Staff Feature: Ellen Frierson

If you’ve been around the FIUTS office in the last 10 years, you’ve definitely had the pleasure of meeting Ellen! Ellen is the Director of Education and Outreach at FIUTS, and is responsible for the success of dozens of FIUTS Visiting Programs. She can always be counted on to share some wisdom or a funny joke during meetings. After over a decade on staff, today is Ellen’s last day at FIUTS. All of us here at FIUTS are so lucky to have had her as our coworker! Keep reading to get to know Ellen and her FIUTS story.

At Homestay Appreciation Night in 2014

Ellen is one of the most knowledgeable people about international education and exchange on our team. She started off as the Manager of Community Programs at FIUTS in July 2012, working with our amazing homestay hosts and students. She transitioned to working on Education Programs in 2015, and since then has managed programs for over 40 visiting groups, in addition to overseeing FIUTS’ communications and social media. Prior to working at FIUTS, Ellen received her Masters in International Educational Development at Teachers College, Columbia University. She spent time teaching English in Germany, Ecuador, and Thailand, and coordinated a human rights education program with journalists in Cameroon.

Left to right: Manjot, Kelsey, Ellen, and Jie in front of the old FIUTS office in the HUB

As anyone would after 10 years, Ellen has countless favorite FIUTS memories! One is from spring 2014, when she participated in an alumni conference in Sarajevo for one of FIUTS’ past programs, the Youth Leadership Program with Bosnia and Herzegovina. From 2012-2014, six cohorts of high school students and teachers from around Bosnia participated in this program with FIUTS in Seattle, learning about leadership and civic engagement and planning their own community action projects to implement at home. At the end of all of the programs, several FIUTS staff, including Ellen, visited Bosnia for an alumni conference. Over 100 participants attended the conference. Ellen loved being able to reconnect with participants and lead or participate in workshops on topics the participants were passionate about. She was able to hear more about the impact of their community action projects and take part in several powerful days of conversation and reflection, all while participants were making new connections with one another.

With a very cute puppy on a visit to Bosnia with FIUTS in 2014

Another one of Ellen’s fondest FIUTS memories are the SUSI Capstone programs that just took place in October and November 2022. The participants in these 10-day in-person programs were the same students who did their SUSI programs virtually in summer 2021 and winter 2022. Being able to meet participants after working with them virtually over the pandemic was 'magical’ (in Ellen’s words!), and getting to see the students meet each other for the first time was emotional and exciting! (Read blog posts on the October SUSI on Civic Engagement Capstone and the November SUSI on Education and the Future of Work Capstone.)

Ready to watch the solar eclipse with the Youth Ambassadors Program with the Caribbean students in 2017!

Something you might not know about Ellen: she has played her favorite language learning icebreaker game with students on five continents! It’s called Hatschi Patschi and is a super fun way to get to know people while practicing a new language. When she’s not working at FIUTS, you might find her getting takeout from her favorite Thai restaurant, Yes Siam, with her family, or visiting Tsui Sushi Bar in Green Lake with friends (most of whom are former FIUTS colleagues)!

With SUSI students from southern Africa in New Orleans in 2017

When asked what she will miss most about working at FIUTS, Ellen’s immediate answer was ‘the people’! She will miss working with the kind, generous, and dedicated hosts that have been a part of FIUTS for years. She will miss the collaborative office environment and her fellow staff members, as well as getting to know groups of students and learning new things while being creative and trying different kinds of programming. One of Ellen’s favorite parts of being the Director of Education and Outreach was being able to bring visiting participants to different site visits around Seattle and Washington State. She really enjoyed being able to work with partners at different nonprofits and learn about impactful work they’re doing and share this with visiting program participants. During site visits, it was incredible to watch transformative learning and cultural exchange happening right in front of her!

Learning to walk on a tightrope at a site visit to SANCA with the FIUTS Sports & Culture Program with Waseda University in 2020

Blue Marble Bash 2022

Thank you to Ellen for being a huge part of FIUTS for the past 10 years. We are so grateful for everything you have done for our organization and wish you the best on your next adventure!

We hope you enjoyed learning more about one of our amazing staff members. Stay tuned for another staff feature next week!