How is it already the end of August?! It feels like just yesterday that we held our July happy hour at Vapianos, but we’re already on the verge of our August happy hour and Labor Day. Whoa.
To recap the July HH in one word: Success. Over 50 of our colleagues in international education joined us. Since then, over 30 new young professionals have joined the LinedIn group. We’re growing! And with that growth comes a new vibrancy and new opportunities to develop connections, advance professionally, leverage our numbers, and learn from each other.
Amid the lively conversations about the best new summer hangouts, upcoming travel plans, and friendly softball trash talk, I heard lots of great conversations about the future of yPIE and international education. Who is traveling for which conference? What are the big challenges facing our industry in a time of fiscal conservatism? How can yPIE meet the needs of our Millennial generation as both the emerging industry leaders and the clients of that industry? Never was it more clear to me that our conversations and connections are leading our industry to the best solutions to these challenges.
In terms of where yPIE is headed, we received many excellent suggestions for how we can facilitate professional development for our diverse membership, including specialized discussion groups and training opportunities. Happy hours and other networking opportunities will certainly be a mainstay, but we’re looking to spread our wings a bit. Thank you for your creative contributions – please keep them coming! We’re taking your ideas and are developing future programming and activities.
We – your new yPIE Board and fellow members – hope that this lively conversation continues at tomorrow’s (!) happy hour, September’s panel discussion (details soon!) and well into the future.
Personally, I’m really looking forward to continuing this dialogue with you, making new connections, and generally having an amazing time with all you fantastic international ed people! This is an exciting time for yPIE, our industry and our generation.
Thank you for being a part of our network and the reason for our success!
Cheers!
– Emily Volpe
Emily Volpe is a board member of yPIE: Young Professionals in International Education in DC and the Senior Program Manager for the International Visitor Leadership Program at the Institute of International Education.
0 thoughts on “July Happy Hour Recap”
Such a great happy hour! It was pretty awesome to see that many young professionals come to a yPIE happy hour. Definitely our biggest yet – we took over Vapiano!