Breaking the Mold: Identifying and Enhancing Students’
International Experience & Employability
Melissa Buerkett-Vivian, LMHC - Global Experiences, Inc.
Shawna Hurley - Gilman International Scholarship Program, IIE
Stacey Shimizu - Illinois Wesleyan University
CIEE Annual Conference 2014, Baltimore, MD

Trends in International Internships
Open Doors 2014
For-Credit Internships or Work
2010/11** 2011/12 2012/13
Total Students 17,536 20,676 20,498
Non-Credit Internships or Work
2010/11 2011/12 2012/13
Total Students 8,700 12,758 15,089

Gilman Internship Experiences Survey
• Gilman Scholars for 2013-2014 academic year
• 144 responses from interns
• 47 countries (top 3 countries China, Japan and UK)
• 78% participated in program that was a combination of academic
study and internship
• 29% did not plan to participate in internship before program

How did you identify and arrange your
internship abroad?
4% 1%
7%
37% 59%
Through my institution
Through a program
provider
Through friends or family
connections
Through current job or
professional connections
Other

Who was most helpful in assisting you
as you set up your internship abroad?
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Program
Provider
Advisor
Study Abroad
Advisor/Staff
Faculty Member Friend Other (myself,
on-site
coordinator)
Family
59
50
22
6 5
2

In what ways did your home institution
prepare you for your internship abroad?
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
79
59
35
30
21
12 10 8
 “As a first generation study abroad student, I really wasn't sure how to prepare for studying abroad. I really
depended on my online study abroad advisor who truly went above and beyond helping me get ready for my
internship.”

How did you utilize your connections and skills
learned abroad as you seek/sought employment?
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Put information
regarding my
internship on my
resume and
referenced skills in
inteviews
Networked and
made connections
that I have utilized
to find a job
Found a mentor Other Gained
employment with
the organization
where I interned
126
32
25 18
7

Illinois Wesleyan University
 Small residential liberal
arts college
 ~1900 students
 College of Liberal Arts
+ Schools of Nursing,
Theater Arts, Fine Arts
and Music
 ~50% of students have
international experience
by graduation

Pre-Departure Program
 Pre-2014, 3-hour in-person
departure
meeting
 Spring 2014, self-paced
Moodle course + 3-hour
meeting
 One hour now dedicated
to making link between
study abroad and career
preparations.

Illinois Wesleyan Nursing
 IWU Spain Program
 Island program, originally for general
education and Hispanic Studies
 2012, opened to sophomore nursing
students
 Two required nursing courses (delivered
using synchronous learning technology)
with attached healthcare observations in
local clinics
 Complementary language component
and workshop on healthcare differences
between Spain and the US

Nursing Program Results
 First cohort graduated May 2014; 100% job
placement
 No significant difference in nursing academic
performance or GPA between first semester and
second semester of sophomore year or between
cohort grades, regardless of location
 Reports of satisfaction with experience on exit
interviews and self-reported sense of increased
cultural competence

Global Experiences International
Internships
Who we are
 Over 4,000 alumni since
2001
 10 Cities in 8 countries
on 4 continents
 Mission = "To provide
life-changing
experiences“
 Partnership with Gallup
Education since Spring
2013
Why we use Strengths
 Develop innovative career
development program
 Identify how internships
abroad positively impact
lives
 Research shows that
knowing and using
Strengths leads to success

Phase 1: Pre-Departure Prep
 Clifton StrengthsFinder Assessment – Top 5 Strengths
 Individual coaching and advising
 Résumés and cover letters
 Mock interviewing
 Professional behavior and etiquette (during the placement process)
 Career planning and decision making (choosing a placement)
 Career development webinar series
 Rocking Your Interview
 The Digital You
 Your Top 5 Strengths
 Using LinkedIn*
 Reflections on Language & Culture

Phase 2: Focus on Strengths Abroad
Orientation to deepen understanding and strategy
for success
 Site visits for reflection and employer feedback
Midpoint workshop to overcome challenges and
enhance professional communication and
networking skills
Global Connections Networking
Debriefing on career decisions
and job search skills

An Experiential Approach
 Orientation – “Where do I stand?”
 Why did you stand where you did?
 How does it relate to your Strengths?
 What did you learn from observing others’ positions?

