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Today's Challenges are Tomorrow's Opportunities: Supporting Cultural Engagement and Student Resiliency during the Education Abroad Experience

Berlin, Germany
Friday, April 25, 2025
9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. CEST (GMT+2)

Join us in Berlin for this one-day event where we will come together as a community of professionals to build skills for working with today’s education abroad students. Through dialogue, we will tackle our shared challenges relating to students’ encounters with difference and striking the balance between considering where students come from and giving them access to a culturally authentic and immersive education abroad experience.

Co-hosted by Indiana University’s Europe Gateway, CIEE Berlin, and The Forum on Education Abroad, this Regional Seminar will equip attendees with tools and strategies for helping students manage their own expectations for the sake of their learning and well-being. In addition, participants will come away from the seminar with an expanded network of education abroad professionals following a day of learning and community building.

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Why You Should Attend

Led by senior education abroad leaders and local university staff and faculty, this full-day seminar explores key questions including:

• Who are today’s students? What are their expectations of an education abroad program? 
• Where do these expectations come from? How do international higher education trends and structures impact the expectations of students and the institutions and organizations that host them?
• How can international educators provide students with access to culturally relevant education abroad opportunities that challenge them to be open, to learn, and to grow?
• What strategies, tools, and techniques can be used to design programs, classes, and student support systems that effectively help students manage expectations and overcome challenges so that they can make the most of the cultural opportunities presented to them?
• How do on-site staff and faculty develop support systems that help students engage with their education abroad locations in a meaningful way?

Outcomes You Can Expect

At the end of the day, participants will be able to:

• Grasp current trends and tendencies among today’s college and university education abroad students;
• Implement best practices for providing students with culturally significant curricular and co-curricular opportunities that align with the needs and expectations of students and their home institutions;
• Apply strategies and tools to help students’ manage their own expectations and overcome challenges so that they can develop essential skills such as resilience, problem solving, cross-cultural agility, and independence;
• Connect with a network of like minded education abroad professionals from across Germany and surrounding regions.

Agenda & Location

Check back soon for a tentative agenda!

Location:
Indiana University Europe Gateway at CIEE Berlin
Gneisenaustraße 27
10961 Berlin, Germany​

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Planning and Advisory Committee

Andrea Adam Moore
​Center Director, CIEE Berlin

Andrea's Bio

Andrea Adam Moore holds a Master in Business Administration. Andrea was previously the Director of the Indiana University Europe Gateway in Berlin. Earlier in her career she directed German University Alliance in New York City, and before that managed an international 300-student program at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin’s School of Business and Economics. She is a marathon runner and loves traveling to explore other cultures.

Jennifer Engel
Associate Vice President for Education Abroad​, Indiana University

Jennifer's Bio

​​Jennifer Engel, Ph.D. is the Associate Vice President for Education Abroad at Indiana University, providing strategic leadership for education abroad initiatives across all Indiana University campuses.  She has had the opportunity to hold progressively more responsible and complex roles within international education over the course of more than twenty years, with a depth of knowledge and expertise in education abroad.  Previously, she was the Vice President of Academic Affairs & Experiential Learning at CIS Abroad, leading student learning and assessment; curricular and programmatic development; and innovation in education abroad. She served as SIO at Loyola University Chicago, and Executive Director of Global Learning at the University of South Carolina where her primary responsibilities included risk management; strategic planning for study abroad; and campus internationalization. Jennifer has been involved with The Forum on Education Abroad, NAFSA, and AIEA, holding leadership positions and presenting nationally and internationally.

Marissa Lombardi, Ed.D.
Vice President and Chief Learning Officer, The Forum on Education Abroad

Marissa's Bio

Dr. Marissa Lombardi serves as the Vice President and Chief Learning Officer, implementing an impressive array of programs, resources and materials related to the Standards of Good Practice, equity, diversity and inclusion, health and safety, and other topics that promote and facilitate the highest quality education abroad programs.

Prior to joining The Forum’s team, Marissa was with EF Education First, where she served as Vice President of Academic Affairs and Partnerships.Previously, Marissa was an Assistant Teaching Professor and Director of the Master of Science in Global Studies and International Relations program at Northeastern University, where she developed a concentration and certificate in Global Student Mobility. She also served as a faculty scholar and lead scholar at the university’s Center for Advancing Teaching and Learning through Research.

​She served as dean of students at Lorenzo de’Medici Italian International Institute in Florence, Italy, where she was part of a senior leadership team responsible for the oversight of campuses in Florence, Rome, Venice, and Tuscania. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Bennington College, a Master’s of Arts in Intercultural Relations from Lesley University and a Doctorate of Education, with a specialization in International Education, from Northeastern University.

Izabela Zawiska
Head of International Relations Office, Jagiellonian University

Izabela's Bio

​Dr. Eng. Izabela Zawiska, a graduate of the Agricultural University in Kraków, has been affiliated with the Jagiellonian University since 2012. Since 2020, she has served as the Head of the International Relations Office. In this capacity, she plays a key role in advancing the University's internationalization agenda through the strategic implementation of international educational projects as well as "internationalization at home" initiatives. Dr. Zawiska coordinates partnerships and collaborations with foreign universities and research institutions, alongside managing bilateral exchange programs and university-wide mobility initiatives, ensuring their effective development and fostering global academic cooperation.

