EnglishUSA held its fifth Annual Professional Development Workshop in San Francisco last month – and used the occasion to host a live conference call with SEVP officials to further clarify the sector’s understanding of what have been policy “grey areas”. These concern conditional admission and holiday vacation rules for international students.
Rachel Canty, SEVP Deputy Director for External Operations and Susanna Warner, Chief, SEVP Analysis and Operations Center (SAOC) convened with association members during a live and interactive virtual session.
Other sessions covered practicalities of working with Saudi students, ideas for encouraging students to engage with digital media, and advice on dealing with accreditation, among the many.
Jeanne Hind, Director of Spring International Language School in Denver, CO and former EnglishUSA President, said, “What a delight to go to a professional development workshop that had every session focused on IEPs and every exhibitor focused on our field and needs. It was hard to choose from the concurrent offerings.”
Over 135 delegates made the trip to San Francisco for the event, which was also opened up to non-members for the first time. The association pointed out that this was “the largest conference ever that focused solely on the needs of IEPs and the challenges they face”.
IEP staff also enjoyed the opportunity to network and socialise. A further highlight of the conference was a networking reception held at EC San Francisco on Thursday evening, complete with a jazz trio.
