AIFS (American Institute for Foreign Study) Abroad and the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) have named Gonzalo Villena, Director of Study Abroad at CSI’s Center for Global Engagement as a 2025 Ping Taylor Fellow, which provides him with a grant to attend The Forum on Education Abroad’s 2025 Conference in Toronto this spring.
According to the CIEE Website, “The Ping Taylor Professional Fellows Grant program is named to honor the iconic American educator and former chair of CIEE, Dr. Charles Ping, and the founder of AIFS, Sir Cyril Taylor. Dr. Ping and Sir Taylor devoted their professional careers to international education and exchange, with a special focus on mentoring and developing exceptional leaders to expand the field and its advancement of world peace.”
Commenting on his receipt of the award, Villena said, “The College of Staten Island has been selected among seven other U.S. universities to receive this grant, being the only one in the state of New York to receive such award for this conference. This is a significant opportunity for the study abroad office at the Center for Global Engagement to work on professional development, be up to date on the new study abroad and international education trends, and make new connections to develop more and better programs for CSI and CUNY students. As a Director of Study Abroad at CSI, this provides an opportunity to share insightful ideas with other leading partners, learn what they are doing in international education, how they design and implement study abroad or internship programs, and how to improve the management of our area. I feel honored to represent CSI and CUNY in this conference.”
Stephen Ferst, the Director of the Center for Global Engagement, noted, “I am so delighted that Gonzalo Villena has been awarded the Ping Taylor Fellowship to attend the Forum on Education Abroad Conference in Toronto, CA. The opportunity to attend one of the major conferences in Education Abroad will allow CSI to foster and create new programming for CSI students to study at locations across the globe. The connections Gonzalo will make as a Ping Taylor Fellow will enable CSI to create new opportunities for our faculty to expand their global contacts.”
Villena has been working in international education since 2009, traveling around the world, and when he became Director of the English Language Institute (ELI) at CSI in 2017, he used his network and experience to improve the Institute. Thanks to CSI’s efforts, the local and international ELI student community has seen its English language skills improve.
Commenting on this achievement, Villena stated, “I feel proud I was able to see this progress, see many students back in their countries with better job opportunities, and see local students in Staten Island find better jobs, apply to CSI and CUNY degrees, or improve their acclimatization in the U.S. When I started as Director of Study Abroad in 2021, it was a great challenge to manage the relaunch of study abroad programs after the pandemic, but now we are working on expanding new faculty-led programs, internships, and new overseas partnerships.”