An Experiential Approach
 Midpoint Workshop – “Your Best”
 Discuss in small groups, one theme that you feel fits best
and why.
 How do you use it in your internship? Past positions?
 How does it help you succeed?
 Practice presenting your best self to a new professional
contact or potential employer

An Experiential Approach
 Debriefing Workshop
 No-lose Model to Career
Decision Making
 From Grad to Great –
Using Strengths as
transferrable skills in
résumés, cover letters and
interviews
 Mock interviews with
location coordinators

Site Visits for Feedback & Reflection
 Pick one task and tell me how
your strengths help you perform
it.
 "I used my Ideation in the
brainstorm meetings, and I have
to think Strategically when
considering which media
companies to contact.”
 How have you used your
strengths to overcome a
challenge at work?
 "At first, I wasn’t sure what I could
bring to the table. I was nervous
about how I would do. Knowing
my Strengths helped me have
more confidence."

Program Assessment
 Survey collaboration with Dr. Shane Lopez, leading
psychologist and author of “Making Hope Happen”
 107 interns were surveyed online pre- and post-program
 3 Measures: Hope, Well-being and Strengths
awareness
 The results of the exit survey showed:
 78% increase in Hope
 78% increase in Strengths awareness
 86% increase in overall Well-being

Phase 3: Re-Entry Services
 Career Toolkit
 Alumni Webinar Series
 Using LinkedIn to Job Search
 Leveraging Your International Experience
 Networking
 Alumni Panel
 Professional Networking
 LinkedIn, Facebook, Global Connections
 Ambassador Program and the Alumni
Assistant Role
 Business cards
 Recommendations

Gilman Alumni Re-Entry Resources
 Webinars/Videos
 Re-Entry
 Extending Your Exchange
Experience
 Networking Opportunities
 LinkedIn
 International Exchange
Alumni
 Gilman-Fulbright Networking
Receptions
 Gilman Alumni Ambassador
Program (GAAP)

Re-Entry at IWU
 Standard study abroad re-entry program
 Pre-return and welcome-back emails with resources
 Welcome Back reception hosted by university president
 Online resources
 Invitations throughout year to engage in IO activities and
mentor new applicants
 Career-specific re-entry
 “Bringing It Home”
workshop with the Career
Center
 Nursing-specific re-entry
 3-week intensive May Term
for clinical training

Contact Information
Melissa Buerkett-Vivian, LMHC – melissa@globalexperiences.com
Academic Internship Director
Global Experiences, Inc.
Shawna Hurley– shurley@iie.org
Operations Manager, Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program
Institute of International Education (IIE) – Houston
Stacey Shimizu– sshimizu@iwu.edu
Director, International Office
Illinois Wesleyan University

Career Activities
Quick activities to help students communicate their
strengths in interviews, resumes, and conversations.
The Gallup Organization
Copyright © 2006 The Gallup Organization, Princeton, NJ. All rights reserved. Gallup®, StrengthsFinder®,
Clifton StrengthsFinder™, and StrengthsQuest™ are trademarks of The Gallup Organization.

