Jennie Kent: Educate Abroad

A Conversation with Jennie Kent: Educate Abroad

What is Educate Abroad?
Educate Abroad is an educational consulting company located in Bogotá, Colombia that assists and provides independent advising for families and students in Latin America who are interested in exploring educational opportunities overseas.

Why did you found Educate Abroad?
Having lived in foreign countries for my entire adult life, I know first-hand how difficult it can be to move to a new country and live in another culture and language. When you are a foreigner, everything is new and people often assume that you know and understand more than you actually do. In reality, there is a huge lack of knowledge and uncertainty about what is expected of you and how things work. Foreign educational systems and the admissions process, in particular, can be very complex and families need clear guidance and sound answers to their questions. While some schools have the resources to provide assistance, many do not have college counselors so families are largely on their own. Educate Abroad exists to provide families with the explanations, guidance and information that they need.

What challenges have you found helping international families?
My aim is to provide admission offices with insight into local schools and Latin American culture and provide families with information about the uniqueness of each school, college or university and what it has to offer. There are so many excellent options that families have never heard of and getting them to consider these for their students can be challenging. Along the same lines, admissions officers sometimes need to know more about a school that a student is coming from, particularly if there is no counselor at that school to explain the system to them, so I work with the student and teach them how to self advocate. I want to serve as a bridge between families and educational institutions so that each student’s needs are better met while abroad.

What do you offer families that is unique?
Fully fluent in both English and Spanish, I am able to summarize and offer clear and succinct explanations and answers to families’ questions in their first language. As an internationally acclaimed author for children and teens, I know how to communicate with adolescents and put them at ease, calming their anxieties during what can often be a stressful process and, having attended both boarding school and college in the United States and adapting to several foreign countries as a young adult, I am able to share my experiences with students and have them feel comfortable expressing their fears and concerns. Also, as a mother of four multicultural teenagers, I understand parental concerns when sending a child abroad to study and the importance of placing them in an educational environment where they can have a successful experience.

What are your goals?
My goal for the student is to help them gain a better understanding of whom they are, identify what they want to achieve, and then help them to get there. I also hope to demystify the admissions process and help each student find a program where they can thrive and grow. The student should ultimately be in a better position after working with me than they would have been before.

What services do you provide?
Educate Abroad helps families to identify and evaluate options for summer and gap year programs, prep schools, colleges or universities and navigate the admissions process in order to arrive at an individually tailored best fit, both financially, emotionally and academically, for each student.

How do you help students?
Whether it is through review of academic achievement, a personality assessment, honing interview skills or essay coaching, I provide individualized attention through one-on-one interviews and meetings, in person or via Internet, with students and parents. Together we evaluate goals and I help orient families, providing current information about programs and the education sector abroad.

With everything that is happening in education, how do you stay current?
I am a member of the Overseas Association for College Admission Counseling, the National Association for College Admission Counseling, the Higher Education Consultants Association, and an associate member of The Association of Boarding Schools and the Independent Educational Consultant’s Association. I attend at least 5 professional conferences during the year to network with colleagues and admission officials and visit school and college campuses as often as possible to get a better feel for the individual culture of each institution.

Jennie Kent
jk@educateabroad.co
+57.311.278.7977