I was very fortunate to have been introduced to the International Comparative Education program early in my undergraduate career at Stanford. As a Public Policy major, I had the opportunity to explore my education policy interests through classes in the Stanford School of Education (SUSE), allowing me to meet students who shared their experiences and shaped my interests with their insights. I knew that I loved studying education and chose to explore it through various angles. I volunteered in nearby East Palo Alto as a writing tutor for four years, recruited students for Teach For America as a campaign manager, interned at a non-profit organization in Amman, Jordan for a program aimed at expanding education to Iraqi refugees, and assessed a school district's curriculum regarding environment science education for a senior project. While these events moved me to embrace my growing interests in teaching, international education policy, and education in post-conflict regions, I was ultimately left searching for a way to marry my interests. [more...]

Growing up in the Greater Los Angeles area gave me the opportunity to study with students from diverse nationalities. My interest in multiculturalism and international education led me to seek a position as an International Programs Counselor at the UCLA Education Abroad Program.   I had the privilege of aiding undergraduate and graduate students plan their studies abroad.  I also coordinated a Peer Advisor program made up of EAP alumni and visiting international students.  Speaking to the students was enriching as they all learned different lessons on the meaning of study abroad.  Although I thoroughly enjoyed my job and I learned so much in the field of study abroad, I wanted to further my studies in the field of international education. [more...]

I began my Masters work in the International Comparative Education program (ICE) during my senior year at Stanford. As an undergraduate, I designed and conducted a three-year independent research project focused on understanding both the performance gap, as well as government efforts to address it, between Aboriginal and non-indigenous students in Australian schools. I spent two consecutive summers in Australia on Stanford research grants collecting data and working with individuals and institutes at the government, school, and community levels. Last year, I completed an Honors thesis through the School of Education during my senior year, and I am now in my co-terminal year completing the ICE Masters program. My Masters research still focuses on indigenous academic underperformance but takes a broader approach, considering the extent to which cross-cultural connections can be made among English-speaking countries facing similar problems of indigenous under-performance in their school systems (specifically Maori in New Zealand, Native Americans in Canada, and Aboriginal groups in Australia). [more...]

Before coming to Stanford, I was an English literature major in Peking University, where, beside reading lots of Shakespeare, Byron and Dickenson, I pursued a minor in Psychology, interned in an investment bank, captained the basketball team of my school and spent most of my spare time traveling, both domestically and abroad. I always believed the importance of seeing the world by learning to look at it from different perspectives, and consequently joined an NGO in 2005 and taught English in southwest rural China during summer vacations of 2005 and 2006. By becoming familiar with the regional disparities in China and various educational systems all over the world, I developed an interest in comparative education with an international view. I am proud of being admitted to the Stanford ICE master's program, since it is one of the best in US. With 14 classmates from different countries and diverse cultural backgrounds, we have fascinating classes and discussions, because students share educational issues from their own countries, which makes this program dynamic.

Jamie Quevedo
ICE '07

Before coming to Stanford, I worked in publishing after graduating with an undergraduate degree in industrial engineering in my home country, Colombia. My last project was in Mexico, working as a project manager for my publishing company’s division of children’s educational magazines. I was responsible for the profitability and strategic planning, and lead the sales team that introduced our reading animation project in private elementary schools. This experience was crucial in my decision of pursuing graduate studies in education and Stanford’s ICE program immediately caught my attention.

SUSE is without doubt one of the best schools of Education in the world. We have access to an incredible amount of informational resources and the faculty is known worldwide for their research and contributions to their fields. The ICE program is both rigid, with a few well-selected required courses, and flexible, so that students can fulfill the program requirements with courses of their interests from and beyond the School of Education. The fact that there are only 15 students in this program allows for personal attention from faculty. My colleagues and I come from many countries and we have different backgrounds. This provides an incredible and stimulating learning environment. I’m positive that any prospective student, whether research, practitioner, non-profit or policy-oriented, will find the ICE master’s program to be a most rewarding experience.