Winter 2010 In this Issue - Monterey Institute of International Studies

Winter 2010 

he Monterey Institute of International Studies has long 

had the reputation of being home to one of the world’s 

leading graduate programs for translation and interpretation. 

But word-of-mouth is one thing, and concrete 

evidence of quality another. A fresh and powerful piece of that 

evidence arrived on November 4, when the United Nations 

formalized an agreement making the Institute’s translation and 

interpretation program one of nine in the world —and the only 

one in the Western Hemisphere—that the UN has chosen to 

partner with to promote the development of future translation 

and interpretation professionals. 

The memorandum of understanding (MOU), signed at 

the Institute by United Nations Assistant Secretary General Franz 

Baumann and Institute President Sunder Ramaswamy, outlines 

steps both organizations will take to expand cooperation in the 

training and future employment of translators and interpreters. 

“It’s a tremendous honor for the Institute to be recognized as 

a leader in training translation and interpretation professionals 

who play essential roles in international organizations such as 

the UN,” commented President Ramaswamy. “We greatly 

appreciate the spirit of partnership behind this new agreement 

and look forward to seeing its future benefits accrue to both the 

UN and our uniquely talented students.” 

The new MOU notes that the UN has been “confronted 

with increasing shortages of qualified conference interpreters” 

and translators in recent years. As Assistant Secretary General 

Baumann explained to members of the media attending the 

ceremony, the UN requires replacement of approximately 40 

language staff members a year. Retirements and career changes 

have taken their toll on the UN’s translation and interpretation 

staff, and demand is greater than ever. 

“The UN and associated international agencies already 

employ a substantial number of Institute graduates in senior 

translation and interpretation positions,” noted Graduate School 

of Translation, Interpretation, and Language Education Dean 

Renée Jourdenais. “More than anything, this agreement ensures 

that as the international need for translators and interpreters 

continues to expand, the pipeline will continue to be filled with 

extremely well-prepared candidates.” 

Among other points of cooperation, the MOU envisions 

collaboration between UN officials and Institute faculty to 

ensure Institute degree programs are geared to preparing students 

to take the UN’s competitive language examinations, and 

that Institute students are encouraged to apply for internships 

and take the appropriate language examinations to qualify for 

employment as UN interpreters. In addition, the Institute will 

Communiqué 

United Nations Agreement Recognizes Institute’s 

Translation & Interpretation Program Among Best in the World 

T 

In this Issue: 

United Nations facade at sunset 

United Nations Assistant Secretary General Franz Baumann 

and MIIS President Sunder Ramaswamy sign the MOU 

offer training courses for UN staff in the form of workshops 

and seminars, as it does with other international organizations, 

notably the International Monetary Fund and the Inter- 

American Development Bank. 

The achievement of earning the only partnership agreement 

in the Western Hemisphere with the most prominent and languageintensive 

international organization in the world reflects decades 

of hard work by Monterey Institute faculty and staff to build 

a translation and interpretation program that continues to be 

a leader and innovator. For all that the new agreement represents 

in terms of recognition, though, its greatest legacy will 

be increased opportunities for future Institute alumni to pursue 

careers at the UN. For an institution whose motto is “Be the 

Solution,” it’s an exciting and eminently fitting outcome. 

n El Salvador Practicum n Interpreting at the Olympics n Humanitarian Assistance Course 

n Take a Class, Get a Job n Yellow Ribbon Scholars n Nonproliferation & Terrorism Degree

The Communiqué 

is published for alumni 

and friends of the Monterey 

Institute of International 

Studies by the Office of 

Communications. 

For more information about 

our students, programs, 

and faculty, please visit our 

website at www.miis.edu. 

Contact us at 831.647.3516 

or jason.warburg@miis.edu 

with comments or questions 

related to this publication. 

Editor 

Jason Warburg 

Co-Editors 

Shirley Coly, Beth McDermott 

Contributing Writers 

Shirley Coly, Anna Dudney, 

Leah Gowron, Peter Grothe, 

Beth McDermott, Jason 

Warburg 

Creative Concept/Layout 

Tessa Avila 

Photography 

Eduardo Fujii, Ryan Gonzalez, 

Peter Grothe, Lucyna 

Jodlowska, Jenny Manseau, 

Barry Slaughter Olsen, David 

Royal, Maureen Sweeney 

This paper contains recycled 

content and is recyclable 

2 Communiqué 

Big MIIS Presence at Vancouver Olympics 

Alumni Interpret for Athletes from 80 Countries 

S 

ince former Monterey Institute Dean 

of Translation and Interpretation 

Wilhelm (Bill) Weber worked as 

an interpreter at the 1968 Winter 

Olympic Games in Grenoble, 

Monterey Institute graduates and faculty have 

had a rich history of involvement with both the 

Summer and Winter Olympic Games. Although 

Institute graduates have worked primarily as 

professional interpreters and translators in the 

Language Services Department, they have also 

Pascale Ledeur-Kraus, Maureen Sweeney, and Bill Weber 

been involved in the International Relations, 

Ceremonies, Protocol, and National Olympic 

Committee Services Departments at various 

Olympic Organizing Committees. 

At the Games in Vancouver this year, the 

Institute was fortunate to have an all-star team 

of Institute graduates and faculty working in 

the Professional Interpretation unit, including: 

Julien Brasseur, Pablo Chang, Daphne Chien, 

Pascale Ledeur-Kraus, Shan Tsen, Miyang Chu 

(faculty), Andrei Falaleyev (faculty), Kazumi 

Imasaki (faculty), Yun-Hyang Lee (faculty), and 

Andrea-Hofmann Miller (faculty), as well as 

Bill Weber as our chief interpreter. 

Institute alumna Maureen Sweeney (MPA 

’94), who served as head of Language Services 

and Venue Protocol for the Vancouver Games, 

reports “I was excited to have such a great group 

of MIIS alumni and faculty on board. I began 

working with the Olympics in Atlanta in 1996, 

and since then have worked with the Games 

in Sydney, Salt Lake City, Torino, Beijing, and 

now Vancouver. At each of these Games we 

have been fortunate to have multiple Institute 

graduates providing the highest level of services 

for the international press, International 

Olympic Committee (IOC) members, athletes, 

and dignitaries from around the world.” 

In their role as professional consecutive and 

simultaneous interpreters for the Vancouver 

Olympic Games, Institute graduates provided 

interpretation for official IOC and National 

Olympic Committee (NOC) meetings, as well 

as for interviews in the Main Press Center and 

Venue Press Centers. The Main Press Center, 

the temporary home to all official journalists 

and photographers covering the Vancouver 

games, offered simultaneous interpretation 

in English, French, Japanese, Mandarin, and 

Russian throughout February. 

At the nine competition venues, 

consecutive interpretation 

was offered in some combination 

of English, French, 

German, Italian, Japanese, 

Korean, Mandarin, Russian, 

and—depending upon the 

languages of the winning 

athletes. All told, the 

Professional Interpretation 

team interpreted for athletes 

from more than 80 countries 

competing in sports ranging 

from curling to hockey and 

luge to biathlon. 

Jennifer Ullman 

(MAIPS ’93) has been volunteering 

at international athletic competitions 

ever since the 1992 Olympic Games in 

Barcelona.The fact that she had studied abroad 

in Spain during her undergraduate career and 

was multilingual surely aided her application 

to the Organizing Committee. In Vancouver, 

Ullman served as a member of the Vancouver 

Olympic and Paralympic Village team, where 

she provided translation and interpretation 

services, and was a host in the Village Resident 

Centres. 

