When Elisabet Raquel Garcia began attending college as a low-income, first generation student from East Los Angeles, she could not have predicted that she would end up studying abroad not just once, but three times during her undergraduate career. Propelled to learn about different cultures, practice different languages, and take a deep dive into her family history, that's exactly what Elisabet did: From Brazil, to Mexico, to Chile and beyond, Elisabet's story is one of someone's world being expanded by the past and present of the world, their own family, and their own identity. 

Elisabet is now a DEI Student Resource Specialist seeking to provide access to underserved students in higher education. 

Jeff Berlin is an organizational development consultant currently leading his own company, Jeff Berlin Consulting. Jeff holds a Masters in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from San Jose State University and a PhD in Community and Cultural psychology from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. For the past fifteen years, Jeff has worked in the organizational development field for a variety of companies, including NASA, Catalyst, UHM, and two of Hawaii’s largest financial institutions. 

In 2015, Jeff completed his dissertation for his PhD, titled: "Beyond Intercultural Competence: Global Citizenship and a Critical Study Abroad." 

French, Korean, Uzbek... and many other languages have been a subject of study for Paula Zhang. Starting with a spy series she read as a child, Paula was inspired by the main character to find a way to save the world. That character spoke a lot of languages... and so, that became the model for Paula, who's pursuit of languages and travel became an integral part of her identity. Paula continues to learn languages at all levels of difficulty that can be found all around the world, leveraging the programs and networks available. 

Paula has participated in the following programs: 

The Department of State's Critical Language Scholarship

National Security Language Initiative for Youth

The Fulbright Program 

Generation Travel Radio is back with Season 2, Defining Global Citizenship! Throughout season 2 we will hear from travelers, scholars, and professionals about how travel can impact our sense of identity. We will speak with lovers of languages, practitioners preparing to help students study abroad in a world changed by the pandemic, and those who have conducted research on how we portray travel and the impact being in another place has on whether we consider ourselves citizens of the world. 

This short introduction episode sets up a season that will make you think - globally. 

Welcome to Travel Takes, Incoming! Generation Travel Radio is excited to release updates in immigration and travel for those coming into the United States with our knowledgable new voices, Olga Grosh Pratt and Keavy Gilbert. Tune in every 6 weeks to keep up with changes in the travel and immigration landscapes. 

Show Notes:

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) - "Consideration of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)": https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/consideration-of-deferred-action-for-childhood-arrivals-daca

U.S. Department of State - "Visa Wait Times": https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/visa-information-resources/wait-times.html

Biographies

Olga Grosh Pratt

Olga Grosh was born in Kiev, Ukraine and immigrated to the United States as a child. Olga graduated with high honors from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia with a major in Hispanic Studies, and a minor in International Relations. Olga earned her J.D. at the University of California, Hastings College of Law in San Francisco where she realized her passion for immigration law, which she has been practicing since.

After her own 15-year struggle to obtain citizenship, Olga is a driven and compassionate representative of immigrants’ rights. Olga focuses on removal and deportation proceedings, Board of Immigration and Ninth Circuit Appeals, family petitions, consular processing, adjustment of status, affirmative and defensive asylum, and has particular expertise in U visas and Violence Against Women Act applications for victims of crime and domestic violence. Olga is a member of the Washington, D.C. Bar and is admitted to practice before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Keavy Gilbert 

Keavy has been working in the field of International Education for 7+ years. During this time, she has held a variety of roles, ranging from Admissions Specialist to her current position of Assistant Director for Student Services and Compliance. In her current position, Keavy supervises the student services and compliance teams at the University of Washington International Student Services office. Keavy is an alumna of the NAFSA Academy, Class 17, and currently serves as Treasurer for NAFSA Region 1. 

Welcome to Travel Takes, Outgoing! Generation Travel Radio is excited to release updates in travel for those traveling within or out of the United States with our knowledgable new voices, Duff Archie and Rita Guzmán. Tune in every 6 weeks to keep up with changes in the travel landscape.

