4/21/2023 Higher Ed Pathways to Immigration: Why it Matters webinar

Higher Ed Pathways to Immigration: Why it Matters
Friday, April 21, 2023, from 9 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. ET 
Sponsor: Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration
Resister: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_gPJ1T2CETtWQxxTJ7FojGw

Our country has the great opportunity to welcome students, scholars, and leaders from around the globe to our campuses. As the Biden Administration seeks to build on the strength of immigrant contributions to our knowledge-based economy, we know that colleges and universities serve as critically important pathways for immigration and for immigrant integration, mobility, and success. But we also know that these pathways are not as straightforward as they need to be if we are to maintain our global competitiveness, and our immigration laws and policies desperately need modernization if we are to allow all immigrants to reach their limitless potential. This half-day event will illuminate higher education’s role in facilitating immigration pathways, developing talent and potential, and reducing barriers to integration and naturalization.

Agenda:

Panel One: "An American Story: Higher Ed and Immigration" -

Panel Two: "Overcoming Barriers to Citizenship and Immigrant Inclusion"

Featured Speakers Include: - Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, Chancellor, UMass-Boston - Pam Eddinger, President, Bunker Hill Community College - Javier Reyes, Incoming Chancellor, UMass-Amherst - Carola Suárez-Orozco, Director, Harvard Immigration Initiative, and Professor in Residence, Harvard Graduate School of Education - Mary Waters, PVK Professor of Arts and Sciences and the John L. Loeb Professor of Sociology, Harvard University - Esther Benjamin, CEO and Executive Director of World Education Services - Adam Hunter, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Immigration Policy at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) - Eva Millona, Chief, Office of Citizenship, Partnership, and Engagement (OCPE), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services - Patricia Sobalvarro, Executive Director, Agencia ALPHA - Nancy Ramirez-Palencia, Graduate Student, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Comments

An excellent webinar!  Some educators may shy away from this webinar, but I encourage you not to miss it, especially when you consider that many immigrants enter higher ed through non-credit ESL programs and continue their journey through IET/IELCE programs to a Bachelor's Degree and beyond. The first panel discussed how colleges and universities facilitate immigrant integration.  The second panel wrestled with how the higher ed community can effect change to immigration policy through advocacy and inclusion.  I especially appreciated comments from the second panel about how the dynamic how America change immigrants and how immigrants change America.  I 

The panels' speaker bios are posted here.

A video of the panel will be posted to the Presidents' Alliance YouTube channel.