What degree did you receive from Illinois and when? 
PhD in Linguistics in 2023

What have you been doing since you graduated? What is your current title/position? How long have you worked there?
I am currently the International Operations Manager at Global Glimpse, a nonprofit organization that provides powerful international travel, leadership, and global learning opportunities to high school students from diverse backgrounds. I started working with Global Glimpse as a full time staff member in 2022.

 What are you working on right now? 
Currently I'm working on analyzing student data from our post-summer surveys! We have responses from over 500 students and I get to flex my R skills and ask/answer research questions about what contributes to impactful experiences so we can work on amplifying those components, especially as a large part of my role involves curriculum development and implementation. While I’m no longer in a physical classroom, I continue to build on my experiences and training from my time with the ESL program. This includes developing and enhancing programming that motivates students to become active participants in their own education, incorporating questions for the purpose of leading students to think critically through their experiential learning, and overseeing strategies to promote peer environments that are conducive to generating thoughtful discussion.

How has your degree from Illinois helped you in your career?
One of the most important skills I developed is essentially project management. With the research goal in mind and the time/budget/resources constraints: What can reasonably be accomplished, and how can I make sure that it happens? This training helped me define my projects and prioritize tasks more effectively.
 

Contact: jennifer AT globalglimpse DOT org

Published 9/9/2024