their website showing students who have
studied abroad and what their experience was like.
So you can check that out and see if they have information about that specific country
and life for people with disabilities there.
The other thing to look at which I mentioned briefly before is Disabled People's Organizations,
DPOs.
Looking to see if there's DPOs that country you can connect with.
Sometimes the DPOs can help in finding personal care attendants or wheelchair repair or assistive
technology.
Any other disability related supports.
So if you're interested in connecting with other people with disabilities, those DPOs
can be a really great source of information for you.
That's something that parents can assist students with as well.
Lastly, the trade offs.
So you really need to work with your student and consider what the trade offs are.
You know, the pros and cons.
Depending on the country that the student goes to, they might be the first person with
the disability to enter that program.
So you know, there might be some bumps in the row and they might be sacrificing some
of the independence they had in the U.S. and relying a lot more on other people.
They may get to experience something wonderful and challenging in return.
So it's important to have, to make sure your student has good strategies for handling change
in place and also, a strong sense of self advocacy as well as understanding.
You can go to the next slide.
Here, you'll see a picture of one of my former students, Cody.
He's looking very dapper in a gray suit and red tie.
I'll share a little anecdote about him.
So he's a young man in his early 20s and he's a student well, he was a student at the school
for foreign service at Georgetown University and he's originally from Oklahoma.
He was passionate about learning Portuguese.
So he was accepted to a study abroad program in San Palo Brazil and Cody has cerebral palsy
which impacts his movement and mobility.
He doesn't use mobility aids, like a wheelchair or Walker or cane and when he was accepted
to the program, he was very proactive in letting that host University know he has a physical
disability and he may need some accommodations.
He quickly learned that they had never had a student with a physical disability attend
their program.
They had lots of questions about, you know, how he would get around.
What type of housing his host family needed to have because in that specific program,
you were required to live with a host family.
They wanted to know, you know, whether or not he would actually be able to manage living
independently there.
Many of you might be thinking, well, you know, if he manages to live independently in the
states, why wouldn't they just assume he could do it there?
Part of the answer to that is exposure.
The because they have very limited exposure to people with physical disabilities attending
Universities, they had no idea what to expect from Cody.
So even though Cody had been corresponding with them over e mail, he was getting frustrated
because he felt like the tone of their e mails was a little bit negative and focused a little
bit on the challenges they perceived that he might have in the program.
So I worked with him and recommended that we try to do a video chat with them so they
can see each other face to face.
Hear a little bit of the Portuguese he was studying at Georgetown and break the ice.
We facilitated that conversation and this gave Cody a chance to ask them the questions
that he had and it also gave the support folks at the University in Sao Paulo, the opportunity
to engage with him face to face.
They discussed his housing, the location of his class rooms and what a typical day might
look like.
In the end, that was a valuable piece of his process.
Needless to say, Cody has completed that program and he's a Fulbright Fellow back in Brazil
where he's navigating the hilly terrain all of his own.
You can go to the next slide.
So you know, in terms of thinking about how parents can best support their students just
in general.
As a parent myself, I can say that the bullet points here are very challenging for parents.
Finding a constructive way to voice your concerns.
So I think using some of those tools and working with your student to figure out like, what
their typical day is, what their needs might be, and helping them in a more constructive
way to identify some of these challenges that they might face themselves.
Allowing them to reach out to the disability support office themselves, to talk to the
study abroad folks and to present the information back to you as a partner so you can help them
flush things out and think through it rather than taking over the rains and steering yourself
as the parent and having those conversations for your student.
So that's really important because of, you know, the students really need to get this
sense of independence and in colleges, that time where students are starting to think
about, you know, what their life is going to be like once they graduate and have a job
and are living independently.
So this is a really fantastic opportunity for them to start to do some of that planning.
Exploring the resources yourself.
So you know, you kind of know as a parent what your student is thinking about.
You can go and look through, you know, do some Googling and searching and see what mobility
international has on their website.
See what their Google research yields about lives of people with disabilities in those
specific countries and look into the host institution.
