Every conference I attend, whether NAFSA, OACAC or NACAC, the question of whether Catholic Colleges and Universities should bother recruiting in the Middle East comes up consistently.  I am always baffled by the question, as I would expect Catholic institutions would be more aware of the long history of Catholic and Jesuit education in the Middle East.  I have also heard counselors discouraging Catholic schools from recruiting in the region and all I can say is that they are wrong.

I was thrilled to see this article in today’s Washington Post and hope you will enjoy reading it as well:

Enrollment of Muslim students is growing at Catholic colleges in U.S.: Washington Post

Catholic Universities who have traveled with us to the region, including DePaul University, Loyola Marymount University, Ohio Wesleyan University, have always seen a great deal of success in recruiting students from the area. The students are attracted to the universities for their education, campus life, diversity, and majors – just like at any other school.  A few times I have been asked whether they will be required to pray at Church, which of course is not the case at these universities. This is a simple misconception that a few of the students may have, but the overwhelming number do not connect the university with religion.

I do still discourage universities with a more overt religious mission from recruiting in the area, having required Chapel or Bible study classes will not be encouraging to potential students in the region and I would doubt the universities would see a good return on their travel budget.

Now I have to go dig up that old photo of the Jesuit priest (Father) from Massachusetts playing baseball at Baghdad College in the late 1950′s to share with you all. Its why my dad still cheers for the Boston Red Sox, to the chagrin of my Cardinals loving husband!

With our Fall 2010 fair already full and on track, I am already getting excited about our March 2010 tour. Its always great to go back to the Middle East, but in the Spring we will be heading into Central Asia as well. Personally, I can’t wait to go back to Almaty, Kazakhstan – but I’m not sure if I will make it on a roller coaster again this time. The students we met last March were amazing, intelligent, and very excited to speak with US colleges and universities.

I received these photos via twitter (thanks @gordon_ryan) and had to share them with you all. You will not believe these amazing shots of Uzbekistan, Dagestan, Bukhara, Russia are 100 years old. The photography is amazing, as is the use of color photography which was so primitive at that time.

http://bit.ly/dkEPPD

Hope you enjoy them & consider visiting some of these countries with us in the Spring!

Amman, Jordan March 27th
Manama, Bahrain March 29th
Kuwait City, Kuwait March 31st
Dubai, UAE April 2nd
Almaty, Kazakhstan April 5th
Baku, Azerbaijan April 7th

Wassan

Finally arrived in Boston for the OACAC BOS10 – Overseas Association for College Admission Counseling Conference. Traffic delays brought me into the city well past midnight, and onto the Northeastern campus at almost 1.30am. I remembered that the last email from the OACAC team had mentioned an iPhone App, since I didn’t have my agenda on me, I quickly downloaded it in the hopes it would actually be, you know, helpful.

Wow, thanks so much to the web development team at Northeaststern for putting the tjme into developing the rockin’ OACAC BOS10 conference app for the iPhone. A simple to use interface allows even the frazzled traveler to stay organized. The interface and nice and simple:

Screenshot - OACAC BOS10 App

The agenda is easy to access, each session is listed on there, and all the pretty social media icons are easy to access (facebook, twitter, flickr).  Be sure to properly tag the conference if you will be tweeting with the #BOS10 hashtag (however, I think lots of people will just use the #OACAC10 hashtag as well).

Screenshot - Sessions

The *only* item I would have added would have been a campus map – or maybe that was only needed while searching for the housing dorm at 1.30am after arriving on that much delayed flight.

NAFSA better not have ANY excuses for not having an app available for next year’s conference!

If you didn’t already download it, what are you waiting for?! See you all in a few hours!

The PR office at NYU Abu Dhabi must have been working overtime this weekend, articles in both the New York Times & Inside Higher Ed this morning talk about the mix of students making up the inaugural class. US Educational Group is proud to have been part of the recruitment effort!

N.Y.U. Abu Dhabi Scours Globe for Top Students

The Worlds Honor College?

NYU Abu Dhabi recruiting with US Educational Group

NYU Abu Dhabi - working on those High School students!