Travel Guide and TV Host Rick Steves to Address NAFSA Annual Conference in Houston

WASHINGTON, Feb. 23, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NAFSA: Association of International Educators is pleased to announce that well-known travel guide and television host Rick Steves will be a plenary speaker at NAFSA's 2012 Annual Conference and Expo in Houston, Texas. Steves will address attendees on Thursday, May 31, at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston. NAFSA gratefully acknowledges Education in Ireland for their generous support of this plenary.

Rick Steves hosts the popular public television series Rick Steves' Europe and a weekly hour-long national public radio show. In addition to having authored more than 50 European travel guidebooks, he writes a weekly travel column syndicated by the Chicago Tribune.

Since the 1970's, Steves has spent 120 days a year—one-third of his adult life—living out of a suitcase in Europe. This experience has shaped his thinking about travel and sparked his commitment to social activism. Steves' career began in 1976, when he started Europe Through the Back Door, a business which has grown from a one-man operation to a company with a well-traveled staff of 80 full-time employees in Edmonds, Washington. The business now offers free travel information through its travel center, website (www.ricksteves.com), European Railpass Guide, and free travel newsletters, and runs a successful European tour program with more than 450 departures—attracting around 11,000 travelers—each year. Steves' seminal book, Europe Through the Back Door, was first published in 1980 and is now updated annually.

As an advocate for study abroad and international education, Steves believes that thoughtful travel expands people's world view and shapes how they address the challenges confronting the world. In a recent op-ed in USA Today, he wrote, "If we want a new generation of leaders and innovators who can be effective in an ever more globalized world, sending our students overseas is not a luxury. It's a necessity." In the piece, he also expressed support for the Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Act, which is aimed at greatly expanding study abroad opportunities for American college students.   

Conference Highlights

• The NAFSA conference, the world's largest gathering of professionals in international education, is anchored by daily plenary events from Tuesday, May 29, through Friday, June 1. In addition to Rick Steves, NAFSA is honored to welcome former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates as the opening plenary speaker for the conference, as well as Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Leymah Gbowee and humanitarian and Swedish Ambassador Jan Eliasson. Learn more about the conference plenary lineup at www.nafsa.org/ac12plenaries.
• NEW! Get caught up on all the latest in international education at more than 200 concurrent sessions. Complete topic and panelist information now available online at www.nafsa.org/ac12sessions.
• Explore the sights and sounds of the NAFSA Expo Hall, which features exhibitors representing hundreds of organizations from around the world, including colleges and universities, study abroad and intensive-English programs, embassies and government agencies, and more.
• Information about travel, housing, and much more will be online March 1 on our conference pages at www.nafsa.org/houston. 

Media registration begins in March. To request an application, contact Katie O'Connell at [email protected].

With nearly 10,000 members, NAFSA: Association of International Educators is the world's largest nonprofit professional association dedicated to international education. Visit us at www.nafsa.org and www.ConnectingOurWorld.org.

SOURCE NAFSA: Association of International Educators