In November 2023, exchange programs manager Marion Ferguson attended the annual Global Inclusion Conference, hosted by Diversity Abroad, as a panel speaker for the session “IDEAS for Indigenous Inclusion in Education Abroad.”
The panel featured grantees from the Increase and Diversify Education Abroad for U.S. Students (IDEAS) Program and discussed how their projects work to increase Indigenous student mobility. In addition to Ferguson, the other panelists were Brandon Marc Higa (Kapi’olani Community College), Consuelo Gutierrez-Crosby (University of Minnesota), and Rachel Rice (World Learning).
In addition to the panel session, IDEAS grantees met with Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Scott Weinhold (Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State) to talk about the impact of IDEAS funding to their institutions and projects.
The Canadian Studies Center IDEAS project focuses on building a path to increased Indigenous student participation in study abroad through community connections at the University of British Columbia. Read more about it here.