GLOBAL LEARNING OFFICE

Beth bleeds purple. She grew up in Evanston with a faculty father, was a debate “Cherub” at Northwestern’s National High School Institute, and graduated from Northwestern with an undergraduate degree in history. She honed her interests in the development of culturally diverse educational institutions during a summer ethnographic field study, in Arizona, about the educational experiences of Navajo students, and a junior year abroad in Germany. A precursor to the undergraduate research grant allowed her to conduct senior-thesis research in Philadelphia, which later evolved into her doctoral dissertation. Beth completed two master’s degrees as a Marshall Scholar at the University of Cambridge and earned her PhD at Princeton University, supported by dissertation fellowships at the University of Pennsylvania’s McNeil Center for Early American Studies and Princeton’s Center for Human Values. Her scholarship on religious and ethnic diversity in Reformation Europe and colonial North America has appeared in German and American publications. Additionally, she is the associate chair of Shepard Residential College and a regular contributor to the Inside Higher Ed Blog, University of Venus. Each spring, she and her English husband enjoy hosting Northwestern’s British Scholarships Garden Party at their Evanston home.

Impactful International Experiences

As a child, I spent every third summer in Germany and traveled throughout Europe from Scandinavia to Greece, with a memorable excursion further south to Egypt. As an undergraduate at Northwestern, I spent my third year enrolled at the University of Tuebingen. While earning graduate degrees at Cambridge University in the UK, I returned to Germany to conduct archival research. I maintain close ties with both the UK and Germany, but some of my most impactful recent travel has been to Ireland, Korea, and Singapore.

Why Study Abroad?

I consider it impossible to understand your own culture and how it has influenced you until you have experienced other cultures both within your country of birth and around the globe.

Bianca has been at the University since 2006 working with various area studies programs including Asian Studies, International Studies, Latin American & Caribbean Studies, and Middle East & North African Studies. As Associate Director she oversees the administration of the IAS Weinberg programs and works with the faculty Directors to advise students, manage curricular development, and provide program management.

Impactful International Experiences

Traveling to Mexico as a kid, both to big cities and rural communities expanded my world view about how people's every day lives were lived and structured.

Why Study Abroad?

I think that study abroad experiences open your horizons to unexpected learning. They can be challenging, nurturing, empowering, humbling, and can help you learn to think from a variety of perspectives.

https://www.internationalstudies.northwestern.edu/people/staff/jimenez-bianca.html

John is an Associate Professor of Instruction in the Department of German and has taught language and content courses at Northwestern since 1990. As the departmental Study Abroad Adviser, he works with students to integrate overseas study into their undergraduate curriculum and also helps students to identify additional opportunities to return to Germany, Austria, or Switzerland following graduation. As a member of the campus Fulbright Committee, he works with students as they prepare Fulbright and DAAD grant applications. He is currently co-chair of the Council on Language Instruction and has a long association with the International Studies Residential College.

John earned his A.B. in Art History from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and his M.A. in German Literature from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is a life long resident of Chicago and has studied and traveled extensively in Europe.

Impactful International Experiences

Junior Year Abroad in Baden bei Wien, Austria, 1977-78, Year of Study in Cracow, Poland, 1980-81, Semester in Reims, France, 1982, Semester of Study in Vienna, Austria, 1993, Year Study in Jena, Germany, 1985-86, Teaching in Yerevan, Armenia, 1992-93, Summer language courses in Greifswald 3 wks, Viareggio, 4 wks, Bergamo 8 wks, Santiago de Compostela, 4 wks, Lublin, 4 weeks, Gargnano, 8 wks, Torun, Poland, 4 wks, Urbino, Italy, 4 week, Dijon, France, 8 wks, Askov, Denmark, 2 wks,

Why Study Abroad?

My life has been immeasurably enriched because of the many opportunities that I have had to learn foreign languages and to live in other cultures. I feel a great sense of accomplishment when I can help encourage students to venture abroad to participate in language programs, internships or other programs that place them in the middle of a different culture.

 https://www.german.northwestern.edu/people/faculty/continuing/paluch-john.html

Originally from New Jersey, Krista was a first-generation college student and the first in her family to study abroad –or even to leave the country. As an undergraduate at Haverford College, Krista double-majored in linguistics and German and spent her junior year in Freiburg, Germany. After working in her college’s study abroad office, interning at IES Abroad in Chicago, and a stint in banking and finance, Krista joined the Northwestern study abroad team in 2007.

