Sunday 6 January 2013

International Third Culture Kid Events in 2013

It's always good to look ahead when a new year starts. Last year finished with a book giveaway here on the blog. The interesting thing was that a Dutch TCK living in Norway won the book and it turns out that our parents know each other from the time they lived in Zambia and Malawi. It's a small world after all.
I see that there are some interesting international conferences coming up. These are the ones I have come across.
  1. EuroTCK 2013 25th - 29th April 2013 is a conference in Germany for all people with a heart for Third Culture Kids, whether you have TCK responsibility within your mission, organisation or church, whether you are a dorm parent, teacher, re-entry camp staffer or provide any form of TCK Care. Adult TCKs not involved with any organisation are also welcome. Guest speaker will be Ruth van Reken.
  2. Nacada International Conference 2013 Enhancing Student Success: A Global Perspective 5 - 7th June 2013 in Maastricht, the Netherlands. The aim of this conference is to explore the ways in which personal tutoring, academic advising and other forms of institutional student support and guidance contribute to improving student success in higher education. More than ever before and across the globe there is a growing recognition for the crucial role institutional support such as academic advising, personal tutoring, and career services play in promoting all these aspects of student success.
  3. Children Migrants & 3rd Culture Kids International Conference 2013: Roots and Routes. 7 - 9 th June 2013 in Kraków, Poland. During the conference the experiences will be analyzed of children who have spent a significant part of their childhood and/or youth in other country than their parents’ country of origin. They hope that the analysis and discussions will also result in identifying the ways of helping those, for whom migration has been a difficult or traumatic experience. There's a call for papers too they can be submitted before the 1st of March 2013.
  4. Families in Global Transition 2013 22-23 rd March 2013 in Silver Spring, Maryland, USA. FIGT has, for over ten years, led the worldwide community in empowering families and those who serve them in global transition. FIGT is the premier advocate and educational resource for families, organizations and service providers. They build the global community by bringing together corporate, diplomatic, academic, the arts, military, missionary, and NGO sectors to share and develop leading edge research and concepts that address international relocation issues. The conference is all about families and third culture kids too.
Some more dates:
Transitioning to the USA this year? From 27th of July - 2nd August 2013 in Colorado, USA there is a transition seminar by Interaction International. This transition seminar is for adolescent third culture kids, if you want them not just to survive the transition but to thrive send them to a transition seminar. Research shows that the transition to the passport culture is the most difficult transition.

Global Connections in the UK have holiday camps for third culture kids in the UK in July and August 2013. There are camps for different ages (6-12 yrs, 8- 12 yrs, 13-18 yrs).

MK Focus have a missionary kids weekend from 27th - 29th September 2013 in Putten, the Netherlands.

Thanks to Sheryl 'O Bryan I can add some more information to this post. Sheryl works with third culture kids from all over the world.

In July 2013 there are 3 transition seminars for mission kids run by Barnabas International in California, Ohio and Oregon, USA.

From 3rd - 9th August 2013 there is a transition seminar in Littleton, CO, USA run by Sheryl 'O Bryan. Any third culture kid who is returning to the States or Canada to live and study is welcome to attend.    

Maybe you know of more conferences or TCK transition seminars? Please leave a comment with the details. Have you been to TCK conferences, weekends or transition seminars? What was it like? I wish there had been a transition seminar when I returned to the Netherlands but I will write about that another day.