Summer Travel at GEI

Travel is a way of life at Global-Ed Immersion LLC (GEI). We “meet students where they are” – literally – because actual engagement makes the difference in student support. This summer, GEI Advisors were in Atlanta, Chapel Hill, Chicago, Orlando, Little Rock, New York City, Seattle, Washington DC, and working diligently to open a new GEI hub in Dallas. At GEI, we take the educator’s mantra “We meet students where they are” literally. 

Online meetings, messaging apps, and email complement our work at GEI but there is no substitute for in-person engagement. Our students are newcomers to the United States and/or are the first in their families to attend university; navigating the academic environment, university culture, and US culture overall can be overwhelming. Opportunities are often elusive for university newcomers who compete with their well-connected domestic peers for coveted internships and research opportunities. Students often graduate with university degrees but without the diverse social and professional networks that contribute to personal and career success. New graduates from the international and/or 1st-generation community – and their families – are baffled when they consider the gap between newly-earned, often exceptional, credentials and the lack of professional offers. Newcomers, and their families, who tend to pay full price for university education have high expectations for hard-earned university degrees. Students without offers field inquiries from disappointed families and home communities who have been trained to believe the formula for success in the US is based, primarily, on merit and individual effort – at GEI, our multilingual, multinational, team of Advisors are trained to mitigate such disappointments and position students, strategically, for what it actually takes to achieve desired outcomes in the US. 

Knowing the communities we serve allows GEI Advisors to connect with students authentically. Conversations with GEI Advisors aren’t transactional, they build rapport and this takes time; so it is important to start working with GEI Advisors as early in the educational journey as possible so that students can be positioned for success and connected with curated communities of support that will guide their journeys through university and beyond. Traveling to meet students in their campus communities is just one value-added service GEI provides for its community of learners. Our students are everywhere because the US educational system is mature, well developed and diverse. The US has small four-year colleges, community colleges, vocational schools, colleges that cater to specialized communities of learners (ask us about this!), large doctoral-granting Tier 1 research universities, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribal Colleges, Hispanic Serving Institutions, and more. Every state in the US has tertiary education that offers excellent education for high school graduates and our team of multilingual, multinational, culturally competent, well-educated Advisors are trained to help develop vital skills in navigating each learning community. At GEI, technology is a tool that complements, enhances, and sustains the real-life bonds we create with students. 

GEI “Community. Mutuality. Trust. Student support – as it should be”