Panel to Discuss International Career Opportunities on Nov. 6

CORTLAND, NY (10/30/2013)(readMedia)-- Five professionals who chose an international career will share their knowledge with the campus and community in a panel presentation on Wednesday, Nov. 6, at SUNY Cortland.

Sponsored by the College's International Studies Program and the James M. Clark Center for International Education, the event will take place from 4:30 to 6 p.m. in Moffett Center, Room 2125.

The event is free and open to the public and geared to college students enrolled in all majors.

The "Panel on Careers in International Studies" program continues SUNY Cortland's International Celebration Month 2013 series, which runs through Nov. 20.

"Come learn about career opportunities in international studies," said Alexandru Balas, the Clark Center director and an assistant professor of international studies. "Gain personal insight on what could get you an internationally related job. Learn about personal stories of people who have international careers. What did they do to get international jobs? What should you do to get a similar job?"

The panel consists of:

• Peter Castro, an associate professor in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, who is familiar with development aid work in Africa;

• Michael Goldman, a graduate student at SUNY Cortland, who can share information on Peace Corps opportunities;

• David Hempson, the senior vice president of business development with Marietta Corp, who is versed in the functions of a multinational corporation;

• Tracy Marvin, an instructor in English as a second language (ESL) at Cornell University and TC3, who can talk about opportunities for teaching ESL abroad; and,

• Mary Schlarb, director of SUNY Cortland's International Programs Office, who can discuss internationalization positions in academia.

Castro is an applied cultural anthropologist with research interests in the fields of rural development planning, natural resource management, agriculture, conflict management, rural socioeconomic change, climate change and the history of applied anthropology. Most of his fieldwork experience is in the East African countries of Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. He recently co-edited Climate Change and Threatened Communities: Vulnerability, Capacity, and Action, published by Practical Action. From 1999 to 2007, he was part of the BASIS Greater Horn of Africa Collaborative Research Support Program's project on food security and livelihoods in South Wollo and Oromia Zones of Amhara Region in Ethiopia. He has worked with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on natural resource conflict management, including developing training materials and editing case studies.

Goldman earned a Bachelor of Science in Geography from Ohio University in 2010 and is currently a graduate student in outdoor and environmental education at SUNY Cortland. After he graduated from Ohio University, he served in the United States Peace Corps in Senegal as an urban and peri-urban agricultural specialist teaching sustainable urban gardening techniques to the host country nationals. He also hosted a science education radio show focusing on making science fun for students outside the classroom. Goldman aspires to a career with the National Park Service or at a nature center as an environmental educator.

Hempson left his original profession as a high school science teacher from 1976 to 1981 in Skaneateles, N.Y., to take on the challenges associated with the growth of a young but upcoming business, Marietta Packaging Corporation. He joined Marietta in 1981 as director of quality assurance and in 1986 was promoted to be the company's chief operations officer. In 2006, Hempson took a new direction as Marietta's senior vice president of business development.

Marvin has taught ESL courses in Spain and the U.S. for the past 10 years. She currently teaches a graduate writing course for ESL students at Cornell University. She earned a Master of Arts in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and taught there for five years. Marvin also taught for one year at St. Michael's College in Vermont and last year at DePaul University in Chicago.

Schlarb joined SUNY Cortland's International Programs Office in 2010 and has directed the office since 2011. Her international experience includes work with Volunteers in Asia (VIA) in Indonesia, the United Nation's FAO in Italy, and the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation in the Philippines. She has published and presented both nationally and internationally. Schlarb previously served as assistant director of Syracuse University's Slutzker Center for International Services and assistant director of Cornell University's International Students and Scholars Office. She has a Master of Professional Studies in International Agriculture and Rural Development from Cornell University and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from Stanford University.

For more information, contact Balas at alexandru.balas@cortland.edu or 607-753-2250.

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