Gonzalez joins International Programs office

  Friday, April 11, 2014 2:00 AM
  News

Pittsburg, KS

Cathy Lee Arcuino, director of the Office of International Programs and Services at Pittsburg State University, has announced the recent appointment of Stephanie Gonzalez as the new programming coordinator in the International Programs and Services Office.

“Stephanie hit the ground running,” Arcuino said. “She is enthusiastic and passionate about working with our international students. We are very pleased to have her as part of the Pitt State family.”

Gonzalez said she was raised in a family with international roots. Her mother was raised in Germany and her father, born in Puerto Rico, was raised in New York.

Gonzalez earned a bachelor’s degree in public relations from Northwest Missouri State University. She worked as a copywriter for a public relations firm in Kansas City for three years. She then joined the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City as an associate in research and evaluation, where she served for seven years, designing and writing reports and materials, facilitating focus groups, and collecting data as part of a longitudinal drug and alcohol study.

While in Kansas City, Gonzalez was selected by the Rotary Club of Independence to be a Rotary Group Study Exchange Team member, which gave her the opportunity to tour Southwestern England for five weeks. Later she received a Rotary Club scholarship to study for a year at the University of Bedfordshire in Luton, England, as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar. Gonzalez stayed in England for a second year so she could complete a master of arts degree in intercultural communication.

Upon her return to the U.S., Gonzalez joined Illinois State University in Normal, Ill., where she served as an international adviser. There, she assisted students and visiting researchers with immigration advisement, orientation programming, and other issues.