Show Notes: 

CNBC article about the Department of State travel advisory announcement: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/24/covid-80-percent-of-world-is-unsafe-for-travel-amid-pandemic-state-dept-warns.html

Bill Bull for CIEE on Dec. 9th, 2020: https://www.ciee.org/about/blog/covid-19-upends-traditional-framework-for-evaluating-risk-study-abroad

International Air Transport Association: https://www.iata.org/en/youandiata/travelers/health/

Skrift on digital health passports: https://skift.com/2021/01/29/digital-health-passports-explained-in-5-questions/

Phocuswire on digital health passports: https://www.phocuswire.com/health-passport-standards-interoperability-critical-for-revival-of-international-travel

OffWeGo: https://www.offwego.io/

Biographies

Rita Guzmán

As a strong believer that international experiences are critical in higher education, Rita Guzmán studied abroad in London and participated in the Tippie Dublin Summer Internship Program. Her internship experience as a radio host in Dublin led her towards the field of international education. She worked for the University of Iowa Study Abroad Office and Tippie College of Business as a program ambassador, diversity ambassador, mentor, and outreach assistant. After graduating in 2018 with a marketing major, international business certificate, and Portuguese minor, she taught English in Portugal through the Fulbright Program. After Fulbright, she moved to Chicago to continue working in higher education. She currently advises online graduate students in her role as an Enrollment Advisor for All Campus.

Duff Archie

Duff Archie is the Co-Founder of OffWeGo, a student-centric risk management platform for international education. Duff graduated Cum Laude from St. Lawrence University with a joint degree in Economics and Business in the Liberal Arts. While at St. Lawrence, he lived and studied abroad twice: London during his first semester of Freshman year and Copenhagen during his junior spring. Duff specializes in product management, human-centered design, and design thinking to help make safety a forethought for student travel and ease the pains of international offices everywhere! His favorite place he's traveled is Iceland.

Erik Bakke, now the director of an intensive english program, has always nurtured his passion for the creation and study of art. In the early 1990's he spent time living in both Osaka, Japan and Poznan, Poland where his primary source of income came from teaching. But his world consisted of artists in addition to academics. From reflections on the national economic trends in both countries to recounting the artist scenes, Erik's stories of his experiences remind us that one of the reasons we love to travel to different places, is because these places often offer up unique surprises - no matter our expectations. 

Svenja Schlattau, a native of Hamburg, Germany, knew she wanted to travel to the United States since she could remember. After that dream was made possible through a high school exchange program, her positive experience with her host family in Wisconsin and the many friends she made inspired her to continue traveling and connecting with people - and connecting people.

This episode delves into the advantages of spending a year in another country as a kid, and Svenja’s perspective on hosting hundreds - literally - of couch surfers from around the world over the years.

Fun fact: Yosefa Gilon never studied abroad, but that did not mean she didn’t have an international future ahead of her. From working for a traveling school to spending time living on a Kibbutz in Israel, Yosefa has spent time in numerous places for longer and shorter durations of time. While she was on a Greek island - with no one else who spoke English - she wrote and wrote and wrote some more. A passion for writing developed, as did her collection of spices in her kitchen. Between the two, her blog, Spice Wanderer, was born.

Get ready for an episode where we talk about how food and writing can be entryways into getting to know places - and ourselves - just a bit better.

➶ Spice Wanderer

Marton Vølstad is half US American, half Norwegian, and has lived in three different continents and five different countries. He has experienced education in the United States (Annapolis, Maryland), Norway, France, and Denmark. It was a combination of these circumstances and the lucky opportunity to spend a year on exchange in Paris that led him to understand his life's work (at least so far) would be tackling the daunting issues of climate change. 

In this episode we learn about Marton's meandering through an IB school to multiple universities before landing in consulting on climate issues, and ask him the most important question for someone who loves food as much as he does... "What is the most interesting thing you've eaten?"