Alumni and faculty weren’t the only ones 

in on the action, as current student Simone 

Bonneville (MACI ’11) interned as an escort 

interpreter for the Games. Assigned to interpret 

for the team of athletes from Tajikistan, 

Simone put her first year of consecutive interpreting 

training at MIIS to good use. She 

also chronicled her adventures in a blog at 

blogs.miis.edu/simonebonneville/. 

The Olympic Games are an excellent 

example of the type of uniquely international 

workplace that requires the high-level skills 

of Monterey Institute students, alumni, and 

faculty. As preparations for the upcoming 

Olympics in London, Sochi, and Rio intensify, 

you can be sure that MIIS will be well-represented 

at these Games!

Practica Spotlight: 

Sustainable Development in El Salvador 

Team Monterey Completes Fourth Year of Project 

I 

mmersive learning and real-life experiences 

have long been central to what the 

Institute calls “the Monterey Way” —our 

philosophy of teaching and learning. 

As part of that approach, every January 

Monterey Institute students have the opportunity 

to participate in intensive three-week practica 

that take them out of the classroom and 

into the field in countries around the world. 

These practica are often among the most popular 

courses offered during “J-term”—the January 

interim between fall and spring semesters. 

In January 2007, Gordon Paul Smith 

Professor of International Policy Studies Ed 

Laurance, practicum leader Professor Adele 

Negro and a team of Institute students launched 

a project—known as “Team Monterey”—in 

sustainable development in the Bajo Lempa 

region of El Salvador. Since then, each winter 

students have traveled back to continue 

capacity-building and development efforts in 

partnership with local community-based organization 

La Coordinadora-Asociación Mangle 

(LC-AM). Last year the Institute formalized a 

memorandum of understanding with LC-AM 

that ensures our continued involvement. 

Team Monterey’s Organic Production team with Juan Luna of Asociación Mangle 

This January, 16 students and Professor 

Negro traveled to the region for a three-week 

whirlwind of activity. Prior to the trip, the class 

was divided into four student-led teams focused 

on production, capacity development, conservation, 

and infrastructure. Each team also developed 

a project proposal to focus their work while 

in-country. Upon their arrival, students had the 

chance to discuss and revise their proposals with 

feedback and guidance from LC-AM project 

coordinators, before launching them. 

“Our goal [with practica such as Team 

Monterey] is to deepen and hone the skills we 

teach in the classroom,” noted Professor Negro. 

“The practicum experience allows students 

to work in a real-life environment with real 

human stakes. They have the opportunity both 

to apply their new skills and to understand firsthand 

the difference we can make.” 

Team Monterey student leader Amy Holste 

believes that opportunity is what drives student 

participation. “It’s a chance to apply the skills 

we’ve been learning in a dynamic environment, 

and interact directly with people affected by 

the work we are doing,” she explained. The 

practicum also offers students the opportunity 

to enhance their language competence through 

family stays, project work, and individualized 

sessions with Professor Negro. 

According to Holste, this year’s Team 

Monterey effort has been strengthened by 

the participation of a broader range of students. 

The Institute’s enhanced emphasis on 

interdisciplinary study has brought the fresh 

perspectives and expertise of students in the 

MBA, International Environmental Policy, and 

Translation and Interpretation programs. 

While Team Monterey’s focus 

is on assisting local communities 

to achieve sustainable 

long-term development, the 

benefits of the project for both 

students and faculty are evident 

as well. Holste believes 

that the Team Monterey 

experience “helps [students] 

with personal growth by making 

them feel connected to a 

larger cause.” And Professor 

Negro points out how the 

course helps her as a teacher: 

“Our experiences with Team 

Monterey help me identify the 

skills we need to foster and 

build in our students so that 

they can be successful.” 

Now back on campus, Team Monterey continues 

to build for the future. A photo exhibit 

illustrating their trip and projects premiered at 

the Pacific Grove Art Center on February 26, 

and the group continues to offer the opportunity 

to support their work via the Global Giving 

Web site at www.globalgiving.org/miis. Team 

Monterey’s blog, with greater detail on the specific 

projects conducted this year, is also viewable 

online at blogs.miis.edu/equipomonterey. 

Zócalo— 

The Online Hub for 

Advising and Career 

Services 

Since its initial “beta” launch 

in fall 2009, more and more 

Monterey Institute students and 

alumni have become familiar with 

the wide range of career development 

resources available to them 

through Zócalo, the new electronic 

advising and career resources 

management system offered by 

the Institute’s Center for Advising 

and Career Services. As Zócalo 

coordinator Jen Hambleton- 

Holguin states, “I think we’ve just 

scratched the surface of what 

this system is capable of in terms 

of useful tools for our students, 

and alumni, and prospective 

employers.” 

Zócalo is designed to serve 

as a one-stop shop for advising 

and career services, where both 

students and alumni can access 

job postings, post their resumes, 

track degree progress, and review 

curriculum details. All current 

students use Zócalo, and almost 

9,000 alumni have been provided 

with access to the system. 

Zócalo also contains information 

on over 2,200 employers. 

Alumni are already using 

the site to post jobs within their 

organizations, strengthening the 

MIIS alumni network. Alumni who 

haven’t yet received their login 

information should contact the 

Center for Advising and Career 

Services at advising@miis.edu. 

Winter 2010 3

Haiti Earthquake Interrupts Course on Humanitarian Aid 

MIIS Trains Relief Workers For Future Disasters 

W 

hen Bill Hyde 

and Roy 

Williams arrived 

in Monterey 

to teach a three-week intensive 

course in Applied 

Humanitarian Studies this 

January, they knew it might 

not be smooth sailing. Not 

because of any concerns about 

the course itself, but because 

two lifetimes of experience 

with coordinating humanitarian 

aid has taught them that 

disasters can strike anywhere, 

at any time, and the job of 

professional first responders is 

to drop everything and go. 

This reality was brought 

home to both the students and 

teachers in Hyde and Williams’ 

team-taught J-term course when 

Haiti was hit by a devastating 

earthquake on January 12. First, 

three students who had enrolled 

in the course were recalled 

by the U.S. Office of Foreign 

Disaster Assistance (OFDA) 

and redirected to Port-au- 

Prince. Then several planned 

guest speakers canceled to join 

the relief efforts. 

Hyde, with over three 

decades’ experience coordinating 

humanitarian aid for agencies 

including the U.S. Agency 

for International Development 

Attendees at the December events 

celebrating CNS’s 20th anniversary 

also heard a great deal about the 

Monterey Institute’s new master’s 

degree in nonproliferation and terrorism 

studies, the first of its kind in 

the world. 

The new program builds on 

the Institute’s existing certificate 

program in nonproliferation and 

the terrorism studies concentration 

within its International Policy 

Studies degree program. Both 

academic tracks have experienced 

4 Communiqué 

and the United Nations High 

Commissioner for Refugees, and 

Williams, president and chief 

executive officer of the Center 

for Humanitarian Cooperation 

and former director of OFDA, 

soldiered on despite these 

challenges. “Our goal is to 

merge the academic and the 

pragmatic,” explained Hyde, 

by presenting students with a 

series of scenarios and vignettes 

designed to introduce them to 

the kinds of people, processes 

and challenges they are likely to 

encounter in an actual humanitarian 

relief situation. 

“People’s expectations of 

how organizations react to a 

crisis often differ from reality,” 

noted Williams. “Organizations 

will focus on doing what they 

do best. Coordination in a 

disaster context is mostly about 

coordinating your own organization’s 

decision-making.” 

