Maggie Coffin

Before attending the International and Comparative Education (ICE) program at Stanford, I worked for a study abroad program in South India. After studying abroad in India, Italy, Jamaica and Thailand myself, this position afforded me the opportunity to help American students navigate their own semesters abroad. Through my own experiences abroad as well as my interactions with the students that I mentored, I began to question the impact that cultural exchange programs have on the local community and the engaged students. While I believed in the value of cross-cultural education, I did not have the training to assess the varied impacts of such programs.

Looking to equip myself with the tools to evaluate the impacts of cross-cultural programs, I came to the ICE program at Stanford. The ICE program pushed me to consider the theoretical framework within which I framed my queries as well as taught me the research skills necessary to consider how to measure program impacts. The MA paper was an incredible opportunity to apply my learned skills to my areas of interest. In researching and writing this paper, the continued feedback from ICE faculty and the input of my interdisciplinary peer group in the program, helped to make the MA paper a defining piece of my education.

After completing my degree at Stanford, I began working in global health education at UCSF. The ICE program prepared me with the background necessary to monitor and evaluate the impacts of the education programs on which I currently work.