I initially discovered the ICE program when I found a list of International Education graduate programs on the NAFSA website. I was looking for a program after I had graduated with a Bachelor’s in International Relations and Spanish and was considering a Master’s program. As I was debating on when to apply to the program, I ended up getting a full-time job opportunity at Indiana University first, then began the ICE program in the Spring 2019 term while working full-time. I will continue working at Indiana University and hope to move up as an advisor in a higher education institution.

I am a first-year graduate student, and I just finished my first semester in the ICE program. I come from China and I finished my studies from primary school to university in China, but the past semester has given me a completely different experience.

For international students, the ICE program is challenging but exciting. Here, I have greater freedom to choose my research direction and get more resources to support my study. In the ICE program, I had the opportunity to get the guidance of many excellent professors, to study the research on education in different countries, and to study with students from all over the world.

In the Fall of 2019, I joined ICE as a Master’s student who has six years of experience, teaching in middle and high schools in India. When I was planning to come back into academics, the Education programs at IUB were on top of my wish list. I felt a compelling need to rekindle my learning venture out of a true concern for the role of our educators to uphold the true spirit of enlightenment through education.