Marina LaMastro

What is your role here at University of Richmond?

I am the Assistant Director of Study Abroad and I work with many different of programs, which means each week is different (which I love and appreciate!). I do some normal advising for semester students, mostly with STEM-based programs and exchanges. I also work with our UR summer study abroad programs and other short-term experiences, like the Encompass Program. This is the first international experience that a lot of students in these programs get to have. For some students, this is their first time even leaving the state of Virginia, which is really exciting! I also get to work on sustainability integration initiatives as well, which is a wonderful connection between my professional, academic, and personal interests.

What is your background in sustainability?

I have sort of a non-traditional path for a study abroad advisor. During my undergraduate at Florida State University, I was a biology major and chemistry minor, which is nice when I advise STEM students in helping them understand that it is possible for them to go abroad. Then, I got a master’s degree in biodiversity and conservation from the University of Southampton in the UK. I really thought that career-wise, I wanted to research coral reefs and coral reef fish assemblages. In graduate school, I started working on community-based education projects and got to work with international education companies. My favorite part of all of those experiences was working with the students. So when it came time to move back to the United States, I decided to try a new career path at William & Mary as a Global Education Special Programs Advisor. It has been a nice marriage of what I went to school for with what I am doing professionally with international education.

Did you ever think you would go into a career in higher education?

I never thought I would end up working in higher education. When I was in undergrad, this was not on my radar at all. However, I eventually found that I really enjoy working with students and seeing the impact of international education. I enjoy meeting with students coming back from abroad experiences and seeing how their confidence, independence, and skills have grown. 

Was your experience in the UK your introduction to international education?

Not really. I worked for a company called Global Expeditions, and they have a summer program called ActionQuest that I did throughout my undergrad. During the year, I was in school and then in the summer, would go down to the Caribbean to teach scuba diving, sailing, and marine biology. After college, I worked with their college program called Seamester. I taught oceanography and marine science, as well as scuba diving and sailing. That was where I got a lot of the student interactions and those programs encouraged me to pursue a career in international education.

How have you found that international study and sustainability overlap?

There is no way of getting around the fact that international education includes a lot of things that are not great for our environment, like having to travel to get there and putting extra pressure on some of these host communities. You are usually only there for a very short period of time—several months to a year at most—and there are a lot of ways that our programs and students interact with other communities. I think there is a way that we can start to influence our students, faculty, and staff to consider how they are impacting these communities, from cultural and economic standpoints to how much carbon their flights emit. If someone is going on a weekend trip somewhere, do they take a train instead of taking a plane? Do they walk around instead of taking a taxi? Some of these are experiences that our students don’t usually have here in Richmond, so getting to have those experiences abroad is something they can bring back home.

How has your job in international education changed your understanding of sustainability?

One thing I really like to focus on is that sustainability is not just for students who are interested in geography or environmental science. We can include sustainability in all types of academic disciplines, like a student studying math in Budapest or a student studying French in Paris for the semester. There are things that everyone can take from their abroad experiences that apply to being sustainable, like sustainable travel for example. 

Those students who are not necessarily from a STEM-related field may bring a different perspective into a conversation that a student who has been studying this their entire time at UR may not have thought of yet, and vice versa. Sustainability is a part of all of our lives, so it is really important to bring those different academic perspectives into the conversation so that we can involve students who are not already thinking about it.

What initiatives are the Office of International Education working on to make international education more sustainable?

Since this is my first year at UR, I have been exploring what our existing processes are to determine what could be most useful and make sure that we are having conversations with everyone who is involved. For example, we work with faculty who are thinking about having a program abroad to include sustainable decisions in how they build their course or their flight selections. Another initiative is our list of international programs that offer sustainability-related courses for students that do have an interest in this topic so that it is easier for them to find the right program. We also just conducted a survey of all of our exchange partners to identify how many of them have sustainability offices, sustainability initiatives, or have carbon-neutrality goals to see if there are any relationships we can build there.

A priority of mine is to connect students to sustainability projects in their host locations. We are trying to find a way that we can do student research projects—keeping it open to all academic disciplines—that allow the student to explore their host location through the lens of sustainability. They can also use that as a way for them to do cultural exploration, too. There may be things they can bring back to campus, like a new initiative or a new way of trying something.

That is something I want to do in my future. I am really interested in fighting climate change and preserving our resources and biodiversity. Looking to other communities or cultures to see what they are doing in these areas is a great opportunity to share, learn from each other, and be open minded to other ways so that we can see how we could better improve global communities.

Yes! It would be really interesting, too, to have students involved in multiple locations working on similar topics because the way things are approached in France are not going to be the way that the same topics may be approached in Thailand or Brazil. There is not a one-size-fits-all solution, so understanding the the role communities and local governments have in approaching different priorities is interesting.

For anyone who is interested in sustainability and participating in international education, would advice would you give them?

Come talk to us and let us know that you are interested! We have information sessions for students interested in studying abroad. Something I like to do when advising STEM students is reassuring them that it is possible to have an international experience during their time here. It may take a little bit of extra planning, but it is possible! I really enjoy helping students find programs and courses that fit their personal and academic goals. Maybe there are short-term programs, like winter or summer programs, that will still give them that experience. I want students to know that studying abroad is not off the table just because they have a lot of heavy courses they have to take. Luckily, faculty are fairly supportive of students having these experiences abroad. It is nice to be at a University where there is a culture around international education.

I am really grateful that UR is supportive and able to help students study abroad fairly easily. It is a big benefit for the students as this is an important part of learning development. Is there anything else that you would like to share?

It has been really great working on a partnership with our office and the Office for Sustainability, along with our faculty chair Dr. Todd Lookingbill (Associate Professor of Biology & Geography, the Environment, and Sustainability). It is exciting to see so much motivation around international education and sustainability on campus.

Interview conducted by Noelle Beswick, Office for Sustainability Communications Intern. 

Thank you, Marina, for all you do to support sustainability on campus and abroad! Do you know someone who should be featured as a Sustainability Champion? Let us know at sustainability@richmond.edu.