Marketing and Recruitment

Faculty leaders should consider how to best recruit students for the course.  Consider marketing strategies, target audiences, and the process – if any – for student application and admission to the embedded program.

Examples of Marketing and Recruitment Strategies

• Visiting related or pre-requisite courses for brief presentations
• Emails to students in related majors, minors
• Fliers or posters
• Open information sessions
• Utilizing former student participants (if recurring program) as ambassadors
• Brief videos

Education Abroad Fair

• The EA office will organize an Education Abroad Fair in the fall. Each college has a table, and faculty are invited to attend and promote their program. If it’s not possible to represent your program at the fair, it’s recommended that the faculty leader have a flyer available and recruit a colleague or past participant to be at the fair to promote the program. Commonwealth campus faculty leaders can send materials to be placed at information tables. It is the responsibility of the department and the faculty leader, to promote the program and program leaders are strongly encouraged to do additional recruiting beyond the Education Abroad Fair.   

Review and Selection of Participants

There is no centralized study abroad application for student admission to embedded courses, so the ultimate decision for participation in the course is up to the faculty leader.  Some faculty members choose to utilize a written application and/or interview to determine admission to the embedded program.  Others utilize a “come one, come all” approach until maximum capacity for the course is reached.  The right approach depends on the nature of the course, academic level of coursework and projects, and your expectations as the faculty leader. 

When selecting students to participate in your program, an interview is recommended so you have the opportunity to get to know the student in person and get a sense for his/her motivation and commitment to the program.

Equal Opportunity for Access

Please note that if there are specific pre-requisites or other requirements for the course, those should be clearly written and readily available to students during recruitment and enrollment phases.  Students must be able to make an informed choice about whether or not they will be able to complete the program successfully.  For example, if an embedded biology course requires students to walk 2 miles through uneven terrain to a bog for sample collection, students must be aware of this as the activity may be difficult for some students with mobility impairment. Discrimination based on age, race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, creed, service in the uniformed services (as defined in state and federal law), veteran status, sex, sexual orientation, marital or family status, pregnancy, pregnancy-related conditions, physical or mental disability, gender, perceived gender, gender identity, genetic information or political ideas is not allowed.  If you have any questions about how to address a particular student’s interest in participating on the program, please contact embeddedprograms@psu.edu.

Faculty training (EPW) and Student Orientation

Per Penn State’s International Travel Requirements, any employee traveling abroad with students must attend an emergency preparedness workshop (EPW) within two calendar years prior to the departure date of the program. The emergency preparedness workshop will cover various risk management policies as well as crisis response practices and emergency contact procedures.  There is a network of support for crisis response, with the locus of that network located in the Global Safety staff of Global Programs.

In order to ensure that students studying abroad on embedded courses have appropriate preparation for inter-cultural awareness, travel and immigration procedures, student conduct expectations, and health and safety considerations abroad, an orientation program is required for all participating students.  Global Programs will provide an online orientation to broadly cover the topics of:

• Pre-departure preparations and travel logistics
• Academic policies and procedures
• Finances and budgeting abroad
• Health and safety
• Education Abroad policies
• Cultural considerations
• Basic informational module on the region the group will visit

Since the online pre-departure orientation is general in nature and is used by students going abroad on a number of different programs throughout the year, it is expected that the program leaders will supplement this central orientation with a more specific preparation meeting.  The faculty leader should also plan at least one orientation session with the group to cover the topics above in more specific detail as they pertain to the individual program, as well as to address any other pre-departure questions.