On SITe podcast

SIT's VP of Marketing & Communications Nara de Sa Guimaraes joined Stevie Bridgewater on The Washington Report to talk about the School for International Training's vast portfolio of programs in Africa. SIT's Africa programs in sustainability, diplomacy, global health, science, conservation, and more will transform your worldview and add invaluable global context to your academic and career paths. Learn more at sit.edu.

SIT President Dr. Sophia Howlett chats with WDEV's Ric Cengeri about World Learning, School for International Training, and the Experiment in International Living that started it all 90 years ago.

Meet Bruce Dayton, Imraan Buccus, and Goran Jovanovic, SIT Graduate Institute's Global Master’s in Diplomacy and International Relations faculty. Listen in as they share highlights from the program, as well as how it will help prepare you for a career in international, regional, and global affairs; diplomacy; or the Foreign Service.

2019 SIT commencement speaker Meghan Audette is an alumna of SIT Graduate Institute and deputy director for programs at the West Bank Field Office of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). Audette completed her MA in sustainable development at SIT in 2004, and holds a BA in world history and English literature from Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

Professor Elka Todeva discusses and illustrates the new concentration in SIT's MA in TESOL program. A native of Bulgaria, Elka has published works that include The Multiple Realities of Multilingualism: Personal Narratives and Researchers’ Perspectives, three ESL textbooks, two English dictionaries, and numerous articles on language acquisition and learning, English linguistics, discourse, brain-friendly teaching, multimedia, and reflective practices. Elka has taught and supervised in Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, and Latin America.  

Meet Sonny Singh, SIT's Social Justice Education Specialist. In addition to this exciting new role, Sonny will continue as the NYC launch coordinator for Study Abroad program IHP: Cities in the 21st Century. He received his master’s degree in social justice education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and he’s worked as an organizer and educator in NYC. He’s published widely, and is also a trumpeter in the internationally touring band Red Baraat.

Scott Couper, now pastor of Centre Congregational Church in Brattleboro, studied with two SIT programs in Africa and later became academic coordinator of SIT South Africa. When he studied in Zimbabwe, his Independent Study Project took him to remote Gwanda in search of "intensity" of experience. He found it.

Every summer, peacemakers converge from all over the world to participate in SIT's CONTACT (Conflict Transformation Across Cultures) certificate program. In this episode, we speak to several participants as well as Professor Bruce Dayton, head of CONTACT and the Peace and Justice Leadership MA program.

Agroecologist Tatiana Schreiber discusses the challenges of gardening around solar panels, an increasingly pressing need. As part of SIT's on-campus solar array project, Schreiber and others are experimenting with growing plants in this unusual and challenging environment.

As an office manager for SIT Study Abroad, Sunday Justin oversees general operations for SIT's Rwanda program Post-Genocide Restoration and Peacebuilding. He recently came to SIT's Vermont campus as a student in the innovative CONTACT -- or Conflict Transformation Across Cultures -- program. His professional experience includes working with community-based organizations and NGOs in Rwanda.

SIT alumna Abby Maxman discusses Oxfam, current challenges in development, and her time at SIT. She became president of Oxfam America in 2017. She was formerly Deputy Secretary General of CARE International in Geneva, Switzerland, and Vice President of International Programs & Operations for CARE. Maxman received her MA in International Administration from SIT in 1995.

A hallmark of SIT's Vermont commencement ceremonies is the prominent presence of African percussion. Western Massachusetts musician Tony Vacca and his friend Steve Leicach, often with other musical guests, provide those sounds. Tony's long career became a cross-cultural passion when he first visited Senegal. In this episode, he talks about his voyage, and demonstrates Senegalese instruments.

Brian Hammer, SIT Study Abroad academic dean for Asia and the Pacific, discusses the realities and rewards of studying in China. He holds a PhD in geography from the University of Washington in Seattle. He is an experienced traveler and researcher, and was previously associate director of programs in the Chao Center for Asian Studies at Rice University.

MA TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) chair and faculty member Leslie Turpin discusses experiential learning and how it's used in SIT's pioneering TESOL program. Leslie, who is also an alumna of the program, has taught at SIT since 1989. She received her PhD in integral studies at the California Institute for Integral Studies in 2004. As the managing director of acclaimed puppet theater Sandglass, she produced two international festivals, and she is also US tour manager for the Georgian ensemble Zedashe.