Activity #1: Meaningful Roles
Goal: To help students think through roles they have had and how they used their
strengths within those roles.
This activity works best when students gather in groups of three or four to discuss their
findings. You may want to provide your own example so they can understand how their
strengths can relate their own successes.
1. Have students list three of the most meaningful and important jobs, leadership
roles, or volunteer positions they have held. For each, have them describe five
responsibilities or outcomes they achieved in those roles.
2. For each outcome ask them to write the Clifton StrengthsFinder theme or themes
that they utilized to help them be successful in achieving the outcome.
3. In any interview it is important for candidates to verbalize and give detailed
information about what they have done in their past roles. Ask each student to
take one of their outcomes and come up with a specific example of how they
achieved that success. Students must “sell themselves” by using each of the
themes they listed to describe exactly how they achieved their success.
Additional Ideas:
• The best interview responses are specific; they clearly state what the
person has done and how they did it. Using strengths can help them paint a
picture of who they are and what they are good at.
• Examples will help tremendously, so if there is time, walk through one or
more with your students to give them good models from which to learn.
• To provide even more examples, after students have discussed their
successes in their small groups, have a few students share their
achievements with the larger group.
• Feedback is important. Try to help the lesson set in by giving them
feedback and getting them to be more specific about how they can use
their strengths to describe what they do and how they do it.
Copyright © 2006 The Gallup Organization, Princeton, NJ. All rights reserved. Gallup®, StrengthsFinder®,
Clifton StrengthsFinder™, and StrengthsQuest™ are trademarks of The Gallup Organization.

Activity #2: My Best
Goal: Students need to own their themes and learn to truly understand the value of them.
This activity helps them analyze when and how they have used a particular theme to be
successful.
This activity works best when students gather in groups of three or four to discuss their
findings. You may want to provide your own example so they can understand how their
strengths can relate their own successes.
1. Have each student choose one theme that they feel fits theme best. Have them
answer the following questions in their small groups.
a. What is best about this theme?
b. How do you use it in your school work?
c. How do you use it in jobs or other positions you have held?
d. What would happen if you didn’t have this theme?
e. How does this theme help you be successful?
2. After each student has shared their responses, give them five minutes to prepare
themselves to “sell” these talents as something an employer would want and could
benefit from. They will have 2 minutes to present in the small or larger group.
Additional Ideas:
• Think about more questions for the students to discuss. If you have a specific
topic, role, or career you are focusing on, additional questions may help them
bring more focus to this activity.
• Prepare your own example to show them how you can sell yourself.
• Consider providing a specific job or project they must have in mind when selling
their strengths.
Copyright © 2006 The Gallup Organization, Princeton, NJ. All rights reserved. Gallup®, StrengthsFinder®,
Clifton StrengthsFinder™, and StrengthsQuest™ are trademarks of The Gallup Organization.

Activity #3: Personal Statement of Strength
Goal: Who am I? This activity helps students answer this question and helps students
pull all of their themes together. It can help them to take ownership for the themes and
begin to see how to use strengths as a language to describe themselves.
Using their top five themes students write one to two paragraphs about themselves. Their
goal is to combine their themes in a way that tells a story about who they are and what is
best about them. Students can be as creative as they want. The goal is to get them to start
talking about themselves using the language of strengths.
Copyright © 2006 The Gallup Organization, Princeton, NJ. All rights reserved. Gallup®, StrengthsFinder®,
Clifton StrengthsFinder™, and StrengthsQuest™ are trademarks of The Gallup Organization.

