MC has 145,000 readers with first ever press release

Joanne Chrystal, INTO Scotland's Marketing and Communications Coordinator, hit a target of 145k readers last week in the Glasgow Evening Times with her first ever press release.

Joanne, who joined the Centre six months ago, crafted the article in support of GCU's widening participation agenda and was keen to highlight the support that INTO Scotland gives to the local community.

The press release was about how Kirsty-Louise Johnstone, 23, who suffered a brain injury at a very young age, joined INTO Scotland on a work placement from the Prince's Trust programme and how that work placement inspired Kirsty to start her own business.

Centre Director, Brenda McMahon, said "I'm delighted with Joanne's contribution to the Centre since joining us and especially with this article. GCU leads the way in widening access to the community to raise aspirations of young people and INTO Scotland is very keen to support our Joint Venture partner in this."

UEA London member of staff receives award

INTO UEA London are delighted to announce that Gemma Bayliss has won an award from the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals.

The award's aim is to encourage library and information practitioners in the FE, HE and research sector who are at the start of their professional careers or who have not previously published a substantial contribution to the professional literature to write an article for publication.

Click here for more information on the award.

Heat wave in US prompts outdoor Fourth of July celebrations

While most of the United States was experiencing an extreme heat wave, INTO North America's San Diego office took advantage of the beautiful weather by hosting a beach potluck. Putting an historic feud aside, both Brits and Americans came together to celebrate the Fourth of July at Fletcher's Cove in Solana Beach on Monday, July 2.

The beachfront picnic table was lined with hamburgers, hotdogs, potato and green bean salad, guacamole and many, many bags of chips! The meal only started with the BBQ, as the meats were followed by sweet treats: cupcake s'mores and tres leches cake (a Latin American sponge cake soaked in three kinds of milk). After basking in the sun and filling up on food and conversation, the San Diego group waddled back to the office for some hard work, where they continued to snack on the leftovers for two days.

Click here to see photos.

INTO staff bump into David Beckham

A dinner meeting of INTO North America employees in Portland, Oregon this week took a decidedly exciting turn when none other than David Beckham and fellow LA Galaxy teammates sat down for dinner at an adjacent table. INTO SVP and General Counsel, MJ Miller, is seen here with the soccer star.

"I hope my affection for Mr. Beckham displays my ongoing commitment to forging meaningful relationships across the Atlantic!" she said afterwards.

Click here to see Beckham and MJ.

Theresa's background includes a twenty-year run as a Business Development professional for several global Fortune 500 companies beginning at Burns Philp Company ltd. of Queensland, Australia for South Pacific Island territories.

Theresa continued introducing US products and services in Japan as Global Business Development Manager At SUPERVALU Inc. (NYSE: SVU) and began consulting for small and mid-sized US startup companies helping expand their global presence. Theresa joined Hong Kong Telecom's Pacific Century Cyber Works as Assistant Vice President, North America in 1999 until 9/11, when she relocated to San Diego and shifted her focus to supporting nonprofit organisations and institutions of higher education in their quest for sustainability.

Most recently, she has supported University of California, San Diego's (UCSD) Department of Resource Management and Planning and School of Engineering to develop and manage programs that encourage entrepreneurship and bring industry to campus. Theresa received her Master's Degree in International Relations from Boston University and a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology from Purdue University. She is a competitive sailor and a passionate intercultural program volunteer.

Tamara Burns is the new Marketing and Communications Coordinator for INTO Colorado State University. Tamara earned her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing, a minor in Spanish, and an International Business Certificate from Colorado State University.

While completing her undergraduate degree, she studied abroad in Seville, Spain, where she found a love for traveling and learning about other cultures. After taking a year off to travel through the United States, Europe, and South America, she began a job with a software company as the Marketing and Client Relations Manager.

After two years, she began working at Colorado State University OnlinePlus, which promoted CSU's online and distance programs across the United States. During her three and a half years at CSU OnlinePlus, Tamara also earned her Master of Business Administration at CSU, which included a two-week trip to China. At INTO CSU, Tamara will focus on gathering information and creating materials to help recruit international students.