“In this class, we work 

much less on product than on 

process,” added Hyde. “We are 

teaching students how to think 

and how to adjust to changing 

conditions. It can be very challenging 

for people who want 

‘the answer’ —the answer is the 

process.” 

It’s a provocative approach, 

but one that students find 

significant growth in recent years, 

reflecting students’ strong interest, 

as well as increased demand in 

both the public and private sector 

for policy experts in these areas. 

“The establishment of the 

Nonproliferation and Terrorism 

Studies Program puts an exclamation 

point on our commitment to 

providing Monterey Institute students 

with a graduate education 

that has immediate relevance in 

today’s world,” commented Institute 

President Sunder Ramaswamy. 

valuable. “This class teaches you 

how to analyze issues and what 

to pay attention to in any given 

situation,” observed recent 

graduate Hillary Anderson 

(IPS ’09), who took the course 

in January 2009. “It helps 

you become a more effective 

professional —and it helped me 

figure out that this [coordinating 

humanitarian assistance] is 

what I want to do.” 

These are welcome words 

for Hyde and Williams as they 

seek to pass on all they have 

learned to a new generation 

of aid workers. “I was asked 

if I would write a book about 

my experiences,” explained 

Williams, “but the experiences 

were shared and not 

exclusively mine. My writing 

about them would make for a 

very incomplete story. I have 

strong opinions about what 

makes good leaders and how 

to make good decisions. These 

opinions are the product of my 

experience and the experience 

of others. It is the sum of this 

knowledge that I hope to pass 

on.” For that, the students 

of the Monterey Institute’s 

course in applied humanitarian 

studies—and the people of 

Haiti—are grateful. 

The Nonproliferation and 

Terrorism Studies Program’s curriculum 

will be supported by 

CNS and the Monterey Terrorism 

Research and Education Program 

(MonTREP), which conducts in-depth 

research, assesses policy options, 

and engages in public education 

on issues relating to terrorism and 

international security. 

“The proliferation and possible 

use of weapons of mass destruction 

by states and terrorist organizations 

arguably are the greatest immediate 

USAID Senior Program Advisor Bill Hyde 

Former OFDA Director 

Roy Williams 

MIIS Introduces World’s First Master’s Degree in Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies 

challenges facing mankind. 

There is a pressing need for new 

thinking about these issues and 

tremendous career opportunities for 

young experts in the field,” noted 

CNS Director Dr. William Potter. 

“Students in the Nonproliferation 

and Terrorism Studies Program will 

benefit from CNS’s two decades 

of policy-oriented research and 

training in nonproliferation, as well 

as the tremendous expertise and 

resources of MonTREP.”

GSTILE Students Visit UN, Meet with Alumni 

E 

very Monterey 

Institute student 

knows that one of 

the benefits of graduating 

from MIIS is the automatic 

membership you receive 

in the so-called “Monterey 

mafia,” the informal yet deeply 

supportive network of Institute 

alumni around the world. 

Last fall on October 29 and 

30, two groups of students from 

the Institute’s Graduate School 

of Translation, Interpretation 

and Language Education 

(GSTILE) toured the United 

Nations Headquarters in 

New York and met with officials 

from the Department 

for General Assembly and 

Conference Management to 

learn about careers for translators, 

interpreters, précis writers, 

Take a Class, Get a Job 

Entrepreneurship Students Find Opportunities 

S 

tudents typically enroll in classes at the Monterey 

Institute hoping to gain knowledge and training that 

will help them in their future careers. They don’t 

necessarily expect to have a particular class lead directly 

to landing their first post-graduation job. 

For six students in Professor Fredric Kropp’s entrepreneurship 

course over the past few years, though, that’s exactly what happened. 

As Professor Kropp explains, “Every term we match students 

up with entrepreneurs to work on real-life projects. Generally 

I network out through friends and acquaintances to identify 

potential projects; sometimes students also identify candidates. 

It’s a win-win situation. The students get real-life experience and 

the entrepreneurs get help solving their problems.” 

Participating entrepreneurs also get a firsthand look at the 

capabilities of the students they are paired with, while students 

gain invaluable insight into every aspect of the business proposal 

or assessment they are working on. This can lead an entrepreneur 

to an entirely logical conclusion: Why recruit strangers when 

you’re already well-acquainted with a high-quality candidate who 

knows your business inside and out? 

“It was a great class,” said Hjalte Hojsgaard (MBA ’09). “I 

worked with MarketCulture Strategies Inc., a management consulting 

business with offices in Pacific Grove, Boston, and Sydney, 

Australia. My group worked on substantiating a business case 

around a new online service offering that was to be launched in 

2009. The most exciting part of the project was the direct contact 

with key decision makers.” 

Hjalte also seized the opportunity to bring his qualifications to 

the attention of a potential employer. “I ended up getting hired 

simply by writing the CEO of the company an e-mail after the 

project was completed, explaining the fit I saw between my skill 

set and the business. I made a proposal to them, and they 

GSTILE Delegates at the UN 

verbatim reporters, and editors 

at the UN. The student groups 

were met and accompanied by 

two Institute alumni who are 

now staff interpreters at the 

UN, Dylan Westfeldt (TI ’99) 

and Amy Brady (CI ’07), both 

of whom took time to answer 

students’ questions and provide 

guidance about how to 

launch their careers. 

The GSTILE visit occurred 

just a few weeks prior to the 

signing of a new memorandum 

of understanding (MOU) 

between the UN and the 

Institute designed to enhance 

cooperation in the areas of 

training and future employment 

opportunities for translators 

and interpreters. For more 

about the new MOU, see our 

cover story. 

accepted. I started as a business 

analyst but was promoted 

to engagement manager, 

working primarily on business 

development and client and 

project management for North 

America.” 

Otto Hanson (MBA ’09) 

had a similar experience with 

even swifter results. “The 

project was a chance for me 

to test the entrepreneur’s 

business model and for the 

business team to test my 

knowledge and abilities,” 

explained Otto. “Two days 

Hjalte Hojsgaard 

after we delivered our final 

presentation, I got a call from 

the entrepreneur stating that they wanted to hire me as their 

director of business development.” 

Outcomes such as this undoubtedly contribute to the strong 

reputation of the Fisher International MBA Program. As noted 

in the last issue of Communiqué, Entrepreneur magazine and the 

Princeton Review recently once again ranked MIIS among the 

top 15 MBA programs in the country. 

Still, even for students like Luke Smith (MBA ’09), who 

was hired on the basis of the project he did for marketing firm 

TMDcreative, the classroom experience was as important as 

the outcome. “It was the real-life application of what we were 

learning in class that excited me most about taking the course. 

It was one of the first courses I took at MIIS, and it has 

remained one of the highlights of my educational experience.” 


Student Projects Receive Support from 

MIIS-GlobalGiving Partnership 

You may have heard the buzz 

about Monterey Institute student 

projects on GlobalGiving.org. 

The Institute recently solidified a 

partnership with the international 

micro-philanthropy website to 

garner support for students working 

in the field to solve global 

issues. Micro-philanthropy is 

based on the idea that when a lot 

of people give a little, it goes a 

long way. 

Students interested in posting 

a project on the site to receive 

donations had to complete an 

extensive application process. 

Projects that best met the criteria 

were posted to GlobalGiving.org in 

early December. 

