Welcome to Nancy Maly, new ISP Director
As the newly appointed US Director I would like to introduce myself to those involved with the Iraqi Student Project. What follows are some glimpses of my earlier personal and professional life which will help you know more about me and understand why I wanted to be involved with the ISP.
I grew up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the home of one of the founders of American Field Service. In the early 1950s following the end of WWII, AFS was founded for the purpose of educational exchange between US and German high school students. I was in one of the early groups of US students to go to Germany to live with a family. I am still in touch with that family and my host sister and our own children have made exchange visits with each other. AFS is still a strong organization involving high school students from countries around the world.
As a believer in the benefits of international educational exchange, through AFS and other programs, my family has hosted 11 students from countries such as France, Germany, Turkey, Australia and Thailand. We remain friends with these students and have had the pleasure of post-exchange visits from many of them and their families over the years.
Our own children have studied in the UK, France, and Australia. Our younger daughter who graduated from Grinnell College did what many Grinnell students do; she joined the US Peace Corps and after graduation spent three years in Hungary. Our older daughter who also graduated from Grinnell is an English teacher, married to a German, and living and teaching in Dusseldorf, Germany. Her children are dual citizens and bilingual.
My early career was as a middle-school teacher and childbirth instructor, and then an admission officer in higher education. I worked for Grinnell College from 1974 to 1995 as its East Coast and international student recruiter. In 1979, as an employee of Grinnell, I wrote a proposal recommending that the College become more active in the recruitment of international students with a goal of having 10-15 per cent of the student body be non-US citizens coming from outside the US. That proposal was accepted and it took a little more than five short years to reach the international student objective. Now Grinnell College is recognized for its international student body and its international curriculum.
In 1995 I left Grinnell College to become the Director of Higher Education for the Council of International Schools, a UK based membership organization for international schools and higher education institutions around the world. Until 2006 I worked with international schools and post-secondary institutions interested in international student recruitment. For Grinnell and CIS, I had the opportunity to travel worldwide. During this eleven year period I also did a number of private consultancies for US colleges and universities interested in strengthening their international recruitment and admission programs.
After retiring from CIS in 2006, I was asked to do some temporary travel and admission work for Grinnell. I did so in 2006, and in 2007 I returned to Iowa to serve as Interim Director of Admissions at Grinnell. I retired from that position in 2009. It gives me considerable pleasure to know that there are currently 167 degree seeking F & J students from 49 countries by citizenship and 1 exchange student studying at Grinnell, including students from Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq.
While still living in New Jersey in 2006, I learned about the ISP from a friend of mine who is active in the Catholic Worker in New York City. I was pleased that I subsequently had a role in making certain that Grinnell College enrolled ISP students in both 2008 and 2009.
I have served in national leadership positions with NAFSA: the Association of International Educators, and the National Association of College Admission Counselors.
I have worked to promote international education and understanding in all that I have done. It will be a pleasure, with your help, to continue to do so through ISP.
Nancy Maly
Grinnell, Iowa
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010, by roriegle and is filed under "Uncategorized ". leave a response here, or send a Trackback from your own site.