Professional
Advising Leadership Fellows Training Program
Fall 2003 - Washington, DC
Final Report
M. Graciela Abarca
PAL: A unique professional development opportunity
The Professional Advising Leadership Fellows Program offered me not only an invaluable opportunity to pursue my own specific interests but also to share my experience and concerns with a highly qualified and motivated group of advisers. The workshop on leadership -so skillfully conducted by Debbie Hefferon- provided the perfect environment for interaction with other fellows and helped us hone our communication skills.
Project: "Getting Admitted to Graduate School in the U.S.: New Challenges and Opportunities for International Students."
As an educational advisor my ultimate aim is, of course, to help students get admitted to universities in the United States and to do my job as professionally as possible. In a changing world such as ours, this requires constant updating on the new challenges and opportunities for international students.
Specific program objectives:
For the last five
years, I have been advising students on U.S. higher education and guiding them
in the whole process from the search of a suitable university program to their
arrival on an American campus. Argentine students really struggle to understand
the U.S. university admissions system, and find it particularly difficult to
put together a competitive application. Communicating their ideas effectively
in written English is one of the major obstacles, even if they are highly proficient
in the language. As an educational advisor, I spend considerable time reviewing
admission essays and writing samples, as well as providing feedback on scholarship
and grant applications.
For this reason, my project included attending a course on writing. As part
of my program, I had the chance to attend a class on "Writing for the Real World"
given by Ms. Katherine Wertheim at the Social Action and Leadership School for
Activists (SALSA). Ms. Wertheim offered a very lively talk on how to approach
the writing process, in particular when one is writing for results. Although
her presentation was not specifically on writing admission essays, most of her
tips are applicable to any kind of writing. Ms. Wertheim's class was a very
interesting component of my program; however, I would have liked to participate
in a more structured training on writing.
My interviews with program directors, faculty members and admissions officers
were extremely interesting - and challenging. Some knew exactly what my job was
and what I was doing in D.C.; others seemed to have just a very vague idea of
the whole purpose of my visit. For this reason, I had to plan my introduction
and specific questions carefully and thus make the most of the time available.
This made the interviews themselves a very rich learning experience.
The overall results were very positive: I now have a much clearer idea about a number of key
questions directly related the graduate admission process at the universities
that I visited:
Finally, face-to-face interaction has many advantages over other types of communication, hence the value that university visits have for overseas educational advisors. After having met a faculty member or program officer, it is much easier to follow up with a phone call or an e-mail message.
Program Outcomes
As part of the outreach activities that the Fulbright Commission plans to continue in 2004, I made two visits to the interior of the country last October. In the province of Mendoza, I offered presentations on "How to apply to graduate school in the U.S." and workshops on "How to write a successful admission essay" and "How to write good letters of recommendation." These presentations and workshops were offered at the National University of Cuyo, in Mendoza City and in San Rafael, a smaller town. About fifty students attended each of the workshops in Mendoza and around thirty were present at the ones in San Rafael. In the province of Cordoba, I offered talks on graduate admissions at the Binational Center IICANA.My participation in the PAL program is helping us improve the quality of the advising services that the Fulbright Commission offers both to its grantees and non-grantee advisees. In the long run, through the Fulbright Commission's outreach activities, the project will benefit educational advisors and students throughout the country. Hopefully, educational advisors in and beyond the South American region will also be able to use as resources the written materials developed as a result of this project.
M. Graciela Abarca