Why Study Abroad?

You have to get out of your bubble; Northwestern cannot teach you everything you need or want to know. Study abroad is usually nothing like you think it will be, and that is one of the best parts about it! It can make you a more interesting person and a more engaged citizen, teach you things about the world and about yourself that you didn’t know you should learn, and open up paths and opportunities you didn’t even know existed. It will also never be easier (or, in many cases, more affordable!) to live abroad than it is as a student.

Lauren Hetrovicz received her B.A. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2008, where she studied Spanish and Linguistics. She then earned an M.A. in Spanish Linguistics in 2011 and an M.A. in Teaching English as a Second Language in 2014, both from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After obtaining these degrees, she also completed 32 hours in Ph.D. coursework in Spanish Linguistics from the same institution. 

In 2015, she then began working as an adjunct lecturer of Spanish and Linguistics at the College of Charleston in South Carolina, where she taught elementary, intermediate, and advanced content courses such as Grammar Skills Review, Spanish Conversation, Spanish Composition, and Linguistics 101. At the College of Charleston, Lauren won a number of teaching and service awards highlighting her dedication and skills as an educator and faculty member.In 2019, Lauren joined the faculty at Northwestern University and is teaching elementary and intermediate Spanish courses. 

Impactful International Experiences

While at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, I studied abroad four times while earning my undergraduate degree. I traveled to India, China, Costa Rica and Italy.

Why Study Abroad?

Given how diverse each of my study abroad programs were in terms of the subjects studied, the length of the program, the language spoken locally, etc. I was tremendously enriched personally and academically. Since I majored in Spanish and Linguistics, these experiences abroad pushed me to investigate these fields even further and, afterwards, I pursued two Master's degrees at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, one in Spanish Linguistics and the other in the Teaching of English as a Second Language. Even now, I am currently obtaining my Ph.D. in Spanish Linguistics; these degrees and my subsequent independent travels would not have been the same without my initial participation in the four study abroad programs as an undergraduate student.

https://www.spanish-portuguese.northwestern.edu/people/faculty/language-faculty/hetrovicz-lauren.html

Tasha is an Assistant Professor of Instruction teaching the Intermediate level in the Spanish Language Program here at NU.

Impactful International Experiences

As an undergraduate, I was a scholarship recipient for the Bryn Mawr College Summer Program in Spanish located at the Instituto Internacional, Miguel Angel 8 in Madrid, Spain. As a graduate student, I pioneered a graduate student exchange between the University of Granada, Spain and the University of Delaware. I taught English language and English History at the Escuela de Traductores e Intérpretes and still maintain connections with the people I met 30 years later.

Why Study Abroad?

As a undergraduate and graduate student I studied in Spain, pioneering a graduate exchange program with the University of Granada, and as an instructor I have participated in numerous educational excursions to Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Costa Rica. I look back on my time abroad as one of the most vibrant and meaningful times of my life. Not only was I immersed in another language and culture, but I established countless personal connections that I still cherish today. My experiences, particularly in Latin America during the aftermath of civil wars, have fueled my interests in human rights. It is this passion for understanding and empathy that I bring to the language classroom.

Yumi received her M.S.Ed. from University of Pennsylvania. She has extensive experience in classroom teaching, coordination of instruction, and curriculum development, both in the U.S. and Japan, including at Rhodes College, the Japanese School at Middlebury College and the Summer Intensive Program at the Japan Center for Michigan Universities.

Yumi co-authored The IES Abroad MAP (Model Assessment Practice) for Language and Intercultural Communication for the IES (Institute for the International Education of Students) Abroad in 2011. Shiojima served as the Co-Chair of the Council on Language Instruction (2008-2011), the overarching organization of language instructors at Northwestern that advises on language pedagogy issues and promotes professional development of language instructors. She serves as a Fellow at the International Studies Residential College.

Impactful International Experiences

Studying abroad in the U.S. as an exchange student while in college!

https://www.alc.northwestern.edu/people/faculty/shiojima-yumi.html