Hello
My name is NEDI. My pronouns are they/them. I am an Octopus and a proud member of the NourishED International team. But why was I recruited for the team? Me? An Octopus? Let's ask our NEDI Founders...
My Story
NourishED International (NEDI) focuses on international education professionals and their careers. As we began to roll out our services and supports we wanted to have serious content and conversations but also have some fun. The idea of a mascot started to come to life. You might ask "but why an octopus?"
For years, in their training together, Sonja and Kate have used the following quote to explore the concept of internationalization within the higher education context.
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“Internationalizing the university is like trying to put socks on an octopus”
-Maurice Harari (1989) Centre for International Education, California State University
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While this references the university, this applies to our sector more broadly - no matter where we work as IE professionals. While the octopus metaphor can help us visualize our role in our institution/organization/association, it can also help us better understand our careers.
While Harari was the first to attempt to describe our roles, Knight, Heyl, Mestenhauser, and a collaborative study between Europe and Australia, Knutson's own dissertation research and most recently Dr Chelsey Laird’s work have found that the role of international educator requires a unique and disparate set of knowledge and skills and attributes…which is good news for those of us navigating our careers either inside or outside of the IE sector.
And so, because the octopus has become so central to how we at NEDI think about international education careers, as soon as we started talking about a mascot for NEDI we knew it had to be an octopus. Kate then played with AI to create our sweet, playful NEDI.
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NEDI, The Octopus can be found at our events, on our social media, and continues to inspire new content.