Category Archives: About Jayne

Greetings from Budapest

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Greetings from Budapest, Hungary. It’s my second trip to Hungary (the first was on the back of a motorcycle), but first trip to Budapest. My dog is from Hungary, which I love to tell people for some reason…

I’m here to conduct an all-day onsite workshop and engage in some one-on-one consulting regarding business planning, donor relations and creating revenue streams for education advising centers throughout Eastern and Western Europe affiliated with EducationUSA, a global network supported by the U.S. Department of State. The center representatives I will be presenting to are from Azerbaijan, Lithuania, Cyprus, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, Portugal, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Ukraine and the UK (the centers are usually staffed by local people, not Americans). I did similar workshops, more focused on strategic planning, program credibility and transparency, in Belgrade, Serbia. Dec. 2009 for with centers based throughout the Balkans.

EducationUSA is a global network of more than 400 advising centers supported by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) at the U.S. Department of State. “EducationUSA centers actively promote U.S. higher education around the world by offering accurate, unbiased, comprehensive, objective and timely information about educational institutions in the United States and guidance to qualified individuals on how best to access those opportunities. Millions of prospective students learn about U.S. study opportunities through EducationUSA centers each year. Centers are staffed by professional advisers, many of whom have first-hand experience having studied in the United States themselves, adhere to ethical standards, and/or have received State Department-approved training about U.S. higher education and the advising process.” EducationUSA centers also advise U.S. colleges and universities about options for developing study programs in other countries. EducationUSA advisers work in a variety of host institutions, such as Fulbright Commissions, NGOs, U.S. embassies and consulates, bi-national centers, universities, and public libraries.

How did I get associated with EducationUSA? Through my association with the amazing Ann Merrill, whose “Giving the Wrong Way” blog I featured a while back. Ann is Mary Merrill‘s daughter.

Photos will be uploaded after I return to the USA in a week.

And now, back to enjoying CNN International, which is not shown in most of the USA for some silly reason…

In Budapest soon & looking for more European gigs

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It’s looking very likely I will be in Budapest in late January 2011 to perform some training (more on that as details emerge). I would be happy to stick around Europe for a week or even two for other training gigs. If you are in Europe and are interested in booking me for a training the first or second week of February, please contact me.

While most of my training and consulting gigs still come from outside the USA, even though I live in the USA now, in the last 14 months, I’ve done more training presentations locally, in the place I’ve living, than I have ever done in more than 15 years of training — including when I lived in Austin, Texas. Currently, I’m living in the Pacific Northwest, between Salem and Portland, Oregon, and so far, since moving to this part of the world, I’ve done trainings for the Nonprofit Network Southwest Washington in Vancouver, for HandsOn/United Way of the Mid-Willamette Valley in Salem, the Oregon Commission for Voluntary Action & Service/Oregon Volunteers/AmeriCorps, Friends of Family Farmers, Qwest Pioneers Volunteer Network, the Northwest Oregon Volunteer Administrators Association (NOVAA), and the Portland Hostels.

Thank you, Oregon and Washington!