Program Components

Agency Placement & Professional Internship
Participants engage in a professional practicum at designated agencies or academic departments for training and work-related experiences.

CIP believes that mid-career professionals learn best by doing, especially across culture and language barriers. Performing real tasks with new colleagues in their work environment creates insight and mastery of problem-solving skills. Interns may work along with American counterparts, carry out special assignments, handle a representative set of cases, and/or design a project for transfer and utilization back home. CIP promotes and supports long-term, substantive linkages between its alumni and host agencies.

Academic Courses & Seminars
Opportunities exist to enhance practical learning by auditing one or two university courses related to practicum assignment and professional occupation.

Immersion in American Society & Culture
Each CIP Professional lives with three or four American families during his or her stay in West Virginia. Host-family living provides individuals unique insights into American society and culture. It also personalizes the experience and builds lifelong friendships.

Retreat & Orientation

Upon arrival, participants begin the first part of our orientation program with a three-day retreat. This is a time for recreation, cooking, eating, talking, and learning about the CIP program and about each other. The second half of the orientation program consists of a ten-day seminar planned around these general topics:

1. US educational system

2. US health system, special services, and social work

3. US legal and economic systems

4. Morgantown, WV and vicinity—community, environment, and culture

International Presentations
Participants provide international educational presentations on human service themes determined during the program to the Morgantown and West Virginia University communities.

Weekly Meetings with Participants
The CIP Professionals come together weekly to discuss their own countries and other topics of general interest. Depending on financial ability, they may also travel together to points of interest in West Virginia, bordering states, and to Canada.