Dear Colleagues and Friends,
Greetings from Northern California and welcome to our first-ever International Office Consulting quarterly newsletter!
I have been fortunate to be part of a community of international education professionals for over 10 years. When I joined ISSS at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, I found my career niche as a SEVIS Coordinator/Database Specialist. When I moved from Illinois to California, I continued my work through SISS at University of California, Davis. In addition to the flamboyance of our ISSO spirit and culture, the thing that I love the most about us is our resilience. Resilience is defined as the ability to recover from misfortune, to overcome adversity. We continue to face daunting challenges. Yet, together, we find a way to help one another and keep our ISSS ships afloat.
A couple of years ago, I decided to pursue my dream of being a CEO. I always dreamt that one day I would start up a business. In January 2017 I was a little fledgling perched on the edge of my nest and wanted to jump out and see if I could fly. I jumped, and it was terrifying! And, yet, as scary as it was, jumping out of that nest was one of the best decisions of my life! Why? I realized that unless I am uncomfortable, I am not really doing my favorite thing which is being and becoming. I started out with two clients. I have many people in each of those international offices and others around the country to thank for believing and investing in me.
I realized immediately that I needed help to run a business. So, then, I asked a colleague Steve Sevic if he would like to consult with me. Thankfully, he said yes! By fall, we had 4 clients, and I formed International Database Experts, LLC. Jason Rowe, Charlie Hammons, Casey Dague, Steve and I formed a team. Steve created business cards for us. He put my title as CEO! Thank you Steve for deciding I was CEO-worthy and for sticking with me through thick and thin! Steve became our CTO, and Jason stepped up as COO. Jason has taken our company to a whole new level with his unique combination of people, technical and project management skills.
Over the course of a year, some of our team left, others joined and we decided to change our name to International Office Consulting to better reflect the broader nature of our services. As of this newsletter, our team includes: Jason Rowe, Steven Sevic, Thomas Stockwell, Cindy Nair, Lucy Zoe, Bryant Tonkin, Karen Chevrier, Naoko Ishida, Samrat Ghosh, Ryan Pham and Ricky Duong. Meet our team. We currently offer our services to more than 10 universities.
Jason, Karen and Jodi are looking forward to seeing many of you at NAFSA Annual Conference in Washington DC In DC! On the evening of Thursday, May 30th, our IOC team will be hosting an exclusive event for our clients and prospective clients. Please RSVP. The place and time will be announced before the NAFSA conference. I hope you enjoy our first newsletter.
Thank you to all who have believed in and supported me on this journey!
Jodi, CEO