We chose the Finalists from among all of the entries, and the judges chose the final winners. Viewer voting determined the Viewer's Choice Award winner, and that winner was also automatically a Finalist.
Check out this top line-up of international educators, supporters and travelers to see who picked the 2021 Travel Video Contest winners.
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Matt Brattin discovered InternationalStudent.com in 2006 while searching for scholarship money to help fund his international MBA. He had recently been accepted to attend ESADE Business School in Barcelona, Spain when he stumbled across the first annual video travel contest and decided to give it a shot. He's glad he did, because his entry earned him the grand prize which he gleefully accepted to help fund his trip abroad. Since graduating from ESADE in mid-2007 Matt has been working in corporate finance and analytics across several industries, including travel, and credits his international experience for helping him launch such a great career.
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Sandy Florez is the winner of International Student's 2009 travel video contest. In the summer of 2010, she traveled to Italy, Greece, Spain, Morocco and France. After graduating from the University of Miami, she pursued a career in advertising and brand strategy. She has since traded the long hours and pitches for an adventure out East! She currently lives in Guangzhou, China with her husband helping Chinese brands market themselves overseas. For now, she enjoys living in the future and practicing her Mandarin at the local veggie market. Although she could have never guessed she’d go from “ciao” to “nihao”, her motto remains the same: nothing ventured, nothing gained.
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Dana Brolley is the Director of International of International Services at the University of Idaho and previously was the Assistant Director of the Center for International Education at the University of Washington, Bothell. She has a Master's in Education from the University of Washington and an undergraduate degree in Anthropology. Dana was IEM KC Chair 2019 and has served NAFSA as Region I Chair, International Enrollment Management KC Rep, Trainer Corp member and has presented at numerous regional and national conferences. Her areas of interest include student mobility trends, educating women, campus internationalization, and policy development. She has worked in international education for over 18 years as an instructor, advisor, recruiter, and leader. She was awarded the Presidential Silver award for her volunteer work with USAID in Moldova and Zimbabwe, has taught English in Hungary, and has worked, lived and traveled in over 50 countries.
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Mina Morgan is the President at The Language Company in the Corporate Office located in Edmond, Oklahoma. Her responsibilities include sales, marketing, client services, and student advisement. She has worked to support the cultural and English language immersion mission of TLC for the last 16 years. With that experience, she has grown to truly understand the value of quality English as a second language instruction and how it can change an international student's life by setting the foundation to succeed in whatever the student's future academic or career goals may be.
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Sherif Barsoum is the Associate Vice President for Global Services at New York University, previously he was the Director of ISSS at Vanderbilt university from 2007-2015. He has been in the field of International Education for 25 years, with 13 of those spent as Assistant Director of the International Office at The Ohio State University. A two-time graduate of Ohio State University, he received his Master's degree in Higher Education Administration and is now working on an EdD through the University of Alabama. Originally from Cairo, Egypt, Sherif is well traveled, and has developed a world-wide network of colleagues through his executive position in NAFSA as Vice President of Public Policy and Practice. He enjoys leading cross-cultural workshops and inter-cultural programming. He is a strong advocate of Study Abroad and international exchange. He also leads short term academic programs to Egypt and Morocco as well as service learning programs to South Africa.
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Troy Peden is one of the original founders of GoAbroad.com, began design and research for the site while heading the study abroad program at the University of Colorado at Denver. Troy studied deaf education at Illinois State University and worked with handicapped refugees in Europe for the completion of his practical training. Troy earned a graduate degree in International Studies at the University of Colorado at Denver. He has continued his studies via a doctoral program in education policy. In addition, Troy has directed several non-profit international organizations. His extensive travel has included study, work and volunteering abroad throughout Europe and Russia, Africa, Latin America, and Asia.
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Ruth Kamona is the University Director for International Student and Scholar Services at the City University of New York. She oversees the distribution of university resources and materials, and the conceptualization of services for the University's international student population. In this capacity, Ruth is responsible for the oversight of the institutional immigration regulatory compliance mandated by the federal government and the institutional polices; conceptualization and provision of critical high quality support services integral to the academic success of approximately 10,000 international students enrolled throughout the University system; and developing strategies and policies designed to promote international students' retention. Furthermore, she is responsible for identifying and coordinating professional development opportunities for the university's international student administrators.
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Dr. Cory Owen is the Associate Dean of Students at Yale-NUS College in Singapore where about half of the students are international. Her passion for globalisation stems from growing up with her Korean mother and Peruvian father. She has served in NAFSA leadership roles at the state, regional, and national level. She received her BA in English from Texas A&M University, her MA in Literature from the University of Houston - Clear Lake, and her EdD in Higher Education Administration and Supervision from the University of Houston. Her dissertation focused on the how the model minority myth impacts anxiety and stress among Asian American students.
