1. What's at the top of your to-do list?
Image caption: Scott King in Mason Hall
Image credit: Will Kirk / Johns Hopkins University
Finding creative ways to serve the diverse population of OISSS Homewood. We work with students at all levels as well as professors and researchers who come to Hopkins for any length of time, from a few weeks to an entire career. Our clients are from dozens of countries and are located at Hopkins facilities throughout the Baltimore and Washington areas. We always have to ask if we are providing the support needed, and have to find ways to use technology without losing the personal connection that is so important when working across cultures.
2. What keeps you up at night?
Satisfying our legal reporting requirements to the Department of Homeland Security through its SEVIS database. We send over 8,000 "events" to SEVIS annually—arrival validation, semester registration, changes of address or program of study, extensions of stay in the U.S.—and an error in any one of these reports could potentially jeopardize a student's or scholar's legal status.
3. What's in store 10 years from now?
Since there is always change in global affairs, we'll likely see an increase in activity from a region or country that isn't so dominant today ... but who knows what that location will be? That's part of the excitement of being in this profession.
4. Tell me something I don't know about Johns Hopkins.
An exciting change in the coming year is a centralization of international student and scholar services. Currently, OISSS Homewood is one of five international services offices, with the others at JHMI, Peabody, Carey, and SAIS. This new structure is going to help us be more efficient and responsive.
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