Maryland International Education Day
Maryland International Education Day is MIEC’s flagship annual event in which our members and invited guests come together on (or around) April 26th to highlight our collaborative initiatives, hear from higher education leaders, network with peers in the field, as well as state, federal, and embassy officials, and celebrate international education in the state of Maryland! We have been observing Maryland International Education Day since 2018, and look forward to many more.
2025
We celebrated our 7th annual Maryland International Education Day at Coppin State University on April 25th!
We thank Rosanna Mantova from the Maryland Secretary of State Office for reading the Governor's Proclamation declaring April 26th as Maryland International Education Day, and Secretary of the Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC), Sanjay K. Rai, for serving as our keynote speaker. Dr. Rai reflected on his personal experiences as a former international student and immigrant to the U.S., and highlighted that if international students in Maryland made up their own campus, at 22,000 it would be the third-largest in the state!
We are so grateful to Coppin for hosting this event, and to Coppin President Anthony L. Jenkins and Coppin AVP James Stewart for welcoming us to their campus. Our President, Rachel Scholten (Loyola) spoke at the event on the importance of community and solidarity during challenging times. We had a wonderful panel discussion with Rosie Verratti (Howard CC), Nellie Pharr-Maleta (CCBC), Moriah Ray (Morgan State), and Jale Aldemir (Coppin), followed by a delicious lunch with robust conversations with our fellow international educators.
Many thanks to our planning committee who made the whole day possible: Lombuso Khoza, PhD (Howard CC), Loretta Mask Campbell & Carla Tyree (Coppin), Danielle Bolden (UMBC), Robert Nettey (Morgan), and Kristin Clarkson (MHEC)!
2024
Maryland’s Governor has once again issued an official Governor’s Proclamation declaring April 26, 2024 to be Maryland International Education Day. This year we gathered to observe the event with a celebration of our students’ voices, featuring videos and live panelists of international and study abroad students from our member institutions, sharing their stories on the transformative experience that international education brings, and highlighting the many opportunities offered by our members! We were honored to have Dr. Sanjay Rai, Acting Secretary of Maryland Higher Education Commission, deliver the keynote speech, and to have Michael Lore, Esq., Maryland Deputy Secretary of State read the Governor’s Proclamation. We thank Dr. Emily Dow, Assistant Secretary of Academic Affairs at MHEC and our students for serving on the panel, and our member institution Towson University for hosting! Check out the video below for highlights from our event celebrating the day, and visit our Past Events page to read more about the event and to see photos! Video Credit: Sydney Avelino.
2023
On April 26, 2023 MIEC hosted our 5th annual Maryland International Education Day event “Refugees and Maryland Higher Education: Challenges, Pathways, and Support.” Maryland has been actively receiving and welcoming new refugees for resettlement, and these populations tend to have unique challenges to enrolling in higher education. It is important for our higher education community to consider how we can support these new arrivals and help them access college and university studies here in our state. The virtual event featured a panel of experts including Laura Wagner from the President’s Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, Daniel Jacoby and Betty Symington from the Episcopal Refugee and Immigrant Center Alliance, and Rishan Habte from the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services.
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2022
Our theme this year was “Looking Forward: Trends and Opportunities for Global Education in Maryland".” Our featured speakers included Dr. Robert Summers, Vice Provost for International Affairs at Middle Tennessee State University and Vice Chair of Certification commission of AIRC, and Joe Morrison, CEO of Concourse Global. The speakers addressed current and valuable trends in global education, including new and emerging challenges to student recruitment, and offered innovative solutions for higher education institutions to develop and sustain growth strategies. We held breakout rooms to explore challenges, opportunities, and innovations among our member institutions and invited guests.
2021
Our Maryland International Education Day event this year was online, and focused on the theme “Post-COVID Horizons: Strengthening and Re-imagining Collaborations in International Education”. James Fielder, Secretary of the Maryland Higher Education Commission, opened the event with a welcome, and Dr. Elaine Meyer-Lee, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at Goucher College and former President of NAFSA, provided a keynote speech. Dr. David Di Maria, SIO and AVP for International Education at UMBC moderated a panel discussion by international education professionals, followed by breakout rooms for further conversations.
2020
Due to the emergent and unprecedented nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, plans for this year’s Maryland International Education Day have been cancelled. We look forward to next year!
2019
Our second annual celebration of Maryland International Education Day took place at Montgomery College’s Germantown Campus, and featured leaders in higher education, local and federal government, and Maryland industries. The focus of the event this year was “Development of Globally Competent Students and Workforce in the State of Maryland." The reception was held in conjunction with a professional development conference.
2018
Maryland Governor Larry Hogan issued a proclamation declaring April 26, 2018 as Maryland International Education Day! We celebrated at Towson University with an inaugural Maryland International Education Day event the included a ribbon cutting, student fair, and reception! We were delighted to host Maryland Secretary of State John Wobensmith and Secretary of the Maryland Higher Education Commission, James Fielder, along with nearly 100 other attendees and celebrants.
