GET News

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GET News
The latest stories about from Global Education and Training's programs, activities, and alumni.

The latest stories about from Global Education and Training's programs, activities, and alumni.

list of blog posts

  • Letter from the Director: November 2020

    Dear friends, partners, and colleagues,

    During this global pandemic when so much has changed, it is important to remind ourselves periodically about our core purpose. At the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the constant is our educational mission. Whether instruction occurs on campus and face-to-face, or virtually and across time zones, we teach and learn. Enabling student success is always our goal at the University.

     

  • GET Program Spotlight: Academic Bridge

    GET Program Spotlight: Academic Bridge

    During the COVID-19 pandemic, many international students were unable to embark upon or continue their studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. As a result, the Academic Bridge program was developed to provide international students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a residential experience in their home country and access to educational facilities and services. 

  • GET to Know: Rob Siedenburg & Lisa Chason

    Meet Rob & Lisa. From 2017 to present, GET has hosted four individual cohorts of students from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST): Gifted Student Program (KGSP) program, for each academic year. At the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, KGSP students are provided with immediate access to a solid infrastructure to support international students on campus. 

    As essay coaches, Rob and Lisa share their experiences working with the KSGP Foundation Year students, as they prepare competitive college applications to top U.S. universities.

    Learn about GET's involvement with the KGSP program.

  • Letter from the Director: August 2020

    On behalf of GET, I am pleased to welcome students and colleagues to the fall term, while also reflecting on this past summer.

    In response to COVID-19 lockdowns, we pivoted rapidly to online delivery. The results: from June through August, GET hosted nearly 600 international students in various online programs, covering topics such as telecommunications, optics, energy materials, mathematics, and more.

    We look forward to the time when we can again welcome groups of international students and professionals to our campus and community. Until then, we will keep using online formats. As always, we invite ideas and partnership for future programs from GET’s many friends and collaborators.

  • GET Program Spotlight: Ready, Set, Undergrad!

    GET Program Spotlight: Ready, Set, Undergrad! 

    In summer 2020, Global Education & Training and the Intensive English Institute offered a summer enrichment course for Saudi Arabian students participating in the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) Gifted Student Program. Called “Ready, Set, Undergrad,” this course was geared toward KGSP students who completed a Foundation Year program at one of six host institutions in the United States, including Illinois. In the fall of 2020, they were enrolling as first-year students at prestigious U.S. colleges and universities.

    Ready, Set, Undergrad was designed to have students work on researching and identifying specific resources they would utilize at their new universities in the fall, so they would be better prepared to “hit the ground running.

  • GET Program Spotlight: Undergraduate Summer School Co-Curricular Sessions

    Meet Guangzhou. Guangzhou Chen is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Recreation, Sport, and Tourism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. For the past two years, Guangzhou has been a graduate student employee at Global Education and Training. 

    During GET's summer school programs in 2020, Guangzhou worked with Rob Marinelli (Assistant Director), Meng Liu (Program Coordinator), and Nanjie Yu (PhD student, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and GET graduate student employee) to arrange co-curricular program sessions for GET’s undergraduate summer school students.  Guangzhou explains why the GET team incorporated these sessions into our summer school programs and the value these sessions have for our students.

  • Student Spotlight: Jiayi Li

    Meet Jiayi. Jiayi Li is a current student at the Harbin Institute of Technology in Shenzhen, China. Jiayi was a 2019 undergraduate summer school student in GET's Engineering Research Academy program. Her hometown is Chengdu, located in the Sichuan province of China. 

  • GET Staff Spotlight: Melissa Belcher

    Meet Melissa. As Associate Director for Administration at GET, Melissa provides administrative oversight of GET, including programmatic and business operations, the Intensive English Institute, and the Shanghai Office. Her responsibilities include overseeing day-to-day operations; supervising and leading staff to foster a culture of innovation and high-level performance; and implementing GET, Illinois International and campus policies and procedures.

  • GET Programs: COVID-19 Update (April 15)

    As the world continues to adapt, so too, does our approach to facilitating international learning experiences. As an update to our April 8 message, we are excited to share that GET is now developing online versions of undergraduate summer school programs for international students, with start dates to begin following July 10, 2020.