Abroad With Disabilities (AWD) and the National Clearinghouse on Disability and Exchange (NCDE) answered your questions about the many ways that you can travel with a purpose and make your mark on the world. Learn about finding a program, paying for it, and self-advocacy!
Why?
There are many opportunities to volunteer, intern, or even work overseas. Teach English to students in Japan on the JET Program. Seek out one of the many internship opportunities offered by your university. Contribute to the development of communities in the Peace Corps. Invent your own project and get support from the Christiansen Grant or the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. You are needed all around the world, so where will you go?
What?
Hear from an experienced group of presenters with disabilities about opportunities for experiential exchange, and how to make it work.
When?
Join us on June 27th at 5 PM Pacific standard Time or 8 PM Eastern Standard Time. The presentation and discussion will last one hour.
You can download the captions of the webinar under documents, and don’t forget to follow our newsletter to find out when the next one will be.
Who were the presenters?
Abigail Lehner
Abigail Lehner is a recent college graduate from the University of New Hampshire, who completed a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication and International Affairs. In 2017, she traveled to Berlin, Germany for a summer global internship through Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE). She was able to complete her study abroad experience while interning at Kultmacher, a startup branding agency in Berlin. She will now be working as a Communications Intern for CIEE, helping promote study abroad programs and global internships for students. She is excited to be apart of the webinar and share her experiences traveling in a wheelchair.
Juanita Lillie
Juanita Lillie is a woman of color with a disability who has studied abroad and completed a TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) certification. She also holds a Masters degree in International Education from SIT Graduate Institute. Post Juanita’s study abroad experience in Costa Rica in 2013, she founded Abroad With Disabilities to empower persons with disabilities to go abroad and educate professionals on how to be more inclusive within their program for people with disabilities.
Justin Harford
Justin is a program coordinator at Mobility International. He works to increase the participation of people with disabilities in mainstream international exchange by filling the information gaps for professionals and PWD through direct advising, developing a collection of online materials, and organizing workshops. Justin spent the summer of 2008 studying Spanish in Mexico, and the 2010-2011 academic year at the Pontifical Catholic University in Santiago, Chile making progress on his Bachelor of Arts degree in Latin American history.
Sheila Xu
Sheila Xu is a Deaf American who has been winning multiple awards and grants to fund her international exchange opportunities since she was an undergraduate student. Her most recent international exchange opportunities were teaching American Sign Language Level 1 to university and high school students at an university in Venice for a semester, and winning a 2016 – 2017 Fulbright grant to Italy to study deaf entrepreneurs living and working in Italy. Sheila currently holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Science and Humanities from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
The National Clearinghouse on Disability and Exchange (NCDE) is a project of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, designed to increase the participation of people with disabilities in international exchange between the United States and other countries, and is supported in its implementation by Mobility International USA.