Intercultural Communication Institute

The SIIC Intern Program offers an opportunity to explore the field of intercultural communication, to assess career direction, to commit to a personal intercultural practice, and to learn about intercultural team development by working directly with other interns, SIIC staff, and faculty. This is one of two SIIC programs that has a formal selection procedure. Approximately thirty interns will be chosen for 2008. Criteria for selection are:

Some basic knowledge of the intercultural field
Professional experience or at least graduate student status
Commitment to a career in the fields related to intercultural relations
Enthusiasm for working in a support/service capacity, while also learning at the Institute

During the Intern Session preceding SIIC, interns receive professional development in multicultural team processes based on the practice of Personal Leadership. There is a strong emphasis on collaborative learning, and a rare opportunity for diverse individuals with a common interest to explore the role of intercultural communication in their lives.

During Sessions I and II, interns participate in a workshop while also providing logistic and other assistance to the workshop faculty. In Session II, they have the opportunity to discuss design and group process issues with the faculty. In addition, interns support SIIC in a variety of roles from set-up and hosting, to assisting participants in the library and bookstore.

Financially, the SIIC internship represents a significant tuition discount. Interns pay reduced tuition, room, and board for the first week of the Intern Program, which includes the multicultural team training with the intern faculty, as well as for Sessions I and II. The internship is a combination of a mentoring program and a chance to get a different and more extensive behind-the-scenes Institute experience.

The total cost for interns (tuition and room and board for the whole internship program) is $2500. Interns should arrive no later than 6:00 p.m. Wednesday evening, July 2, and depart no sooner than Saturday afternoon, July 19. Application forms, available from ICI, can also be downloaded. The deadline for early acceptance, particularly for international applicants needing visas, is Monday, May 5, 2008. Applications will be accepted until Wednesday, May 21, 2008.

Intern Program Faculty: Barbara Schaetti and Gordon Watanabe

Dr. Barbara F. Schaetti is managing director and a founding partner of Personal Leadership Seminars, and faculty member of the ICI/University of the Pacific’s Master of Arts in Intercultural Relations. As a coach and consultant to individuals, teams, and communities around the world, she facilitates life-practices and interaction strategies that engender intercultural competence. Her background includes multicultural community mediation, corporate diversity training, and expatriate and repatriate family services. Barbara is a dual national of the U.S. and Switzerland; she lived in ten countries on five continents during the first twenty-two years of her life.

Dr. Gordon C. Watanabe is a founding partner of Personal Leadership Seminars, consults in corporate and state organizational settings on diversity and intercultural competence, and is a professor emeritus and former special assistant to the president for intercultural relations at Whitworth University. He focuses on the role of deep self-understanding in successful cross-cultural negotiations and intercultural team-building. Gordon was initiated as a meditation teacher in 2000, and now offers energy meditation seminars. He has taught middle school biology and teacher education, and advised and counseled college-level international, study abroad, and minority students.

Barbara and Gordon are co-authors, along with Sheila Ramsey, of Making a World of Difference, Personal Leadership: A Methodology of Two Principles and Six Practices.

Returning Intern Program Faculty: Nancy O’Brien and Sherwood Smith

Nancy O’Brien is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Educational Policy and Administration at the University of Minnesota. She is adjunct faculty at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she teaches intercultural communication courses. She has lived and worked abroad, teaching and training in Japan, Germany, and England, where her clients included Nara Medical University, BMW, and Siemens. Recently, she coordinated a new Ph.D. international seminar focused on higher education systems across European countries. Nancy also assists with the implementation of the Master of Arts in Intercultural Relations summer residency program at ICI.

Dr. Sherwood Smith works as both the director for the Center for Cultural Pluralism and as a lecturer in the Integrated Professional Studies and Educational Foundations at the University of Vermont. He has been a Peace Corps Volunteer in Tanzania, adjunct faculty for the School for International Training’s college program in Kenya, and assistant director of residence life at Pennsylvania State University. He has traveled and worked in Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Europe, and the Americas.