Activity #4: Job Analysis
Goal: A key to helping students utilize thei talents is to get them to analyze opportunities
based on what they do best. The goal for this activity is to put some real positions in front
of them to see how their strengths fit that role.
You will need to have two or three job descriptions either from your own organization or
a job board like Monster.com. Or, feel free to write your own description. This could be a
job, a volunteer project, or a leadership opportunity. The descriptions should be fairly
detailed in order to show the outcomes and the responsibilities of the position.
The job analysis can be discussed in small or large groups.
1. Have the students read through the descriptions one position at a time.
2. For each of the outcomes or responsibilities listed for the job, ask them to look at
their themes and write beside each of them the theme or themes that would help
them achieve the success described for each statement. Make it clear that not all
of the outcomes or responsibilites may fit them, so there may not be themes
written on some statements. Depending on time, students can do this activity for
one or more job descriptions.
3. Next, ask students to consider the answers to these questions in order to think
through their fit for the role:
a. Would most of my strengths be utilized in this role?
b. Are there some strengths that wouldn’t get much use if I took a role like
this? What are they and how would that make me feel?
c. Are there some things in this position that would be difficult for me to do?
d. How well would this position fit me?
e. What things would I like to have added to this if I could?
f. What parts of the role do not fit?
g. How would I feel in this type of a role?
4. In a group, talk about finding a role that fits you and your strengths. Talk about
your experience in roles that may not have fit you very well and what that was
like. Encourage students to do this with leadership positions, jobs, internships, or
projects in which they plan to play a role.
Additional Ideas:
• There are no right or wrong answers to these questions — let students know that.
You may even use yourself as an example to show that not everything in a role
may fit you perfectly, but that it is very important to get into roles that best utilize
your strengths.You may even talk about roles that didn’t fit you and why.
Copyright © 2006 The Gallup Organization, Princeton, NJ. All rights reserved. Gallup®, StrengthsFinder®,
Clifton StrengthsFinder™, and StrengthsQuest™ are trademarks of The Gallup Organization.

• Encourage students to keep their strengths in mind as they consider taking on new
roles in the future. Remind them to look every role and analyze it based on their
strengths.
Copyright © 2006 The Gallup Organization, Princeton, NJ. All rights reserved. Gallup®, StrengthsFinder®,
Clifton StrengthsFinder™, and StrengthsQuest™ are trademarks of The Gallup Organization.

To help make the most of your time
abroad—personally, academically,
professionally—you should set some
clear goals.
The best goals are SMART:
Specific — "I plan to join a student club at
the local university so that I can
meet local students," rather than, "Make friends."
Measurable — "I want to experience/learn something new (try a new food, learn a new word, see a
new museum) about my host culture each day," rather than, "Learn about my host culture."
Attainable — "I want to gain hand-on research skills through my field study class."
Realistic — "I want to be able to hold a conversation in Spanish with someone I have just met,"
rather than, "Become fluent in Spanish."
Time-bound — "By the middle of the semester, I want to have planned and booked my own trip to
another country."
And remember that deadlines are sometimes a good thing.
To help you get started, here is a template you can use as you prepare for your semester abroad.
Though it talks about career goals, it can be repeated to set personal, academic, or other goals.
List three (3) career-related goals for your time abroad.
Ex. I want to learn more about teaching English abroad.
1.
2.
3.
Now, list three (3) concrete actions to take now or while abroad to help you reach your goals.
Ex. I will talk with my program to see if there is some way I can volunteer as a language tutor.
1.
2.
3.

Prior to site visit: Contact both employer and intern separately to ask if there is anything specific they
would like to discuss or get out of the meeting. Remind the intern that the site visit is for them – to help
them get professional feedback and to ensure the rest of their internship is as great as it can be.
Site visit recording form
Company:
Supervisor name:
Intern name:
Date:
GE representative:
Introduction: explain purpose of the meeting and that the questions are designed to help the intern reflect
on their experience in a way that they might present it to future employers. Encourage intern and
supervisor to create a discussion around each answer.
NB. It might be appropriate to have 2 minutes with the supervisor and intern separately first, especially if
there are known issues.
Questions posed to intern, but encourage supervisor to input their thoughts too:
1. Tell me about your experience so far and some of the projects/tasks you’ve been working on.
•
2. Thinking about your responsibilities, what are the three most important aspects of your role?
•
3. Pick one of these responsibilities and tell me how your strengths help you perform it.
•
4. To employer: What strengths have you seen the intern use during the internship so far?
•
5. To intern again: Who do you partner with in your role? What strengths or talents do they have?
•
6. What’s been the highlight of your internship so far (ie. What do you enjoy most)? What do you
enjoy the least?
•
7. Have you had to overcome any challenges at work so far? If so, how have you used your strengths
to do this?
•
8. What are some things you’ve learned as a result of your internship and how has this better
prepared you for your future?
•
9. To both: What goals do you have for the rest of the internship?
•
10. To both: Is there anything we could do to better to prepare you both for this experience?
•
11. To employer: Does your organization have additional needs for other interns? Do you have friends
or colleagues who would benefit from having an intern?
•