Doris (Lani) Schulte, 1946-2009 

6 Communiqué 

Lani Schulte 

Current MIIS projects include: 

• Student group Team Monterey 

travels to the Bajo Lempa area of 

El Salvador annually to work with 

a community rebuilding itself 

after years of government neglect 

and environmental threats (see 

coverage of this year’s trip on 

page 3). A gift of $15 helps the 

team survey the water system in 

one community. 

• A team of Institute students 

works in Peru to build sustainable 

greenhouses for a rural community 

in the Sacred Valley region to 

grow nutritious crops and provide 

agricultural education. With $25, 

five children receive a full year 

of agricultural education. 

To learn more about these 

projects and become a supporter, 

visit www.globalgiving.org/miis. 

CNS Celebrates 20 Years of 

Nonproliferation Education 

The James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS), the 

world’s largest research center devoted to curbing the spread 

of weapons of mass destruction, celebrated its 20th anniversary 

with a three-day series of events in early December. The 

two-day conference “The Power and Promise of Nonproliferation 

Education” featured global nonproliferation experts addressing topics 

ranging from regional nonproliferation efforts to the role of foundations, 

non-governmental organizations, and the media in educating the public. 

The first night of the conference also featured a well-attended reception for 

CNS alumni. 

The third day featured a special staged public reading of Reykjavik, a 

new play by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes that highlights 

the moment in 1986 when U.S. and Soviet leaders nearly agreed to eliminate 

both nations’ entire nuclear arsenals. 

Later that evening, CNS hosted a gala dinner at the Monterey Bay 

Aquarium, emceed by former CNN anchor (and Middlebury College alumnus) 

Frank Sesno and featuring keynote remarks from Ambassador Susan 

Burk, Special Representative of the President for Nuclear Nonproliferation. 

The evening closed with a special award by Institute President Sunder 

Ramaswamy for CNS founder and director Dr. William Potter, acknowledging 

20 years of distinguished service to the cause of nonproliferation education 

at the Monterey Institute. 

CNS Director Bill Potter and President Sunder Ramaswamy 

at the CNS 20th Anniversary dinner 

Doris Lee Cooper Schulte—known to the Monterey Institute community as Lani, wife of longtime trustee 

Bernard (Buzz) Schulte—passed away peacefully at home in the San Francisco Bay Area on the morning 

of December 13th, surrounded by family and friends. 

Lani was born in New Jersey in 1946, but moved to Southern California at age 10, where she 

quickly fell in love with the beach, surf, and sun. She graduated from Sweetbriar College in Virginia with a BS 

degree in Political Science in 1968. Lani and Buzz were married for 40 years; they met at Harvard Business School 

in 1969 where she was an administrative assistant, and he was completing his MBA degree. Lani is also survived 

by her son Ben Schulte of San Francisco, and her daughter Dana S. Cooper, Dana’s husband Michael Cooper and her 

grandchildren Madeline and Jack Cooper of Wilsonville, Oregon. 

In 2008, Buzz and Lani established the Schulte Family Endowed Fund, building on their lengthy history of 

support for the Institute and our students. An accomplished athlete who was committed to public service, Lani 

was a great friend to the entire Monterey Institute community. Her quick wit, radiant personality, dazzling smile, and 

bright eyes will be missed by all who knew her.

Former Students Honor Legacy of Dr. Les Zambo 

A 

s professor of international 

finance, 

Dr. Les Zambo 

spent nearly 20 

years making 

international accounting and 

finance understandable, even 

fun for his students. “We all 

enjoyed his classes, though 

a few might complain about 

his tough exams. No doubt, 

we were stuffed with a whole 

bunch of techniques on how to 

muster and master money matters 

smartly; the rest he left for 

our self-made destiny,” wrote 

MIIS alumna Ongon (Jym) 

T 

he Institute is proud 

to partner with the 

U.S. Department 

of Veterans Affairs 

as a consortium 

school in the Yellow Ribbon 

GI Education Enhancement 

Program, which provides generous 

scholarship funding for 

qualifying veterans (and their 

spouses or dependents) who 

enroll at select institutions. 

During the first year, MIIS 

committed to partial scholarship 

support for up to 40 students. 

Matching funds from 

the Department of Veterans 

Affairs enables these veterans 

to attend with little to no cost. 

The Institute currently has 17 

Yellow Ribbon students. 

“We wanted to invest in 

this program for two reasons. 

First, MIIS is located in a 

community with a rich military 

history and active presence, 

and this is something 

tangible we can offer them,” 

Taechamahaphant (MBA ’90) 

from Bangkok, Thailand. 

Shortly after his death in 

2003, an endowed scholarship 

fund was established with gifts 

from friends, family, and alumni 

made in Professor Zambo’s 

memory, and matching contri- 

[ ] 

If you ask a MIIS International Management alum 

to reflect on Professor Zambo, 

I bet you would first get 

a big grin from that person. 

—Ongon (Jym) Taechamahaphant (MBA ’90) 

butions from Robert and 

Marilyn Fisher. To date, the 

fund has awarded scholarships 

to ten select MBA students 

from around the globe who 

intend to pursue a career in 

international finance or 

accounting. 

From Combat to Classroom 

MIIS Welcomes Yellow Ribbon Students 

explains Jill Stoffers, Director 

of Admissions. “Equally 

important, these students have 

field experience that is different 

than our typical student’s 

international knowledge. This 

kind of diversity—of thought 

and experience —is critical 

to the dialogue and learning 

encouraged in our courses.” 

While they share a connection 

to the military, even the 

Yellow Ribbon Scholars are a 

diverse group. 

Trevor Lanham is active 

duty Army and recently 

spent 15 months in Baghdad, 

Iraq. He started his degree in 

International Policy Studies, 

but hopes to transfer to the 

new Nonproliferation and 

Terrorism Studies degree in 

August. 

Rebecca Allen is the 

spouse of an active duty Air 

Force officer who is currently 

learning Arabic at the 

Defense Language Institute. 

Each year to celebrate 

Professor Zambo’s birthday, 

Professor Kathi Bailey contacts 

Les’ former students and offers 

to match all contributions to 

the scholarship fund made 

during the month of August. 

With this year’s contributions 

far exceeding previous years, 

Professor Bailey was joined 

by Les’ friend and colleague, 

Professor Ernie Scalberg, to 

match the $22,470 raised! 

“Les loved teaching at the 

Monterey Institute and was 

very proud of his students. 

Helping to build this scholarship 

fund in his honor has 

been a great source of joy to 

me since his untimely death. 

I deeply appreciate the commitment 

of his former students 

and other donors to help this 

fund grow. It is a fitting legacy 

to a good man,” said Professor 

Bailey. 

As an undergraduate, Rebecca 

studied business administration 

and later worked for 

JP Morgan Chase & Co. 

Anticipating her husband’s 

career abroad, she is now pursuing 

a TESOL degree. “I truly 

enjoy teaching and am looking 

forward to providing an educational 

experience for those 

living in our host nation who 

want to learn or improve their 

English skills.” 

Abate Mengesha grew up 

in Ethiopia and after college 

worked for the UN High 

Commissioner for Refugees 

as a social worker in Sudan. 

As a winner of the Diversity 

Immigrant Visa Program, he 

came to the U.S. and joined 

the Navy. His service included 

time on the USS Kitty Hawk 

and participation in Operation 

Iraqi Freedom. Abate is pursuing 

a Masters in Public 

Administration and plans to 

return to the developing world 

Les Zambo 

To make a gift to the Les 

Zambo Endowed Scholarship 

Fund, please contact 

Institutional Advancement at 

831-647-3595 or visit www. 

miis.edu/give. 

once he graduates. “So many 

people helped me get here. . . 

