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OACAC 2014 Comes to Tampa Bay


The University of South Florida, University of Tampa and Eckerd College hosted the 2014 Overseas Association for College Admission Counseling (OACAC) Conference.






Tampa, Fla. (July 11, 2014) – This week, the University of South Florida greeted over 1,100 international student advisors and university admissions staff from over 80 countries. USF is working with regional partners at the University of Tampa and Eckerd College to showcase the educational opportunities in the Tampa Bay area.


“USF is thrilled to welcome our colleagues from around the world to the Tampa Bay region,” said Vice Provost and USF System Associate Vice President for USF World, Roger Brindley. “USF’s focus on producing highly skilled global citizens provides an ideal platform to host this conference dedicated to supporting students transitioning to higher education institutions around the world.”


More than a year of planning lead by USF Student Affairs and the Office for International Admissions has gone into hosting such a unique conference. Participants attended a variety of events including professional development and educational sessions, a high school and college fair, and numerous networking opportunities. Over the three day conference, OACAC members had the opportunity to visit all three host institutions and ended the event with an evening reception at Busch Gardens.


Brooke Cutler, Director of International Admissions at USF, is pleased that teamwork helped to make the conference a memorable one. “The university community completely connected and committed to coming together to welcome 1,100 international guests. Everyone from smiling bus drivers to catering services, who voluntarily created an ice sculpture for the finale because they were so excited to share the spirit of USF, to international students that were minimally trained, to admissions officers and USF's Vice Presidents jumping in to help in whatever way – the collaboration across the campus really demonstrated the warm international welcome that our students will also receive and that was incredibly rewarding for me as a director of international admissions to know that this is the kind of experience they’ll have.”

Cutler adds that the OACAC 2014 event organizers collaborated to create an incredible experience for the participants. “It was a pleasure to share what we call the real treasures of Tampa Bay – our universities – with the greater international community to show the diversity of what we can offer international students. I would like to thank the teams at The University of Tampa and Eckerd College for their partnership.”


View a Storify article created by USF World highlighting some of the weeks activities: OACAC 2014 Storify  


University of South Florida OACAC 2014 Video:




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