Contact Information:
Buff Lindau, Public Relations
802.654.2536
blindau@smcvt.edu
Kevin Spensley, a linguist, Russia expert and international student recruitment specialist, has been named Director of International Marketing, Recruitment and Enrollment for Saint Michael's College. A resident of Jericho, Vt., Spensley has some twenty years experience in the field of international education.
Educated in the U.S., Spensley is fluent in Russian and has worked in Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union, since the late 1980s. Most recently he has been running his own consulting company, Education Solutions International, with three staff members, applying his international expertise to the challenge of international student recruitment for American boarding schools, universities and language institutions.
"We're behind the rest of the world in marketing our fine American educational systems abroad," Spensley said. "Other countries, Canada, Britain, Australia, have promoted their education much more than the U.S.," he said. "I want to sell our education, and the wonderful state of Vermont to the whole world; I also think Vermont can learn from the world," he added. "Saint Michael's has an excellent reputation for being international, so this is a great place to start."
Spensley was director of program development for the American Councils for International Education (ACIE) in Washington, D.C., from 2002 to 2006; senior program manager, teacher and faculty of training programs for ACIE from 1999 to 2002, and program manager, department of teacher programs for ACIE from 1996 to 1999. He worked at the U.S. State Department as a program specialist in educational and cultural affairs from 1995 to 1996, in Washington, D.C., and in various positions in Russia and the Ukraine from 1990 to 1994. He was overseas office director for ACIE in Odessa, Ukraine, from 1993-1994.
Fluent in Russian and French, Spensley earned his bachelor's degree from Lawrence University in linguistics and Russian literature, and his master's degree in international studies from Boston College in 1992.
Kevin Spensley and his wife Elena Spensley reside in Jericho with their two children, Julia, 8, and Alec-John, 3.
Saint Michael's College, founded in 1904 by the Society of St. Edmund and headed by President John J. Neuhauser, is identified by the Princeton Review as one of the nation's
Best 368 Colleges. A liberal arts, residential, Catholic college, Saint Michael's is located just outside of Burlington, Vermont, one of America's top college towns and less than two hours from Montreal. As one of only 270 institutions nationwide with a prestigious Phi Beta Kappa chapter on campus, Saint Michael's has 2,000 full-time undergraduate students, some 500 graduate students and 200 international students. In recent years Saint Michael's students and professors have received Rhodes, Woodrow Wilson, Guggenheim, Fulbright, National Science Foundation and other grants, and Saint Michael's professors have been named Vermont Professor of the Year in four of the last eight years. The college is currently listed as one of the nation's Best Liberal Arts Colleges in the 2008
U.S. News & World Report rankings.