Campus Visit 1 - Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

As I mentioned before, after spending a week in Washington, DC in a very intense training, each group went to a campus visit. The campus clusters we had were New Jersey, Kansas, Mississippi, and Nebraska. I went to the New Jersey Campus Cluster.


We were the only group that didn't need to fly to the campus visit. Instead we took the train. We really loved the idea of taking the train, but it was quite an adventure. After getting all our heavy luggage inside the train, and sitting comfortably at our seats we heard that there was a problem with the train. Well, almost one hour later, they announced our train would not depart and there was another train just about to leave. So, we had to run to catch the other train, and we got quite a workout by running and lifting weight (our luggage). Thanks the guys help us!

It was time to let people know that we would be late by an hour. And guess what? We couldn't reach anyone. After a couple minutes we could finally talk to our campus cluster coordinator. We arrived in New Jersey around 9pm, and Nancy from Rutgers University was waiting for us. She dropped us at the hotel, and we barely left our luggage in our rooms and came down to find a place to eat. We were so glad we found a Mexican Restaurant and we all had a delicious burrito!

We started our day at Rutgers with a delicious breakfast and a very warm reception from the representatives not only from Rutgers, but also from the other universities we would visit.

You'll be able to have a feeling of how our day at Rutgers went by watching the video. Our day at Rutgers was very busy, but very fruitful.  At the end of the day, we had a very nice reception at the VP for Management and Enrollment's house.

I hope you enjoy the video!
Campus Visit 1 - Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

I bet you thought that I had finished my blog, but I'm not done yet. I still want to share all the moments I had during the USBT program. So I have been creating videos. This first one is about the week we spent in Washington, DC. I'm almost done with the second one that talks about the 1st campus visit in New Jersey. So you'll be able to learn about the campus visits (and this time the promise is for real!)


The program was followed by a Social Media Workshop and ended at the end of April. I can't believe it's already June. Time is flying so fast that scares me... Being back to the office after almost a month away from the office is not easy. I'm still trying to catch up on some things.


Despite this crazyness, I'm so happy that I can see the results. My advising sessions are not the same anymore. I feel much more confident, and I have so much more experience to share... .


I hope you enjoy the videos and stay tuned because the next ones are coming up soon :)

To watch the video, just click on the link below.

USBT video 1 - Washington, DC

USBT Social Media Workshop - Best Practices

Hi everybody,

Right now, we are at the Social Media Workshop in Flagstaff. And at this exact moment, I’m participating in a panel with other three colleagues to talk about practical tips using social media.  I’m doing a demonstration on how to post on a blog as well as redirecting the post to facebook and twitter.

What's going on now?

You still have not gotten enough of what USBT is. So far, I reported on the first week of the program, the second week is all about campus visits, and the third week is just about to finish this Wednesday. Don't worry, I'll tell you how everything was during my campus cluster (New Jersey), but I really wanted to share with you some pictures of our closing dinner tonight and our graduation. Yes! We graduated from USBT. Big thanks to the US State Department and to College Board that organized this wonderful professional training. As one of our friends said "this training is life changing", and I'm already missing it. 

Day 5 - Wednesday, April 14th

Our last day in Washington, DC was very busy. We had our second round of Best Practices Presentations, and I had my presentation on "Effective and Innovative Ways to Promote your Center". I really enjoyed working on this presentation. Even though it was a short presentation 6-8 minutes, I spent some hours trying to get as much information as I could and that would benefit my colleagues. In addition to exploring the powerpoint resources. In Brazil, we have been working hard on promoting the EducationUSA, and we have been developing a lot of materials to get the word out.


I think the Best Practices Presentations are really good and we learn so much! The other presenters shared them experiences with "Interacting with Semester Abroad Students", "Interacting with American Study Abroad Students", "Intern Program", "Increasing Visibility Using Innovative Tools", "Specialized Sessions", "Time Management Tools", and "Effective Collaboration with the U.S. Embassy.

After the presentations, we had representatives from TOEFL & GRE, SAT, ACT, GMAT, and LSAC talking about the testing program updates. The conversation continued through lunch time. And then, it was time to get our luggage and go to our campus cluster. We are 20 advisers, and we were divided to go to the following clusters: New Jersey, Mississippi, Nebraska, and Kansas. I went to the New Jersey cluster, and we went from Washington DC to New Jersey by train. It was quite an interesting experience. After putting all our heavy luggage on the train and sit downs, we were advised that there was a problem with our train. Finally after almost an hours, we were told that our train would not depart, and we could take another train that was departing in 15 minutes. There we went, five of us, getting our heavy luggage again and running to catch the next train. But at the end, we made it to New Jersey, and Nancy from Rutgers was there waiting for us, and she took us to the hotel. I don't need to tell you that we were starving...but we found a very nice Mexican restaurant close to the hotel. :)

Day 4 - Tuesday, April 13th

All right. I'm back and I'll be able to share the other days we had on our USBT Program.

Our 4th day was at the State Deparment, and we discussed a lot of issues regarding the services expected of EducationUSA centers, and we all had an opportunity to reflect on our duties. We wrote our job descriptions as well as the services we offer at our centers. Then we had a presentation on some resources available for us that we will certainly use when we go back to our centers.On the first half of the day, we have also discussed outreach to US Higher Education, and we talked about student visa and SEVIS update.

After a quick break for lunch, we had a lecture on EducationUSA and study abroad oportunities such as the Gilman Scholarships (http://exchange.state.gov/globalexchanges/gilmanshcolarshipprogram.html). This discussion was followed by a presentation on "Who cares about educational advising?" and we had a really nice group discussion.

As a final activity at the State Department, we had small group appointments with our Regional Officers. We talked about issues as well as activities we have been doing in our countries.

Then we went to the College Board where we talked about conference tips and we had campus/conference group briefing.

All right, April 14th is our last day in Washington, DC, so packing time this evening to depart to the campus visits. My campus visit is New Jersey, and others advisers will be in Kansas, Mississippi, and Nebraska.

Campus Visits

Hello everybody,


I know you're dying to know what is going on here. We're on campus visits right now, and unfortunately we don't have access to the internet. It's 10:50pm, and I'm in Starbucks which is closing in 10 minutes. I just wanted to let you know that we left Washington, DC last week, and we're having a great time here in New Jersey visiting the schools. It's so sad the campus visits are almost over, and we'll be heading to New Orleans on Wednesday.


As soon as I have more access to the internet, I'll give you details of every single day.


I can't wait to share all the news with you.