Probably the most important thing and the most challenging for most parents is letting
your student lead the way.
So let your student tell you what they think they would like to do and tell you how they
plan to navigate those pieces.
And work with them to figure out if there's a constructive way to assist them.
That's all I have to offer today.
If you go to the next slide, I have my website and my e mail address and Twitter up there.
So if folks have more questions or comments, you can always reach out to me.
I would be happy to assist you.
>> Thanks, Annie.
As we mentioned before, we did we were going to be joined by an individual, Jay, who is
an individual with a physical disability.
He uses a power chair and a personal attendant.
He's asleep right now.
It's probably 2 or 3:30 in the morning in the United Kingdom.
He's getting his master's degree there. We would be happy to put you in touch if you have any questions.
You can hear about how it made him work with his personal attendant and getting around
in the United Kingdom.
At this point, we would like to open it up here if anybody has any questions.
We are now opening up the floor for questions about how to support your student with disabilities
going abroad and just kind of while people are kind of putting their questions together,
whatever, I would add really, in addition to what Annie shared, a really great pro tip,
when you're searching for a disabled people's organization, or other entities like professionals
at the host University or for example, Facebook groups is using the Google translate feature.
That's actually, when I was looking for organizations and people in South America, where I was looking
to study, I was trying to figure out what it was like for blind people down there and
I just started translating into Spanish key terms what I wanted to find.
I have actually done searches.
I helped a person find a list of personal attendants, like, listings, because they were
trying to hire somebody in, I think, the Czech Republic.
So that is a country in eastern Europe.
So any way, I did that and was able to find, first, I found the search terms in the language.
I put it in and then Google has an excellent translate to English feature.
So I was able to access web sites from the country where they were listing attendants.
So that's one thing.
Does anybody have any questions specifically about what we have been talking about?
>> Justin, this is Monica.
We don't have any questions so far but Gretchen, do you want to share some of Pacer's resources
in the time or any experience you have with any parents or students with disabilities
contacting Pacer?
>> Sure, I can add a little bit more information.
So yeah, any families that are on the call or see this recording, are welcome to contact
Pacer via the e mail address, transition@pacer.ORG or our website, pacer.ORG.
We are happy if people have questions on accommodations or connecting to resources.
We know that traveling abroad, you know, for whether the student has a disability or not,
it may seem like a scary proposition to families.
Maybe especially if they haven't traveled extensively themselves.
I like to use a phrase my co worker has said often about the role of families.
She says a lot about letting go and letting grow so there may be a continued need for
parents in the process but letting youth explore their interest in areas such as international
exchange is really important.
Justin, I was wondering, especially as, you know, people who find this Webinar on Pacer's
website and are not as familiar with mobility international, Annie referred to some things
they might be able to contact you about but I was wondering, would it be helpful if you
just gave a couple of minutes on mobility international and the types of resources on
your website to have it on record for families looking at this.
>> Thank you, Gretchen!
You might probably guess, there's probably, for as much as we have covered in this Webinar,
there's still a lot more that we haven't really covered.
There's a variety of different kinds of disability experiences out there, blindness, learning
disabilities, people who are hard of hearing, deaf, there's a variety of different considerations
we haven't had the chance to address but we cover all of that in pretty extensive detail
at WWW.MIUSA.ORG.
Mobility international USA.
We are a non profit, we have been around for more than 35 years and our goal is to advance
the leadership of people with disabilities globally through international exchange and
international development.
In our international exchange wing, I and Monica serve on the National Clearinghouse on Disability and Exchange, NCDE, a project
of the U.S. Department of States Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and supported
in the implementation by Mobility International USA.
NCDE is essentially a clearinghouse of information and resources.
We work to increase participation of people with disabilities in mainstream international exchange by filling in information gaps such as, for example,
how do I get a sign language interpreter in Italy or what should I know about traveling
with a physical disability in Guatemala.
What should I think about or understand about with personal assistant services.
So we have an address in addition to an extensive online collection of resources including a
search box where you can put in terms such as, for example, sign language interpreters
or power wheelchair.