I’m hoping to get the skills and 

knowledge that will prepare 

me to go back and help,” he 

explains. 

For more information on 

the Yellow Ribbon Program, 

contact the Admissions Office 

at admissions@miis.edu or 

visit www.gibill.va.gov. 

Rebecca Allen, MATESOL ’11 


Six Months 

After Graduation, 

Alumna Interprets for 

President Clinton 

Like many of her fellow 

students in the Monterey 

Institute’s Conference 

Interpretation program, May 

2009 graduate Paula Manrique 

(CI ‘09) hoped that her international 

career would give her the 

opportunity to meet a variety 

of interesting people from different 

parts of the world while 

facilitating dialogue between 

them. She was delighted to 

learn that her first assignment 

with her new employer in Spain 

would be interpreting at a 

November 6 conference organized 

by the Andalusian School 

of Economics in Sevilla—and 

then startled to learn that she 

would be interpreting for the 

special guest featured at this 

conference of 700 businesspeople, 

former U.S. President 

Bill Clinton. 

Paula reports that despite 

a few pre-event butterflies, 

everything went very smoothly 

on the day of the event —as 

evidenced by the photo below! 

8 Communiqué 

MIIS in the Media 

T 

his past fall and 

winter found the 

Monterey Institute 

of International 

Studies and the 

James Martin Center for 

Nonproliferation Studies 

(CNS) popping up in all the 

usual media places, and more. 

Highlights included: 

• The New York Times 

mentioned the Institute and/ 

or CNS no less than four times 

in four months, in stories about 

U.S.–Russian arms talks, new 

proposals on biological weapons, 

the execution of Iraq’s 

“Chemical Ali,” and Google’s 

threat to pull out of China. 

Coming Soon: Full Integration with Middlebury 

After a five-year affiliation period, on July 1, 2010 the 

Monterey Institute will transition to full integration 

with Middlebury College. At that point, in legal terms 

the Institute will cease to be an independent 501(c) 

(3) organization and will formally become known as the 

Monterey Institute of International Studies, a graduate 

school of Middlebury College. The current Institute Board 

of Trustees will transition to a new Monterey Institute 

Board of Governors, appointed by the Middlebury College 

Board of Trustees. 

This milestone will be marked during the year by a 

series of events on both campuses, as well as alumni 

• The latter story came about 

after a Reuters reporter contacted 

the Institute seeking 

comment from our business 

program faculty. GSIPM Dean 

Yuwei Shi offered comments 

and the resulting story was 

picked up globally, beginning 

with the New York Times and 

including the Washington Post, 

Yahoo News, The Guardian 

in the United Kingdom, the 

Economic Times of India, and 

many others. 

• Fox News also featured comments 

from Fisher International 

MBA Professor Fredric Kropp 

on a story examining an upstart 

cellular company’s unique 

marketing plan. 

Trade Conference Spotlights Emerging Economies 

The Monterey Institute’s annual 

student-organized trade conference 

“Opportunities & Strategies in 

Emerging Economies,” scheduled 

for March 12, will feature comments 

from experts on the global trends 

shaping international trade policy, 

business innovation, and social 

ventures between emerging and 

developed economies. 

The conference keynote speakers 

are Dr. Robert A. Rogowsky, director 

of the U.S. International Trade 

Commission and a research fellow 

at the Independent Institute, and Dr. 

William W. Lewis, founder and former 

director of the McKinsey Global 

Institute and author of The Power 

of Productivity: Wealth, Poverty, 

and the Threat to Global Stability. 

Ambassador Alan Wolff, former U.S. 

Deputy Trade Representative and 

currently distinguished research 

professor at MIIS, will deliver closing 

remarks. 

Over the course of the day-long 

conference, panels will address 

four topics: “The Future of the 

Global Trading System: Emerging 

Economies’ Response”; “Trade & 

Development: Empowering the Base 

of the Pyramid”; “Carbon Markets: 

Developing Countries & the Next 

Clean Development Mechanism”; 

• In the aftermath of the Haiti 

earthquake, both local TV 

news and the local alternative 

weekly in Monterey mentioned 

the Institute’s Haiti connections, 

which include alumni 

working on relief efforts and 

a campus fundraising drive 

supporting relief efforts. 

The Institute and/or CNS 

received mentions in many 

other publications, including: 

the Los Angeles Times, 

San Francisco Chronicle, 

Philadelphia Inquirer, Associated 

Press, Reuters, Bloomberg 

News, Foreign Policy, and 

Congressional Quarterly Today. 

and “Financing for International 

Development Projects: Successes 

& Challenges.” The conference 

includes panelists from a wide 

range of government agencies in 

China, India, and the U.S., nongovernmental 

organizations, and the 

private sector. 

The conference is free for MIIS 

students, staff, and faculty, with a 

modest charge for non-MIIS attendees. 

Conference registration and 

ticket purchase are available online 

at http://miistradeconference2010. 

eventbrite.com. 

events in locations around the world. It will be accompanied 

by the introduction of multiple new joint efforts, 

including “4 + 1” BA/MA degree tracks such as the 

recently approved environmental studies / international 

environmental policy track. These and other efforts will 

build on ongoing collaborative initiatives such as faculty 

exchanges and the Monterey-Middlebury lecture series. 

Together, these initiatives promise to bring to life 

the shared Monterey-Middlebury vision of a combined 

institution with a global reach and impact, a truly global 

network of programs whose students are poised to be 

the solution to the world’s most pressing problems.

The MIIS–Midd Connection 

Michael Linehan: Seizing the Moment in Russia 

A 

fter completing 

his undergraduate 

degree at the 

University of 

Massachusetts at 

Amherst, Michael Linehan 

(MBA ’91) knew what he 

wanted to do next—simultaneously 

learn Russian and get 

an MBA that would prepare 

him to do business in what was 

then still the Soviet Union. 

The Monterey Institute was the 

only school that fit the bill. 

When exploring summer 

employment opportunities 

between his first and second 

years at MIIS, Linehan scoured 

the Wall Street Journal, the 

Economist, and other publications 

to compile a list 

of any company or entity 

doing business in the Soviet 

Union. There, he discovered 

the Geonomics Institute at 

Middlebury College, which was 

founded in 1987 to focus 

on accelerating economic and 

political transitions, with a 

particular emphasis on enterprise 

restructuring and business 

development, in the Soviet 

Union. 

Michael Claudon, 

Middlebury professor of economics 

and co-founder of the 

Geonomics Institute, remembers 

Linehan as “a creative 

hard-working part of the team 

who offered solid value-added 

experience to the execution of 

our mission.” Linehan is just 

as complimentary of Claudon 

and his work at the Institute: 

“He was very energetic and 

optimistic about the potential 

business opportunities with 

the Soviet Union, and from an 

economic perspective thought 

that there were lessons that 

could be learned from both 

sides. Working with representatives 

from Moscow’s Ministry 

of Law, we were charged with 

drafting a foreign investment 

Michael Linehan 

law that would help attract foreign 

capital, while protecting 

Russian interests. It was fascinating 

to try and meld Western 

economic principles with communist 

ideals into something 

that was actual practical: How 

do you create laws that allow 

foreign companies and their 

Russian partners to make profits 

in a planned economy that 

has no notion of profits, and 

instead functions on five-year 

government plans and fixed 

pricing?” 

