Advocacy in New and Strange Times
Advocacy in New and Strange Times
March 22, 2020
By: Anne K.W. Richardson
The American School in London
I was going to write about NACAC's Advocacy Day.
Two weeks ago, this is what advocacy looked like for me. I was spending my Sunday in Washington DC with college admissions counselors and college/university counselors from across the world, preparing to go to Capitol Hill on Monday to meet with House and Senate members and their aides, to remind them about the importance of international students in higher education – the many and extraordinary benefits they bring to campuses, classrooms, residence halls, surrounding towns and cities. In cold hard cash, international students inject over $50 billion each year to US states. But they do so much more – and I include here all of our students who have grown up abroad. Their presence contributes to and expands the cultural competency and global outlook of all, really so much more valuable and lasting than all of those dollars. In our many visits on Monday, crisscrossing the Capitol, from Dirksen to Longworth, many listened - some more attentively and closely than others - to this strong advocacy for international students.