IDEAS Capacity Building Initiatives

The IDEAS Program offers a variety of in-person and virtual trainings for faculty and staff at U.S. colleges and universities with the goal of helping to increase their institutions’ capacity to administer study abroad programs. As the field continues to adapt and evolve in response to the global pandemic, the IDEAS Program is committed to offering initiatives and activities that address the most pressing needs of our country’s diverse higher education institutions and key U.S. foreign policy goals.

Request for Proposals (RFP) for IDEAS Workshops

IDEAS Workshops

The IDEAS Program invites accredited U.S. colleges and universities to submit proposals to host one of three in-person or virtual IDEAS workshops May 2024 through March 2025. The goal of these workshops is to provide faculty and administrators at U.S. colleges and universities with best practices and resources to address current challenges and opportunities as they work to increase and diversify the U.S. students they send abroad and the destinations where they study. Additional details for these events can be found below.

Participants:	Approximately 50 U.S. college and/or university study abroad administrators and faculty
Length of Training:	8 – 10 hours
Location:	U.S. higher education campus or online
Dates:	A Friday during the months of May 2024 through March 2025, OR a single day immediately preceding or following a domestic regional or national industry conference taking place before the end of March 2025
Budget:	Up to $12,000 (virtual) or $20,000 (in-person) per workshop

In coordination with ECA and IDEAS Program staff at World Learning, the selected institutions will develop and execute program activities under the resulting contract. Activities may include, but are not limited to, keynote sessions, concurrent sessions, large and small group seminars, and/or networking events. The IDEAS Program anticipates awarding approximately three workshop contracts to accredited U.S. higher education institutions with a preference for geographic and institutional diversity among workshop hosts. Please read the full Request for Proposals here.

General Information

The topic of the proposed workshop should fall into one of the following areas (this list is organized alphabetically and does not reflect a rank ordering of topics):

1. Connecting study abroad to local industry and job force needs
2. Establishing effective partnerships with international host institutions*
3. Experiential learning abroad and preparing students for career success
4. Integrating study abroad into STEM/vocational/pre-professional curricula
5. Preparing for and managing safety, security, and emergency situations
6. Recruiting and supporting first-generation college students
7. Recruiting, preparing, and engaging faculty as program leaders
8. Virtual and hybrid programming: Strategies for engaging new students and new destinations in study abroad*

*Applicants under this theme should propose to focus on one or more less-common region(s) for study abroad and highlight strategies for developing partnerships and study abroad programming in that region, for example the Indo-Pacific, Southeast Asia, South America, or Sub-Saharan Africa. Please reference https://opendoorsdata.org/data/us-study-abroad/ for regional statistics and trends.

This competition is open to all accredited U.S. colleges and universities. The program seeks to engage the full diversity of U.S. higher education, including community colleges and Minority Serving Institutions.

Questions or requests for additional information should be directed to Rachel Rice at [email protected] by January 15, 2024. All answers will be shared publicly via the studyabroadcapacitybuilding.org website by January 25, 2024.

Interested hosts may also ask questions during RFP office hours, hosted by the IDEAS Program at the following times in the IDEAS Program Zoom meeting room:

• Tuesday, January 9, 2024, 2-3pm Eastern 
• Wednesday, January 10, 2024, 12-1pm Eastern

Proposals submitted in response to this RFP should be emailed to [email protected] by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on February 4, 2024. Successful applicants will be notified by March 1, 2024.

IDEAS Workshops

Upcoming IDEAS Workshops

IDEAS workshops are open to study abroad stakeholders from accredited U.S. colleges and universities, including but not limited to study abroad advisors, faculty, and other staff involved with or interested in creating, expanding, and/or diversifying study abroad for U.S. students at their institution. Workshops will take place either virtually or in-person on Fridays. Registration will open one to two months before each event. See below for more information on workshop topics and registration details.

Objectives of the IDEAS workshops are to:

• Share best practices on study abroad capacity building topics as identified by the U.S. study abroad community;
• Share USA Study Abroad information and other U.S. Department of State and U.S. Government resources; and
• Build and strengthen the U.S. study abroad community networks for future sharing of resources and best practices.

We do not currently have any workshops scheduled. Please see materials from previous workshops in the Past Initiatives section below and in our Library of Resources, and check back here for workshop announcements in the future.

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IDEAS Webinars

IDEAS Webinars are hosted virtually and open to study abroad stakeholders from accredited U.S. colleges and universities and other organizations who are involved with or interested in creating, expanding, and/or diversifying study abroad for U.S. students at their institution.

We do not currently have any webinars scheduled. Please see materials from previous webinars in the Past Initiatives section below and in our Library of Resources, and check back here for webinar announcements in the future.

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Past Initiatives

See below to explore past IDEAS Initiatives and recordings. Check out the Library of Resources for resources from these events and more.

If you have questions about any of these IDEAS Initiatives, please email IDEAS@worldlearning.org