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Choosing to attend graduate school is a decision that requires copious amounts of advanced research, planning, and financing, all before classes begin.

Fortunately, prospective graduate students at the School of International Service are not alone in this process; they have support from the SIS Office of Graduate Admissions. This office plays a vital role in shepherding new students through the application and acceptance process and providing guidance to admitted students on topics from financial aid and fellowships to resources for connecting with other students once they begin their studies.

Jia Jiang serves as the senior director of graduate enrollment management in the SIS Office of Graduate Admissions, an office she’s worked in for the past 20 years. From application to acceptance, Jiang has touched and positively impacted the lives of many SIS graduate students over the past two decades, and she recently sat down with us to discuss her journey at SIS and share reflections.

Charting a Career Path at SIS

Jiang first came to SIS in 2003 after receiving her master’s degree in English Literature from the University of Maryland. Starting out as a graduate admissions specialist working with international students, Jiang moved through the ranks in the SIS Office of Graduate Admissions. She’s held Ìępositions including assistant director of international graduate admissions and associate director of graduate enrollment management on the way to her current position as the senior director of graduate enrollment.

As she reflects on 20 years of living in the DC area, Jiang recalls the way the city “pulled her in.”

“We live in an incredibly diverse community. It's one of the greenest capitals in the world. It's a very politically thirsty and civic-minded community,” Jiang said. “Coming from a Chinese family culture where people always tell you, ‘Don’t bother, nothing's going to change,’ you come to DC, and everyone feels like they're really empowered to make a difference. That was a really different experience for me, and it was really uplifting.”

During her time working at SIS, Jiang has seen many structural changes. One of the most prominent in her memory is the opening of the LEED Gold-certified SIS building in 2010 (Prior to 2010, SIS was housed in AU’s East Quad Building). Jiang described the new building as a “game changer” for graduate admissions.

“We were given a lot more tools to be able to connect the caliber of our scholarship and the student experience with a building that actually makes it happen,” Jiang said.

Jiang also credits SIS faculty members for supporting the work of the graduate admissions office and helping to shape each incoming class.

“Whether it's a campus tour, whether it's an email, whether it's a phone call, I feel like so many of [our faculty] have really served as mentors to our students in addition to sharing their academic expertise,” Jiang said. “We can’t do our work without them.”

Helping Students Thrive

Throughout her two decades at SIS, Jiang has played an important role in the lives of many prospective students navigating their application and admission to AU. In her conversations with students considering a master’s degree program at SIS, Jiang says she stresses that “SIS is a very mission-driven institution.”

“We don't just talk about what we do; we always talk about why we do it,” Jiang explained. “We don't just offer top-ranked programs; we have a wide diversity of ideas, opinions, voices, and expertise that make us interesting and purposeful. So, I always tell our students that, ‘if you're just looking for a degree, you have a lot of good choices; but if you're actually looking for an intellectual home, then this is the place to be’.”

Rebecca Coughlin, the associate director of graduate enrollment management at SIS, said Jiang is “one of the main reasons why SIS has a reputation for employing a ‘personal touch’ approach to all of our interactions with prospective students.”

“Over and over, we hear how our prospects and applicants feel heard and appreciate the very individualized attention they get—often in contrast to their experiences elsewhere,” Coughlin said. “Jia is a whiz at working individually with admitted students to outline all possible scenarios for how they can utilize their merit awards and plan the number of credits they will take each semester to create a student-work-life balance. I have seen so many of her emails to students that contain multiple tables mapping out all their options. I cannot imagine that students at other schools get this personalized attention—it is so time-consuming! But the result is that more students are able to figure out how to make grad school work at SIS.”

Matthew Forrester, a graduate admissions coordinator at SIS and the Peace Corps Coverdell Fellows program coordinator, said Jiang encourages the graduate admissions team to consider “multiple perspectives and approaches” when developing enrollment plans. Forrester emphasized that the admissions office often hears positive feedback from prospective students about the hands-on experience they receive while working with the graduate admissions team.

“They describe feeling like they were seen and heard during the application process, rather than feeling like just a number in a sea of other applicants,” Forrester said. “This emphasis on a more thoughtful and engaged approach towards admissions comes from Jia's very considerate and people-centered leadership. I consider myself very lucky to work with someone who is not only an impressive director, but also a very kind and inspiring person.”

Lessons Learned from Colleagues and Family

As she reflects on 20 years at SIS, Jiang says the most rewarding part of her work has been the opportunity to continue learning. Amidst the many shifts in higher education, Jiang has learned how to successfully work in a university setting and build connections.

“I think the most rewarding part for me is the doing and the learning—not just learning from colleagues about the higher education context and operation, but also learning from them as people,” Jiang said.

Growing up in China, Jiang said that her parents raised her to “always be thinking about the community and not just you, the person.” Keeping community at the top of mind informs Jiang’s daily work and contributes to the people-centered culture she has cultivated in the SIS Office of Graduate Admissions.

“Something that I carry with me every day—whether it's working with students or colleagues or others—is thinking about not just what impacts me, but also the people around me,” Jiang said. “I think, especially for the field of international affairs, knowing the context and knowing the stakeholders—those are very important lessons.”