Jennifer has previously worked in UK and International Student Recruitment for Liverpool John Moores and Edge Hill Universities and most recently in Marketing and Recruitment for St Andrews at the Centre for International Foundation Programmes, where she played the "William and Kate met here" card wherever possible to attract students.

As well as extolling the many virtues of Manchester and of INTO Manchester, she will be using the Rooney and Balotelli cards for Manchester in the coming months as she gets out and about to meet you and our agents and will be awarding a special prize to the most inventive suggestion from the GRU team as to what those cards could actually say. Closing date for this competition is 10.00am Monday to allow all colleagues in the GRU network to participate!

Lory-Ann has spent the last 18 years working at several public and private universities, including University of Florida, Dartmouth College, Mount Holyoke College, and University of Massachusetts, to implement and develop diverse learning communities.

At Colorado State University, Lory-Ann helped to create and expand several academic learning communities which connected groups of students living in the same residence halls and who were taking between 1-3 classes together with an upper class Mentor to guide them.

Lory-Ann has a Masters of Counselor Education from the University of Florida and a Masters of Social Justice Education form the University of Massachusetts. She is presenting writing her dissertation on student transition and sense of belonging within the Organizational Performance and Change graduate program at Colorado State. As a first generation American and College student, Lory-Ann is committed to student access and retention.

Katharine "Kate" Wormus currently serves as the Housing Assignments and Arrivals Coordinator for INTO Colorado State University, where she earned a M.S. in Student Affairs in Higher Education in 2010. She graduated summa cum laude in International Affairs and French from the University of Maine in 2002 after studying in Quebec, Canada and Angers, France.

Between her degrees, she worked as a French teacher and disability support professional in secondary education. Author of Considering Students with Families in Higher Education" (Journal of Student Affairs, 2009), Katharine has also presented at regional and national conferences for the National Association for College Admission Counseling, the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) and NASPA the association for Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education.

Katharine has specialised in working with both international and multiracial populations, including Global Nomads and Third Culture Kids. In 2007, Katharine founded both Shades of CSU, an organisation for multiracial students and the Global Ambassadors Program, an international speaker's bureau that has provided outreach to nearly 8,000 public school children. She serves on the board for the Fort Collins International Center and is a mentor for the NASPA Undergraduate Fellows Program. Though she is originally from the state of Maine, Katharine has lived in Fort Collins, Colorado for almost two decades where she resides with her two sons, Braden age 13 and Evan, age 6.

Regina has worked for the Colorado State University Intensive English Program since 1991 as the Office Manager and Foreign Student Advisor. Regina received her B.S. in Accounting in 1984 and is originally from Oklahoma. She has lived in Colorado since 1984. Outside of work she keeps busy with her son.

Beth has been teaching English to international students, supervising teachers, and developing curriculum in the Intensive English Program at Colorado State University since 2005, and she loves what she does. Growing up in a military family, she lived and travelled all around the world, including Korea, England, and Costa Rica. She earned her B.A. in English from CSU and her M.A. in TESOL from the School for International Training. In her free time, Beth loves reading, listening to music, doing yoga, and spending time with her husband, son, and two dogs.

An administrator and teacher at the IEP (soon to be the Academic English Program) since 1991, Margie has been the Director of the Intensive English Program since 2002. She is excited to be moving to the position of Director of English Language Programs with the new INTO CSU partnership. Margie has a Masters degree in Language and Literature and experience teaching at every level of education.

When she's not with her students or colleagues, Margie is outdoors biking, hiking, cross-country skiing, or playing tennis. She and her family love to travel and have had several adventures biking through other parts of the world. She invites all of you to come visit Colorado with its incredible mountain views and abundant sunshine!

I am re-igniting the finance side of my career after a long stint of managing the design, test and implementation of technical systems. I have a varied background in financial, operational, technical and project management and analysis. My MBA from George Washington University prepared me well as my career has spanned a myriad of industries as large manufacturing, distribution, engineering, GIS, data management, telecommunications, SAN, and background case processing.

In my spare time, I enjoy mountain biking, hiking, cooking and home improvement projects. I am excited about joining the INTO team, jumping into the higher education industry, helping the Intensive English Program achieve greater success, contributing to Colorado State University, and being part of the greater Fort Collins community!