UDVAL Lkhamsuren - REPORT ON THE PAL PROGRAM 2004
It was a big honor for me to be selected for PAL 2004 program. Prior to the departure to US we all were requested to select topics of our research during this program, and I had two topics: Graduate admissions and Fundraising. First topic was interesting for me because we help to the Mongolian Governmental scholarship program, which send annually about 80 people for master and PhD degree studies to the western countries. The applicants don’t have broad understanding about the timing of graduate admission process, entrance requirements, and the whole application procedure. The second topic was very important for me because our educational advising center has since April 2003 self- independent status, and the question of funding is essential for the future existence of our center.
My program consisted from three parts: participation at NAGAP conference in Boston, Pal program and leadership training at College Board in Washington D.C., and NAFSA conference in Baltimore.
Three more advisers had similar topic on graduate admissions (fields of study were different), and we all had presentation on education systems of our countries at the NAGAP conference. For more information about NAGAP please refer to the site: www.nagap.org. During the Boston part I had a chance to have meetings with directors and staff of admission offices, and to visit campuses of following universities: the Fletcher school of Tufts university, Graduate school and Office of International admissions of Boston university, Admissions and International Business school of Brandeis university, and International office and admissions of Harvard university. One issue was the same at all universities: successful application directly relates with importance of complete application materials, quality of statement of purpose (essays with passion!), and good quality reference letters. Some schools have a very strict policy on TOEFL scores, other are flexible.
In Washington D.C. the whole PAL group, which consisted from 15 advisers from all over the world, had a Pal orientation meeting at the College Board, visit of Department of state, and leadership training, which consisted from very interesting parts like Briggs Myers type indication test, presentations, discussions and sharing of experience. Our trainer Debbie Hefferon, who I believe is well known to many advisers, was a wonderful source of information, personality, leadership and fun. Between seminars and training on fundraising I had meetings with directors and deans of admissions and international student advisors of Georgetown University, Trinity College, George Mason University, and University of District of Columbia.
Fundraising seminars were provided by trainers of the Foundation center, which itself is a NGO providing training and consultancy to various institutions seeking for funds in United States. The website is: www.fdncenter.org. First seminar “Fundraising on the web” presented information on database search for potential donors and donor organizations basing on the area of interest of fund seekers. The information is huge, very US oriented, search techniques are advanced, and there is a payment for subscribing to this database. The second and third “Proposal writing” and “Proposal budgeting” seminars were very good, just wonderful, especially the proposal writing part, because it gave a lot of useful tips on the proposal analysis, planning, writing, and even submission. Personally I attended several seminars and training on the fundraising, and usually there was a lot of theory, but those two were not only very informative, but also very practical. I would suggest the Proposal writing seminar of Foundation center to everybody who is interested in fundraising, and I will have a presentation on it at the Eurasia regional conference in Moscow.
And this year’s NAFSA was astounding because of USBT anniversary, and I like to thank again Dorothy and the whole team who worked so hard on making it happen! Also I like to write here about the Financial aid workshop for admission officers and overseas advisors. At our regional conference in Sabah, Malaysia, I had a presentation about the USAP program, it is U.S. Achievers scholarship program initiated by Rebecca Zeigler-Mano, educational adviser in Harare, Zimbabwe, and there I learned myself more about this truly wonderful program from Philip Ives, the director of ECA/A/S/A of Department of State. At the NAFSA workshop we heard about the practice in Romania, Zimbabwe, had dialogues and discussions with admission officers from various colleges and universities, and learned that there are many opportunities for international students. We have to think about this initiative, and develop something similar in our countries. At our advising center we now work on the Scholarship program for financially disadvantaged Mongolian student, and plan to implement it in September 2004.
Last information for advisors who want to apply to the PAL program: select your research topics wisely, don’t plan to work on many issues, work together with College Board staff on your whole schedule prior to the departure to US, this program is different from USBT and success of the PAL program depends very much on your own participation. I would like to say again a thank you to Janine Farhat, the special program manager at the College Board and to all staff, who worked endless hours managing all of us, our visits and appointments, and our reservations and trip logistics. And my big thank you to Dorothy Mora at Department of State, and to all the U.S. colleges who hosted us in April and May.
L.Udval
Director, Educational Adviser
Educational Advising and Resource Center
Cultural Palace Complex,
Youth and Children Library, 1st floor
Ulaanbaatar-46, Mongolia
Tel: 976-11-319016
Fax: 976-11-326941
E-mail: udval@earcmn.org
Web site: www.earcmn.org