Linehan entered his second 

year at MIIS even more enthusiastic 

about the business opportunities 

in the Soviet Union, 

although he knew that he would 

have to continue to call on his 

entrepreneurial nature. “There 

were still very few companies 

doing business there, so I knew 

that I would have to create 

something on my own. Business 

in what was to shortly become 

the former Soviet Union was 

simply chaotic. There was no 

market economy; everything 

had to be built from the ground 

up, from supply chains to business 

laws, to basic banking 

infrastructures, etc.” 

Following graduation in 

1991, Linehan landed in St. 

Petersburg, where he founded a 

joint venture trading company 

called Costa. Next, he went on 

to work for the George Sorosfunded 

Civic Education Project, 

which helped bring American 

faculty to the newly freed Baltic 

states to teach social science 

classes. From there, he helped 

launch a Moscow-based telecom 

company that focused on 

bringing satellite communications 

to Russia’s remote regions. 

Linehan eventually returned to 

the U.S. to work as a management 

consultant with a focus 

on emerging markets, and 

today he works for Ab Initio, 

a private software company 

that provides data processing 

solutions to Global 1000 

companies. 

Linehan believes that 

his combined MIIS and 

Middlebury experiences helped 

to give him a competitive edge. 

“There aren’t many schools 

that combine business acumen, 

language skills, and crossculturalawareness/communication—it’s 

important to have an 

institution that not only makes 

that possible, but understands 

the importance of leveraging 

those qualities together.” He 

also has some advice for students 

interested in business, be 

they at MIIS or Middlebury, 

“You have to create your own 

opportunities if you want to 

do something 

unique. If you’re 

doing the same 

thing that everyone 

else is doing, 

then it’s impossible 

to have 

a competitive 

edge.” 

GSTILE Fall Forum 

Showcases 

Interpreting Skills 

The annual Fall Forum hosted by 

the Institute’s Graduate School 

of Translation, Interpretation, 

and Language Education on 

November 6, 2009 chose a provocative 

theme: “Communication 

Through Technology.” The forum 

is a school-wide event that is 

masterminded, hosted, and 

interpreted entirely by secondyear 

translation and interpretation 

students to showcase their 

consecutive interpreting skills. 

Fifteen guest speakers presented 

at the event as 25 student interpreters 

practiced their consecutive 

interpreting skills. 

This year’s program kicked 

off with a series of position 

statements delivered in Chinese, 

French, Japanese, Korean, 

Russian, and Spanish, all 

of which were interpreted 

consecutively into English. 

Speakers’ concerns ranged from 

the pros and cons of social 

networking, privacy protection, 

state covert Internet surveillance, 

the role of technology in 

the classroom, identity theft, 

and the impact of technology on 

global climate change. These 

presentations were followed by 

a panel discussion on the same 

topics by speakers and panelists, 

all speaking their native 

language while being interpreted 

into English. The panel 

featured guest speakers from 

the Naval Postgraduate School, 

the Defense Language Institute, 

Google, the Stanford Hopkins 

Marine Station, as well as MIIS 

community members. 

GSTILE Fall Forum 


MIIS IN BRIEF 

• Before departing for three weeks 

in El Salvador, this year’s Team 

Monterey practicum participants 

(see article on page 3) received a 

briefing via Skype from Institute 

alumnus Nathan Weller (IEP ’08), 

who is now program and policy 

director for the Foundation for Self 

Sufficiency of Central America. 

Nathan had a wealth of useful, 

practical advice for class participants 

regarding project scoping and 

management, as well as what to 

expect when they arrived. 

• GSTILE celebrated the publication 

of Visiting Researcher Dr. 

Anthony Pym’s new book Exploring 

Translation Theories, already being 

referred to by colleagues as “one of 

the most essential books in translation 

studies.” In the book, Dr. Pym 

presents a survey of twentiethcentury 

linguistic approaches before 

moving on to more recent models. 

Each approach and its associated 

theories are addressed in turn, 

including equivalence, purpose, 

description, uncertainty, localization 

and cultural translation. 

• One of the Institute’s Hearst 

Foundation scholars, Kristyn 

Admire (MAIPS ’10), recently 

shared a comment that reinforces 

the sense of excitement surrounding 

the new MA in Nonproliferation 

and Terrorism Studies. Explaining 

why the Monterey Institute was 

her first choice of school, Kristyn 

reminded us that “Columbia and 

Georgetown have international 

security programs, but the Institute 

has the only counterterrorism 

program headed by a recognized 

expert in the field, Professor 

Jeffrey Bale.” Kristyn, who hails 

from Chicago and holds a degree 

in international relations from the 

University of North Texas, spent a 

year as an undergraduate in Cairo, 

where she studied Arabic and 

taught English. In Egypt, her students 

included local Copts as well 

as Iraqi and Sudanese refugees, 

and she has traveled throughout 

the Middle East. She also served as 

10 Communiqué 

a public relations intern at the U.S. 

Department of State, and hopes 

to return to government service or 

academia to specialize in counterterrorism 

research. 

• News arrived recently that alumnus 

Werner Romero (MAIPS ’93) 

who served as an economic attaché 

with the Embassy of El Salvador 

in Washington, DC for a number of 

years, was recently promoted to the 

rank of Ambassador to the United 

Kingdom. Warm congratulations, 

Mr. Ambassador! 

E 

• Longtime IPS Professor Nüket 

Kardam reports that she met with 

prospective students and MIIS 

alumni at the Fulbright Office in 

Ankara, Turkey on October 20. 

“It was really wonderful to get 

together again, and our alumni 

contributed valuable comments 

about their own experiences to the 

discussion.” Alumni in attendance 

were Sebnem Udum (MAIPS ’01), 

Omer Cebi (MPA ’97), and Evren 

Sarac (MAIPS ’03). The day before, 

former CNS staff member Mustafa 

Kibaroglu, who is now a faculty 

member at Bilkent University 

Ankara, attended Nüket’s session 

at the Middle East Technical 

University in Ankara. 

• GSTILE Russian T&I Coordinator 

Rosa Kavenoki shared with us 

the news that her former student 

Irina Yashkova (MATI–Russian 

’98) is now in charge of Russian 

Operations for TechTrans 

International, Inc. of Houston, TX. 

TechTrans is the principal contractor 

for NASA and Roskosmos 

that supports all U.S.–Russian 

joint space projects, including the 

International Space Station. 

• On October 9, GSIPM Professor 

Robert McCleery made a presentation 

titled “North American 

Integration: Future Directions” in a 

panel titled “Regional Integration 

& Economic Development” at the 

UCLA Institute for Research on 

Labor and Employment’s conference: 

Work and Inequality in the 

Global Economy. The conference 

focused on how NAFTA, China’s 

development, and multinational 

corporations like Wal-Mart are 

changing the face of work, labor 

relations, and the economies of 

the US, Mexico, and China. The 

presentation reflects work done 

jointly with GSIPM colleague 

Professor Fernando De Paolis, 

Raul Hinojosa Ojeda of UCLA, and 

Terrie Walmsley of Purdue. 

E 

Nüket Kardam 

• Aradhna Mathur (MAIEP ’07) 

recently had a paper she prepared 

for her International Professional 

Service Semester assignment 

published in The Journal of 

Environment & Development. 

Aradhna’s paper, titled “CITES and 

Livelihood: Converting Words Into 

Action,” focuses on the effects of 

the Convention on International 

Trade in Endangered Species of 

Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) on 

local populations and recommends 

further research on how the CITES 

regulatory framework affects the 

livelihoods of citizens. 

• As we know, MIIS faculty, 

alumni, and students are eminently 

quotable. In addition to 

serving as expert sources for 

reporters seeking comment, 

though, they also offer first-person 

commentary from time to time. 

