Belmont University | FYI


September 28, 2007

It's All Belmont To Me - Belmont FYI Feature Profile of the Week


Make It Seamless

Maggie Monteverde resize.jpgThis week’s Belmont FYI feature profile of the week, Maggie Monteverde, wears many hats and has been a part of the Belmont community for nearly twenty years. She was nominated for the fourth guiding principle – Make it Seamless – for her work as Associate Dean of the School of Humanities, Coordinator for Study Abroad Programs, Belmont representative to the Board of the Cooperative Center for Study Abroad and professor of English.

Maggie says she cannot envision living without teaching, but it’s her work with study abroad that is most rewarding because her own study abroad experience in college was the most important educational experience of her life. “I love being able to help other people have overseas opportunities,” Maggie said. “There’s also a lot of problem solving involved in getting students from the desire to the reality, and I enjoy being able to use my own experience to help students through the complexities of doing study abroad.”

Maggie hopes she makes the study abroad process seamless by developing clear directions for students, taking them through the process and trying to anticipate places where confusion might arise. “I don’t think it is really possible to make some types of processes seamless,” Maggie said. “Seams happen at intersections of separate pieces of fabric, where planes shift, levels change, different materials must come together: they give a garment shape, for example. However, I do think you can make these transition points hold together rather than pull apart by anticipating the stress points and, at the very least, warning people about them so they can adjust their behavior and, at best, transferring some of the stress from them to you. I guess that’s what I try to do.”

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Do you know a Belmont employee who embodies one of the five Guiding Principles? Nominate them for a Belmont FYI Feature Profile of the Week! Please send their name and a brief description of how they meet the criteria to the It's All Belmont to Me Committee for consideration.

To read more about Belmont's new service initiative, click here to view the "It's All Belmont to Me" Web site. This Web site will explain the history, training and other elements of this program.





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