Skip to main content

International Educators Meet at Mississippi College


Mississippi College Office of Global Education Director Mei-Chi Piletz and staff members Jenny Price and Wen Weng. Price serves as secretary-treasurer of the Mississippi Association of International Educators.

Immigration rules, global recruitment, and ensuring English proficiency for international students are among the topics at a two-day conference at Mississippi College.

About 50 international educators at Mississippi universities, colleges and secondary schools will attend the meetings on the Clinton campus February 20-21. The Mississippi Association of International Educators will convene its annual conference at MC for the first time.

St. Andrews Episcopal School, Piney Woods School, Mississippi College, Mississippi State, the University of Mississippi, Southern Miss, Meridian Community College and Hinds Community College are among the institutions represented. “Globalizing Mississippi” is the conference theme.

“The common goals among all of these schools is to increase international student enrollment, further internationalize our campuses and better serve the international student population,” says Jenny Price of MC’s Office of Global Education. She serves as secretary-treasurer of the statewide association.

Mississippi College enrolls 252 international students from 26 nations, including China, India, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia.

About 2,500 international students attend higher education institutions in the Magnolia State.

“Mississippi should be a top destination for international students,” says MAIE Chair Andrienne Graham.

While many international students enroll at universities in big cities like New York, Boston, Chicago, Washington and Los Angeles, there are plenty of attractive academic programs in Mississippi, says Graham. She serves as director of international student scholar services at Jackson State University.

Last fall, there were about 820,000 international students attending USA universities led by 236,000 from China. That’s about double the number of students from No. 2 India.

The conference will focus on ways to reach and recruit international students through websites and other avenues.

Often, international students attend a USA university “where their friends are or where their family is,” Graham said.

Coordinating with the Study Mississippi organization, the conference begins with a 7:30 a.m. registration and breakfast on Thursday February 20 at the B.C. Rogers Student Center.

For more information, contact Jenny Price at MC’s Office of Global Education at 601.925.7700 or price01@mc.edu