On November 2, the Los Angeles 

Times published an op-ed piece 

authored by IPS Professor Moyara 

Ruehsen (“Afghanistan’s drug 

war: The farmers aren’t the 

enemy”) arguing that “We need 

to leave the farmers alone and 

focus our efforts on controlling 

Afghanistan’s border crossings, 

targeting both drug traffickers and 

militants.” 

A month prior to that, on October 

9, the San Francisco Examiner 

published an op-ed piece by alumnus 

Alex Lennartz (MAIPS ’09) 

in which he cast a critical eye on 

the Nobel Committee’s decision to 

award the Peace Prize to President 

Barack Obama after just eight 

months in office. 

• CNS Research Associate 

Johan Bergenas had a busy fall 

as well. In October, an opinion 

piece he wrote on efforts to curb 

E 

Johan Bergenas

Iran’s nuclear ambitions was 

published in Sweden’s leading 

newspaper, Svenska Dagbladet. 

Then in December, leading journal 

Foreign Policy published a piece 

he wrote defending the selection 

of President Barack Obama for 

the Nobel Peace Prize. (Perhaps 

a debate with Alex is in order?) 

And in January, United Kingdom 

newspaper The Guardian ran a 

piece Johan wrote criticizing the 

European Parliament’s “grilling” of 

the European Union’s new foreign 

policy chief. 

• A Christmas Day article in 

a Canadian newspaper helped 

to reconnect us with alumnus 

Lawrence Hislop (MAIEP ’97). 

Lawrence, always an avid photographer, 

has in recent years found a 

way to combine his two passions of 

international environmental policy 

and photography. After graduating, 

Lawrence worked for five years with 

the United Nations Environment 

Programme in Norway doing communications 

and environmental 

assessments. In 2003, Lawrence 

decided to focus on his photography 

for a time, and moved to the 

Vancouver area to set up a photography 

business. In 2008, though, 

the opportunity came to combine 

his two passions by becoming part 

of the United Nations’ Portraits of 

Resilience, an effort to put a human 

face on climate change. As part of 

Portraits of Resilience, Lawrence 

traveled to four small, mostly isolated 

communities: Shishmaref, 

Alaska; Uummannaq, Greenland; 

Lapland, Norway; and the Republic 

of Seychelles. In January, Lawrence 

returned to Norway to once again 

work with the United Nations 

Environment Programme as head 

of their polar program doing environmental 

assessment work in both 

polar regions. 

• IEP Adjunct Professor Geoff 

Dabelko and co-author Ken 

Conca recently oversaw publication 

of the fourth edition of their 

book Green Planet Blues: Four 

Decades of Global Environmental 

Politics by Westview Press. 

Professor Dabelko is teaching 

a course in Peacemaking & the 

Environment at MIIS this semester. 

• GSTILE Professor Kathi Bailey 

has been elected chair of the board 

of trustees of TIRF (The International 

Foundation for English Language 

Education). Professor Bailey will also 

serve as president of the charitable 

foundation, which raises funds for 

research, solicits and vets proposals, 

and disseminates the findings. 

TED, 

the well-regarded non-profit 

organization devoted to “Ideas 

Worth Spreading,” started out 

in 1984 as a conference bringing 

together people from three worlds: technology, entertainment, 

design. Since then its scope has steadily broadened. Along with 

the annual TED Conference in Long Beach, California, and the 

TEDGlobal conference in Oxford UK, TED includes the awardwinning 

TEDTalks video site, this year’s TEDIndia Conference, 

and the annual TED Prize. 

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED recently created 

TEDx, a program of local, independently organized events that 

bring people together to share a TED-like experience. On April 

16, the Monterey Institute will host TEDx Monterey, featuring 

E 

The current focus of the foundation 

is on creating and disseminating 

research evidence on the international 

role of English, to support 

best practices in the development 

of English language skills in today’s 

global society. For further information, 

visit www.tirfonline.org. 

• In fall 2009, Institute students 

Lars Stenberg Berg (MBA ’10), 

Christine Chau (MBA ’09), Sean 

Upton-McLaughlin (MBA ’09), and 

Dawei Wu (MBA ’10) traveled to 

China to present an International 

Business Plan for a technology 

incubator project located near 

Shanghai. The client’s goal was to 

Institute to Host TEDx Monterey April 16 

For more information about TEDx Monterey, 

visit www.tedxmonterey.org. 

establish economic sustainability 

in the region through high-tech 

innovation and industrialization; 

the IBP team’s goal was to develop 

research-based positioning and 

promotional strategies for the 

client. The project consumed the 

team for three straight months, 

but the biggest hurdles came as 

they closed in on the finish line. 

Three days before their scheduled 

departure for China, the client 

announced they wanted the 

entire presentation to be given in 

Chinese! Then, the night before 

the presentation, the team was 

informed by their new hosts that 

they wanted the content to be 

modified. Finally, as the team 

walked in the conference room the 

next morning after a long night 

of preparation, they were shocked 

to see approximately 70 local and 

regional government officials, as 

well as media personnel with video 

cameras. The unexpected turnout 

created, as Christine expressed it, 

an “out of body experience” for 

the team. Still, the team persisted 

and delivered a well-received 

presentation. 

• Can’t get enough MIIS news? 

Don’t forget to visit the newsroom at 

www.miis.edu/about/newsroom! 

a combination of live speakers and TEDTalks videos designed to 

spark deep discussion and connection among a small group of 200 

attendees. 

TEDx Monterey will feature speakers including Laura Lee 

Lienk, a science and environmental/watershed education specialist 

with CSU Monterey Bay and the Watershed Institute; Seth 

Raphael, a.k.a. “Magic Seth”, a technology magician with a bachelor’s 

degree in Magic and Technology from Hampshire College 

and a master’s in Wonder from MIT; Dr. Ramon Resa, a former 

child farm worker who grew up to become a pediatrician; Jose 

Soto, a community youth organizer who fights the gang violence 

that killed his son; Spector Dance Company, a local dance group 

that performs digital multimedia works that celebrate the local 

community; and more. 


Wanna Suksriboonamphai Cyclone Relief in Burma 

I 

n May of 2005, Wanna Suksriboonamphai received her 

master’s degree in International Policy Studies from the 

Monterey Institute of International Studies. Just three 

years later, the young graduate from Thailand was managing 

an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) 

cyclone relief operation in Burma (Myanmar), overseeing 

approximately 40 staff members and 60 field workers. 

A total of 140,000 died and 2.4 million people were affected 

by the 2008 cyclone in Burma. Wanna’s team was in charge of 

assisting 6,000 survivors in three village tracts in three townships 

in the devastated delta under the ASEAN Volunteer 

projects. She faced a situation where communications were cut 

or limited, there were no paved roads, children were without 

parents, and starvation threatened. Nonetheless, she was “very 

happy to be part of a humanitarian team” for whose help the villagers 

were incredibly grateful. “When I came to a village, the 

townspeople would hug me or hold my hand.” 

According to Wanna, by far the hardest part of the undertaking 

in totalitarian Burma was dealing with “the uncertain 

behavior of the Burmese leaders with whom I was negotiating. 

They would agree one day and then cancel the decision the next 

day. Their responses to our suggestions were ‘go’ and then ‘stop’ 

and then ‘maybe.’ Luckily, I learned a lot about nonverbal 

communication in my crosscultural communications class at 

MIIS, and so in meetings I was often able to read their intentions 

by looking at their eyes and watching their arm and hand 

movements.” 