In 2025, Dr. Zawiska began her tenure as the President of the IROs Forum, an organization that brings together representatives of international relations offices from Polish universities, collaborating closely with key institutions to shape Poland’s internationalization policies for academic and research institutions. As the University's representative in prominent international cooperation networks—including the Utrecht Network, where she serves as a member of the Steering Committee, The Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities, and Una Europa—she plays an active role in shaping the University's global engagement strategy.

​In addition to her various administrative and strategic roles, Dr. Zawiska has written numerous articles and delivered a wide range of presentations at conferences and seminars, focusing on the internationalization of higher education and the effective management of academic and educational mobility programs. Her work continues to enhance the global visibility and impact of the Jagiellonian University.

Miguel Elias Ayllon
Associate Vice President for International Affairs, Indiana University

Miguel's Bio

Miguel E. Ayllon, a leader in designing and managing international engagement programs at large, multi-campus research-intensive public institutions, joined Indiana University as associate vice president for international affairs in September of 2023.

Miguel came to IU from the University of Missouri – Columbia where he worked for more than 15 years and most recently served as Executive Director for International Partnerships and Study Abroad. In this role, he led the central study abroad office, managed relationships with international partner universities, and advised the vice provost for international programs on relationship priorities. During his tenure in Missouri, the College of Engineering set a record for study abroad enrollment and forged its first academic collaborations with Latin America. Miguel has also contributed as a panelist in Research Initiation in Engineering Formation panels for the National Science Foundation.

Miguel holds bachelor’s degrees in business administration and communication arts (Bryan College), earned his Master of Public Administration (East Tennessee State University), and his doctorate in educational leadership and policy analysis (University of Missouri). He has also taught courses on global and cross-cultural leadership to undergraduate and graduate students

Gesa Heym
Head of Student Mobility, ​Freie Universität Berlin

Gesa's Bio

Gesa Heym has been Head of the Student Mobility Team at the Division International Affairs of Freie Universität Berlin since 2018. She works at Freie Universität’s International Affairs Division in different positions since 2006 and is the university’s Erasmus Institutional Coordinator since 2011. 

Previously, she was a desk officer in the ‘Dialogue with the Islamic World’ working group at the Federal Foreign Office and personal assistant to the President of the University of Osnabrück. 
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She studied Islamic Studies at the University of Göttingen, Birzeit University (Palestinian Territories) and the Université d'Aix-en-Provence as well as University and Science Management at the Danube University Krems.
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Annabell Türk
Assistant Director, Europe Gateway, Indiana University

Annabell's Bio

Annabell Türk is the assistant director of the Indiana University Europe Gateway. Originally from a small town in Franconia, Bavaria, she holds a bachelor's degree in North American Studies and Law from LMU Munich and a master's degree in North American Studies from the John-F.-Kennedy-Institute at Freie Universität Berlin. 

Annabell first joined the Europe Gateway team as a student assistant in 2018, and later full-time as its Program & Communications Manager. Prior to these roles, she worked with the German University Alliance in New York, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Berlin as well as the U.S. Consulate General in Munich. 

Her exchange semester at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea, ignited her passion for higher education and global academic exchange and deepened her commitment to fostering connections that enrich intercultural learning and understanding. In her current role, this translates into facilitating global learning experiences for IU students both on the ground in Berlin and in the virtual classroom. 

Amelia Dietrich, PhD.
Senior Director for Research & Publications, The Forum on Education Abroad

Amelia's Bio

Dr. Amelia Dietrich is the Senior Director for Research and Publications at The Forum on Education Abroad and Managing Editor of Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad. She joined The Forum in 2015 as a Mellon/ACLS Public Fellow. Amelia’s work focuses on leading original research initiatives and supporting the publication of others’ scholarship on best practices in education abroad, maximizing the impact of education abroad for students, institutions and communities, and identifying promising practices on the leading edge. Amelia also facilitates professional development workshops on the Standards of Good Practice for Education Abroad in a variety of venues and lends her expertise to project-based consultancies and comprehensive reviews. She serves on the IIE Open Doors Study Abroad Working Group and the Advisory Board for the Center for Research on Abroad
and International Student Engagement.

Previously, Amelia taught Spanish and linguistics at Penn State University, and led students on a research fellowship to Spain. Amelia holds a B.A. from Moravian University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Spanish and Language Science from The Pennsylvania State University. She is a Certified Professional in Education Abroad.

Annette Listmann
Head of Study Abroad Team, Universität Hamburg

Annette's Bio

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Katrin Völkner
​Director, Europe Gateway, Indiana University

Katrin's Bio

​​Katrin Völkner is the director of the Indiana University Europe Gateway. She was born and raised in Berlin, but moved to the United States for her studies and completed a PhD in interdisciplinary German Studies at Duke University. 

Katrin has dedicated her career as an educator and administrator to advancing and nurturing cross-cultural learning opportunities and exchanges across disciplinary and national borders. In her work as a faculty member at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, she was the director of the Multimedia Learning Center and she co-led the Global Languages Initiative, a multi-year effort that supported foreign language learning and global engagement.  

Upon her return to Germany, Katrin worked for CIEE (Council on International Educational Exchange) and at the University of Potsdam in roles that focused on improving educational practices. As the director of the IU Europe Gateway, she supports Indiana University’s multipronged internationalization strategy by facilitating education abroad and international research activities.