Understand cultures. Connect with students. Create a sense of belonging.
Welcoming international students goes far beyond admissions. Every student brings different cultural values, expectations, communication styles and ways of adapting to a new environment.
Intercultural Training & Certification for University Professionals
Our intercultural training and certification programs help admissions officers, international recruitment professionals and student support teams develop the cultural awareness and skills needed to better understand, communicate with and support students from around the world.
Developed in partnership with intercultural training expert Andrea Sebben: more than 25 years of intercultural training, around 15,000 people prepared to live, study or work abroad in more than 80 countries, combined with FPP's nearly three decades in international education.
Better cultural understanding leads to stronger student relationships and more successful international experiences.
What the programs focus on
Developed in partnership with Andrea Sebben, for the people who meet, admit and support international students.
Cross-cultural communication
Understanding differences in communication styles, behaviors and expectations.
Cultural awareness
Recognizing how cultural backgrounds influence students' decisions, relationships and experiences.
Intercultural adaptation
Understanding the challenges students face when adjusting to a new academic and social environment.
Student engagement and support
Building trust, preventing misunderstandings and creating a more welcoming international student experience.
Meet Andrea Sebben
Intercultural scientist, psychologist and author. The art of the encounter is her profession.
Thirty years ago Andrea went to Europe to study and lived in Spain, Italy and Belgium, working with refugees and with students of the Council of Europe. She later lived in the United States and Canada, where she met Intercultural Psychology and then Intercultural Education, the field she has dedicated her career to.
Since then she has prepared exchange students and their parents, university students, expatriate executives and their families, multicultural teams and professional athletes for life in another culture, with an exclusive intercultural education methodology based on intercultural analysis and simulation games, registered with the Brazilian patent office (INPI).
Academic background
- Degree in Psychology, PUCRS (Brazil) and Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain).
- Master in Social Psychology, UFSC (Brazil).
- Intercultural Monitors course by AFSAI (Italy) and by the Council of Europe, European Youth Centre.
- Member of the IACCP, International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology, since 1998.
Teaching and institutional work
- Invited professor at FGV, Fundação Dom Cabral and IEL, in in-company programs.
- Guest lecturer at the Summer Institute for Intercultural Awareness, InterCultur, Germany.
- Tutor and guest speaker at MIT on Cultural Awareness since 2021.
- Member of the AFS International Educational Advisory Council (2006 to 2012), leading Training for Trainers in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Venezuela and other Latin American countries.
- Training for Trainers for YFU (Youth for Understanding) in Latin and Central America.
- UNESCO collaborator in the Culture of Peace program.
Author
- Cultural Exchange: a guide to intercultural education to be a citizen of the world (1999)
- Os Nortes da Bússola: a manual for coexistence and negotiation with foreign cultures (2005)
- Cultural Exchange: to understand and fall in love (2009)
- Expatriados.com (2011)
- More bridges, fewer barriers: the essence of intercultural competence (in development)
Works in Portuguese, English, Spanish and Italian. Lived in Spain, Italy, Belgium, the United States and Canada.
andreasebben.com.br →Companies that have trusted her intercultural training
Who it is for
For every team that meets, admits and supports students from around the world.
Admissions officers
Reading applications, interviews and family questions across cultures, without losing the student in translation.
International recruitment professionals
Fairs, school visits and follow-up in markets where the rules of the conversation are different from home.
Student support teams
International offices, student services and faculty who welcome international students and help them feel they belong.
Interested in training your team?
Contact us to train your team or to learn about our upcoming certification programs.
Contact Us