We also have a country map where you can go to www.
MIUSA.ORG at our home page.
You can see a map of all of the countries of the world.
You can go to that and appreciate, based on the country, people connected with that country
and the stories those folks share.
Like I said, we shared a couple of examples of people with disabilities who have done
international exchange through many many more stories on our website which you can also
search using that same search box and after checking and looking for your information,
if you still have questions, or if you would like advice on your specific situation, we
get inquiries all of the time at our e mailing address, clearinghouse @ MIUSA.ORG.
You can e mail us there and we usually get to you within that week.
Also, we have a contact form that you can connect with us by.
Also, we have a mailing list and so you can keep up with us at our access to exchange
mail list and you can also sign up for mobility international USA other list as well to keep
up with our international development work.
There, we regularly advice on scholarship opportunities and upcoming Webinars and new
resources that we release.
For example, lately, we have been working on a go local campaign.
We actually have a pod cast series coming out in the next several months where we're
going to be explaining what are some of the trends that disabled people should know about
the international exchange industry.
Where it's been going over the last several years.
There's some compelling reasons to show, why there's no better time to volunteer or study
abroad.
And also, we have an upcoming publication of our world that awaits you away journal
which is a regular magazine publication we put out.
Monica, would you remind me of our way journal?
Why don't you comment on what we're covering in that?
>> Monica: Hi, Justin!
Thanks.
We have one coming up based on champions for inclusion.
So we have connected with a lot of study abroad offices and disability offices that are strong
advocates for students with disabilities to have them to participate in international exchange such as study abroad.
We wanted to highlight those stories so more professionals in the field can learn about
more of the inclusive practices to include students with disabilities.
There is some recent data that came out that shows a lot more students of disabilities
that are participating in study abroad programs.
So we want this information to go out to a lot of study abroad offices in the nation
to say, you know, maybe some programs might be hesitant in their language to students
but we want them to be optimistic and positive in their language to include students with
disabilities and know there's resources like our office and different professionals in
the field that are working very hard on different things to make sure their programs are inclusive.
So yeah, that will be coming out in the end of this month
and we'll be sharing it through
our E news as well as our website and we'll have print materials if anybody wants them
too, along with other resources that Justin was mentioning.
We have various publications, directed to international students with disabilities, directed at American
students with disabilities.
Youth with disabilities.
This one is focused on professionals so we have all of the resources online.
We have pod casts.
Different stories, videos, so I think as parents and your children, it will be good to kind
of go through that resource library that we have and you know, look through it together
or share this information.
It's not just for parents but it's for you to share information about accessible college,
about mobility international, about Pacer with your children to say, hey, this is some
information I learned about this.
Here's the website if you want to look on it, on your own, that would be a really great
step for them as well as they start to learn and hear more stories about other students
participating in these programs.
>> Monica, this is Gretchen.
I will quickly add, I should have mentioned that we do have on our website some resources
directed towards youth, directly themselves as well and we're continuing to build in that
area, so thank you for mentioning that.
>> Great, thank you everybody!
In keeping with that, we would like to invite you to follow us.
Next year, we're working on more resources for community colleges and also we're doing a Deaf initiative
so keep up with that as well.
>> I don't see any questions coming through, Justin.
>> Okay, great!
If that is all, if anybody has questions that occur to you after we get off the line, go
ahead and e mail clearinghouse@MIUSA.ORG.
It has really been a pleasure having everyone here and i would like to thank the panelist for their patience and energy and coming and doing the
amazing presentations.
Thank you for Accessible College and Pacer and collaboration and helping us get the word
out.
Also, thanks to the staff at mobility international.
Monica and Ashley in the office, helping us to clarify the technological challenges and
the learning process we have experienced.
I appreciate everybody.
Also, thank you very much to ACS.
There will be a copy of the captions for the presentation afterwards.
We do have the presentation being captioned.
With that everybody, we wish you have great rest of your happy weekend and we'll keep
in touch soon!
Bye bye!
>> Bye, thanks everyone!
>> Bye, thank you!
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