December 2021
CALENDAR
DECEMBER
23-31
UCEAP Systemwide Office closed
JANUARY
24
International Day of Education
uceap spotlight
uceap spotlight
UCEAP Health and Safety Course Gets International eLearning Award
The UCEAP Health and Safety Course ranked third place in the International eLearning Excellence Awards in October 2021.
The award was administered by a panel of international academic eLearning judges. A case history documenting the UCEAP Health and Safety Course initiative—authored by Kate de Blanc, Carrie Kapp, Shannon Krahn, and Yeana Lam—was competitively rated against 30 other eLearning projects prior to moving into a finalist round of 10 and participating in presentations during the 20th Annual European Conference for eLearning.
This achievement reflects the collaborative effort from 80+ course stakeholders and supporters within the UC system.
UCEAP NEWS
UCEAP NEWS
Video Compilation Highlights Student Journey Series
In 2021, UCEAP launched a series of videos on study abroad.
The videos appeared in the Viewbook, UCEAP YouTube channel, UCEAPulse, and the website—including the home page, 2021 Study Abroad Fair page, Paying for Study Abroad page, and experience pages. The UCEAP Student Journey, a video compilation, now offers a quick glimpse at the videos produced.
- Why Study Abroad
- Paying for Study Abroad
- Choosing a Study Abroad Program
- UCEAP Internship and Research Opportunities
- UCEAP Study Abroad Experience Types
UCEAP NEWS
UCEAP NEWS
Internship Awards Are Back!
With the return of students to study abroad, UCEAP will relaunch the Internship Awards, which recognize students' successes and accomplishments while interning abroad or virtually.
To help UC students reflect on those experiences, UCEAP asks them to write an essay highlighting the benefits they can use in interviews, cover letters, and graduate school applications.
The Internship Awards are open to UCEAP returnees, and the winners receive $500. Their stories are shared with the UCEAP community.
IT NEWS
IT NEWS
UCEAP Portal Updates Planned for December
The Student Application Refactor is nearly complete! The refactor is primarily an update to the student application. These updates lay the foundation to create improved user experiences for students and staff in the new year.
The Student Application Refactor deployment will be from 5 pm December 22-31. The UCEAP Portal will be unavailable to all users during this time. This deployment will be longer than usual due to migrating all existing applications, over 44,000, to the new application model. Additionally, once the data migration is complete, we will need extensive testing to confirm the deployment and migration were successful.
Students have received an email about the outage as well as tasks they can complete during the time the portal is offline. A notice also appears on the UCEAP website homepage.
Improvements and changes with the completion of the Student Application Refactor include:
- Update to the new application model.
- The reorder of questions to improve the application experience.
- Faster transitions between the various tabs of the application.
- Upgrade to the Drupal Media Library for all document uploads and management.
- The ability to build a Power BI report indicating recent document uploads to students' applications.
- A batch action when bulk applying finance package budgets to a cohort of students (fixing existing timeout issues).
You will continue to access the current model reports—however, data will not be updated beyond December 22 until the deployment is completed.
If you have questions, please contact myeaphelpdesk@uceap.universityofcalifornia.edu.
STAFF UPDATES
STAFF UPDATES
Eva Bilandzia
Eva Bilandzia is returning to UCEAP from retirement to work on special projects, primarily for academics.
Eva retired from UCEAP in July 2019 after serving as an academic specialist for 14 years—most recently focused on Asia and Oceania. She’ll be working with the program teams and their respective academic specialists.
Eva retired from UCEAP in July 2019 after serving as an academic specialist for 14 years—most recently focused on Asia and Oceania. She’ll be working with the program teams and their respective academic specialists.
Pamela Shaw
Pamela Shaw, international program specialist, has left UCEAP to join EF Education First as their business development manager.
Her last day with UCEAP was December 2. Pamela originally worked with UCEAP on an 8-month contract coverage position in 2016 and returned full time in 2018. Since that time, she worked with students, campuses, study centers, and partners in Argentina, Barbados, Brazil, Canada, Chile, the Dominican Republic, and Italy/Spain multi-sites. Pamela also served on numerous committees and work groups, including the Recruitment and Retention Taskforce, the Web Governance Council, and the Marketing Committee. Pamela previously worked with EF Education First for a decade prior to working with UCEAP.
Michelle Hertig
After 19 years, Michelle Hertig will retire from UCEAP in January 2022.
Michelle first started at UCEAP in the Travel Department in December 2002. She then moved to Operations five years later, as a program advisor, where she worked for 14 years. Michelle served on many UCEAP committees, organized trainings, and, most importantly, she has advised, guided, and helped UCEAP change the lives of thousands of students who have studied in China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Michelle plans to move to a 7-acre riverside property on the Oregon coast to live a greener life planting trees and preserving the land’s inhabitants. Michelle’s last day in the office was December 2.
Opportunities
UCEAP has two academic positions open at the UCEAP Systemwide Office and in Spain. Please consider applying or encourage colleagues to apply.
- UCEAP Associate Dean
- UC Faculty Director in Spain for fall term residency
See staff career opportunities at the UCEAP Systemwide Office in Goleta, Calif.
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