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Letter from the Director
As we approach the end of 2020, the world has been forever changed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the U.S. democratic process is being tested, and the systemic racism embedded in our society’s institutions and policies have been revealed starkly, again.
Despite the challenges of this year, we grow in the belief that international education can play a critical role in providing students opportunities to deeply self-reflect on their own cultural backgrounds, to contextualize local events within the global and vice versa, and connect the dots on historical, economic, and technological phenomena. These learning opportunities support our vision of inspiring the development of global competence and engagement in our students.
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In March 2020, we facilitated the return of more than 850 students from their education abroad and exchange programs and we have suspended travel through May 2021. Our participation data for this annual report reflects the impact of these constraints. While traditional mobility continues to be curtailed due to the global health pandemic, we remain hopeful and committed to ensuring students have an opportunity for global learning.
Like many other education abroad professionals around the world, at IAGE we realize there are opportunities to innovate and provide virtual global experiences to students through online internships, service-learning, and course exchange, and we look forward to working with units across campus to further develop these programs in the coming months.
IAGE remains dedicated and committed to values of diversity and equity and seek to align our processes, procedures, and programming to support students of color and other underrepresented groups. In future reports, we plan to be accountable for these efforts.
Please feel free to connect with us as we are eager to work with the campus and international community toward the development of sustainable and positive partnerships and impactful programming and services for our students.
Joy Phaphouvaninh
Director, Illinois Abroad and Global Exchange