CAROLIN FUCHS 

Munich to Monterey to New York 

As we all know, the world is only as 

small as one allows it to be . . . 

and for Carolin Fuchs (MATESOL 

’97), pushing boundaries is a daily 

requirement. For Carolin, enrolling 

in a translation program at the 

Munich Institute of Languages 

and Interpreting (Sprachen und 

Dolmetscherinstitut München (SDI)) 

would eventually lead her to a 

career teaching ESL/EFL teachers 

in New York. While this may not be 

the traditional path of most TESOL 

professionals, it is one common to 

MIIS alumni. 

Carolin’s talent in language 

acquisition had her thinking about 

a variety of careers where language 

12 Communiqué 

mattered. In Munich, the four-year 

program provided solid technical 

skills as a German-English trans- 

lator. Thanks to the recommendation 

of a favored teacher to 

consider the other side of the 

classroom—facing the students— 

Carolin researched, and was 

accepted at MIIS to pursue a TESOL 

degree and a TFL certificate, without 

any previous teaching experience. 

Little did Carolin imagine 

that she would end up teaching at 

the Institute, and connecting her 

MIIS students with their counterparts 

at SDI in Munich. 

As an adjunct professor in 

both English and German Studies 

MIIS MATTERS 

Wanna also observed that 

the Burmese people yearned 

for democracy and greatly 

admired the banned and martyred 

leader (and Nobel prize 

winner) Aung San Suu Kyi. 

“It made people fear danger 

to say her name out loud, so 

they just referred to her as 

‘the lady.’ Yet, the Myanmar 

people are among the kindest 

and purest people on earth.” 

Before going to Burma, 

Wanna served as an officer in 

Science and Technology for 

ASEAN in their headquarters 

Wanna Suksriboonamphai 

in Jarkarta, Indonesia. Prior to 

that, she was an assistant program 

director at Thailand’s well-regarded Mahidol University. 

Wanna praised the Monterey Institute for how well it prepared 

her for her duties in Burma. She said, “I learned negotiation 

skills and intercultural understanding and about Asian politics 

from Professor Akaha and Professor Grothe. In short, I learned 

many very practical skills at MIIS and, of course, I was exposed to 

a great diversity of cultures!” 

Wanna’s next goal is to study for a Ph.D. in “applied policy” 

so that she can mix academic life with international activism 

and problem-solving in developing nations. 

at MIIS, Carolin conducted recruiting 

trips to Germany and strongly 

promoted the use of technology in 

the classroom for language use. 

While teaching at MIIS, Carolin 

was also enrolled in the Computer- 

Assisted Language Learning (CALL) 

certificate. By 2001, it was clear 

that the next step was a Ph.D. and, 

thanks to a prior project at MIIS, 

her dissertation topic on connecting 

classrooms via technology was 

ready to go. Carolin completed her 

Ph.D. at the Institut für Anglistik 

(Department of English Studies), 

Justus-Liebig Universität Gießen 

in 2005, then lectured in German 

at the University of California, 

Berkeley, and taught collegelevel 

writing courses online for 

the University of Phoenix, before 

starting her current position in the 

TESOL/Applied Linguistics Program 

at Teachers College, Columbia 

University, New York in 2007. 

(Coincidentally, Teachers College 

has supplied MIIS with three wellknown 

TESOL faculty: Bob Oprandy, 

Lynn Goldstein, and Martha Clark 

Cummings). 

Carolin’s students reflect her 

former MIIS students, with a large 

international student population, 

a community of well-travelled 

U.S. students, an emphasis on 

student-teaching advising, and

Alumni Profiles 

Annie LaTour Trading Dairy Queen for HIV/AIDS Program Evaluation 

Agraduate of the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, 

Minnesota, Annie LaTour (MAIEP ’02) spent the years 

immediately following her graduation on the road for 

Dairy Queen corporate offices, managing the launch of 

new franchises throughout the United States. While working on a 

store on the Central Coast, LaTour saw the sign for the Monterey 

Institute of International Studies and decided to pull over. 

“I always thought I wanted to pursue a career in international 

business,” said LaTour, “which is what my undergrad degree was 

in, but I realized while working at Dairy Queen that corporate life 

wasn’t for me. I just wasn’t sure which direction I wanted to take. 

And then I saw the sign. Literally! Stopping at MIIS that day was 

definitely the best decision I ever made.” 

LaTour began the IEP program in the fall of 2000 and completed 

an internship with the United Nations Population Fund 

in Bolivia during the summer of 2001. That experience and a 

conversation with Professor Ed Laurance led to her participation 

in the Institute’s first International Professional Service Semester 

(IPSS) in the spring of 2002. Placed with the HIV/AIDS Bureau 

within the Fund (UNFPA) in New York, her interests quickly 

broadened beyond environmental policy, “HIV/AIDS programs 

were really just beginning to be implemented on a large scale and 

it was very exciting to be part of the planning. There was a need 

for people to look specifically at how to monitor and evaluate the 

programs, which was very appealing to me given my business background 

and my newly found focus on development through MIIS.” 

Carolin Fuchs 

small classes. Her coursework 

this semester includes CALL and 

Integrated Skills Practicum, a 

couple of workshops, as well as 

extensive classroom observation 

time. She credits her Curriculum 

Design project at MIIS as a 

reminder of the value of authentic 

assignments, and continues that 

process in her own course development. 

She also still quotes Professor 

Leo van Lier’s words of wisdom to 

her own students, “Pedagogy first, 

curriculum second, computers 

last.” 

Carolin remains committed 

to working with her colleagues in 

Europe to expose student teachers 

After graduating from the Institute, LaTour continued her 

work on HIV/AIDS—first with the U.S. State Department and 

now for the Washington, D.C. Department of Health, where she 

is director of monitoring and evaluation for HIV/AIDS, “Working 

on monitoring and evaluation for HIV/AIDS programs has been 

very fulfilling and my experience at MIIS was key to getting me 

where I am currently.” 

to different perspectives to enhancing 

their technological skills— 

bringing Ning, Google, Moodle, and 

e-portfolios into her curriculum. 

In addition to her time in New York, 

Carolin has conducted CALL training 

in Jordan (2009), will co-host 

a socio-cultural theory conference 

in 2010, and has published/ 

co-authored more than 20 articles. 

When asked what propelled Carolin 

through her years of teacher training, 

she replied, “ I remember 

the wise words of an advisor… 

‘the only job you cannot get is the 

one you have not applied for.’ Be 

adventurous and think big,” she 

adds, when asked for words of 

Annie LaTour, right, and students in Durban, Sourth Africa 

[ ] 

Stopping at MIIS that day was definitely the best decision I ever made. 

wisdom for students enrolled at 

GSTILE. The capacity to think big 

has served this Monterey Institute 

alumna well, and she continues 

to build links between her native 

Germany and Europe, her MIIS 

colleagues and experience, and 

her work today in New York. 


460 Pierce Street 

Monterey, CA 93940 

CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED 

IT’S MAGIC! 

TURN YOUR GIFT INTO $500,000 FOR MIIS! 

NONPROFIT 

U.S. POSTAGE 

PAID 

MONTEREY, CA 

PERMIT NO. 22 

Between now and June 30th, a generous donor will match all 

gifts made to support current-use financial aid, up to a total 

of $500,000. 

You can make your own magic happen. Visit www.miis.edu/giving 

and click on “Make a gift.” Your contribution will be put to use 

right away, providing financial aid for close to 700 deserving 

MIIS students.

Winter 2010 In this Issue - Monterey Institute of International Studies

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?