Update notes for Salesforce (if it needs updating please highlight yellow):
Supervisor name and contact details:
Address of internship:
Skills/experience required (“ideal candidate” description for website):
Key internship tasks:
1.
2.
3.
Number of interns required at a time:
*****Don’t forget to take a photo!*****

Breaking the Mold: Identifying and Enhancing Students’ International
Experience and Employability Further Resources
Resources
CIEE Annual Conference 2014 |
FURTHER RESOURCES
 British Council, Ipsos Public Affairs, and Booz Allen Hamilton (2013). Culture at Work: The value of intercultural
skills in the workplace. Retrieved from http://www.britishcouncil.org/sites/britishcouncil.uk2/files/culture-at-work-
report.pdf
 Gardner, Gross, & Steglitz. (2008). Unpacking Your Study Abroad Experience: Critical Reflection for Workplace
Competencies. Collegiate Employment Research Institute Research Brief, 1 (1). Retrieved
from http://ceri.msu.edu/publications/pdf/brief1-2008final.pdf
 Gilman Scholarship Program Web Symposium. Career-Oriented Internship Opportunities. Retrieved
from http://www.iie.org/Programs/Gilman-Scholarship-Program/News-and-Social-Media/Videos/WS-International-
Internships Working Together, Working Abroad. Retrieved
from http://www.iie.org/Programs/Gilman-Scholarship-Program/News-and-Social-Media/Videos/WS-Working-
Together-Working-Abroad
 Henry B. Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa. (2012). Tippie Roadmap Skills
Inventory. http://tippie.uiowa.edu/undergraduate/roadmap/skills-inventory.cfm
 Kuh, G. (2008). High-Impact Educational Practices: What they are, who has access to them, and why they matter.
Association of American Colleges and Universities. Retrieved
from http://www.neasc.org/downloads/aacu_high_impact_2008_final.pdf
 Levinger, Morrison, & Jouannelle. (2011). Beyond "It was awesome!” Enriching the Student Experience after Re-entry.
CIEE Annual Conference 2011, New Orleans. Retrieved from
http://www.ciee.org/conference/downloads/past/new-orleans/skills_survey.pdf.
 NAFSA Association of International Educators. (2014). Study Abroad Career Plan: A Guide for Advising Students.
Retrieved
from http://www.nafsa.org/Find_Resources/Supporting_Study_Abroad/Network_Resources/Education_Abroad
/Study_Abroad_Career_Plan__A_Guide_for_Advising_Students/
 NAFSA Association of International Educators. (2013). Subcommittee on Work, Internships and Volunteering
Abroad (WIVA) – Resource Library. Retrieved
from http://www.nafsa.org/resourcelibrary/default.aspx?catId=429109
 School for International Training. (2008). After Study Abroad: A toolkit for returning students. Retrieved
from http://www.worldlearning.org/linkservid/056F078A-EDEB-BEAE-FD0050C1F1E0F368/showMeta/0/
 Tillman, M. (2011). AIFS Student Guide to Study Abroad & Career Development. Retrieved
from http://www.aifsabroad.com/advisors/pdf/Tillman_AIFS_Student_Guide_Career.pdf
 Tillman, M. (2014). Campus Best Practices: Supporting Education Abroad & Student Career Development.
Retrieved from http://www.aifsabroad.com/advisors/pdf/Tillman_Best_Practices.pdf
 University of Texas at Austin, Center for International Business Education & Research (CIBER). Planning for Study
Abroad with Recruiting and Your Career in Mind. PDF Retrieved
from http://www.mccombs.utexas.edu/Centers/CIBER/Summer/~/media/Files/MSB/Centers/CIBER/Study%20A
broad%20and%20Career/Planning%20for%20Study%20Abroad.ashx