SIT Graduate Institute master's student Fadia Thabet received the 2017 International Women of Courage award from the U.S. State Department for her humanitarian work in her home country of Yemen. As a Child Protection Officer, she worked to prevent the recruitment of young boys by Al Qaeda and Houthi militias, and reported human rights violations to the U.N.

SIT alumnae Vicky Garcia and Mary Hensley work with the indigenous people of the Cordillera region of the Philippines, helping farmers bring their heirloom varieties of rice to the rest of the world. Vicky grew up in the Philippines, and previously worked for the Philippine Department of Labor and Employment.

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Riley Merline is Director of Special Projects at SIT. He previously worked with faculty-led programs at Colorado College, and spent 10 years as an educator on issues of migration and borders in the US, Mexico, and Guatemala, with eight of those years as resident director for the Border Studies Program of Earlham College. At Northern Michigan University, he majored in Spanish and studied abroad in Chile and in Spain. Riley holds a master’s degree from the University of Arizona in Latin American Studies. 

Manal Taha discusses factors that lead to violent extremism in Africa. Manal, originally from Sudan, is a graduate of SIT’s Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation master’s program. She has worked with the United States Institute of Peace, the State Department, and US Agency for International Development, and has led peacebuilding initiatives in Libya and Sudan and studied radicalization in conflict zones.

James Heflin interviews SIT Graduate Institute Sustainable Development MA student Bahati Kanyamanza about the difficulties children in refugee camps face in getting an education. Bahati was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In 1996, when violence came to his community, Bahati and his family fled to Uganda, where he lived in refugee camps for 18 years. When he was 22, Bahati and two friends established the COBURWAS International Youth Organization to Transform Africa (CIYOTA), which provides primary and secondary schooling in refugee camps, and connects students with organizations to support their university education. Bahati moved to the US with his wife and daughter in 2016, and became one of SIT’s Global Scholars. The Global Scholars program provides the opportunity for individuals forced to flee their home countries due to political unrest and violence to study at SIT, all expenses paid.

James Heflin interviews SIT President Sophie Howlett about international education and her vision of a truly globe-spanning SIT. Dr. Howlett comes to SIT from Kean University in New Jersey, where she was Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs. She holds a PhD in European Renaissance Philosophy and Literature from University of York, UK, and a BA in English Literature from Cambridge University. She has international experience in more than 40 countries. During the past two decades, she has taught, researched and written in philosophy, literature, and comparative and international higher education policy. Her most recent work, Marsilio Ficino and His World, was published in 2016.

James Heflin interviews SIT Nicaragua Academic Director Ben Waddell about his use of podcasting and other media in education and research. Ben holds a PhD in sociology and an MA in Latin American studies from the University of New Mexico, and a BA in international affairs from University of Colorado, Boulder. Ben researches the impact of international migration on human well-being. He has published papers in Sociology of Development, Latin American Research Review, and The Social Science Journal. From 2011-16 Ben was a professor of sociology at a liberal arts college in southern Colorado. He has led students abroad each summer to Nicaragua and Cuba.

Kate Casa talks with Professor John Ungerleider of SIT's Peace and Justice Leadership and Global Youth Development and Leadership programs. Ungerleider has taught at SIT for 25 years, and has lived, taught, and facilitated conflict resolution in Cyprus, Israel, Venezuela, and Spain and has led youth leadership training programs in Northern Uganda, Ireland, and Iraq. John founded the Child Labor Education and Action project in Vermont, and has written about youth, peacebuilding, dialogue, and empowerment programs and music in peace culture.

Kate Casa discusses climate change in Ecuador with SIT Ecuador Academic Director Fabian Espinosa. Fabian holds an MA in biology and anthropology from UC Santa Cruz. He was communication and information coordinator for the Charles Darwin Research Station on the Galápagos Islands, executive director of the Cofán Ethnographic Museum in the Cuyabeno Nature Reserve, and advisor to the president of Ecuador on environmental and indigenous affairs. He has extensive experience as a naturalist guide and cultural interpreter, leading groups in archaeology, indigenous cosmologies, and natural history.