Q&A: Lindsi Walker
Lindsi Walker, senior associate provost for the Office of Global Affairs, has worked in that office since her arrival to SBU in 2009, first in Study Abroad, then in Visa and Immigration Services. She shares how global education — through study abroad, visiting scholars and international student engagement — transforms all SBU students’ lives and enriches the entire Seawolf community.
How long have you been part of the SBU community?
I started working at Stony Brook University in 2009 and I have always been part of the Office of Global Affairs. I started in Study Abroad, and then I transitioned into Visa and Immigration services, and then I’ve been in the Central Office of Global Affairs for the past eight years.
What’s your current role?
I serve as the Senior Associate Provost for the Office of Global Affairs, and that includes overseeing our international academic programs, which is the Study Abroad, office, Visa and Immigration Services, our Intensive English Center, as well as the International Student Center and global initiatives.
What do you enjoy most about your role?
I have the most rewarding position on campus because in Global Affairs we get to see how global experiences transform students’ and scholars’ lives. So whether it is international students and scholars coming here, having new experiences and being part of our community and getting to continue their professional careers or their academic experiences, it really transforms their lives. Then we have the opportunity to see the same thing for Stony Brook students who study abroad, and they get to go anywhere from Asia to Africa to Europe to South America to Australia. And those experiences shape them and their future decisions. We are so privileged to be a part of that process, to see students succeed and thrive. We believe that their global engagement is likely the highlight of their time at Stony Brook. We’re really just appreciative to be a small part of their success and their story.
What do you enjoy most about being part of the Stony Brook community?
I have had the privilege now of working here for almost 17 years, and you really develop relationships with staff and the community and faculty who have the same common interest of seeing students succeed, and being willing to invest in them and give them our best so that we can be part of their success, part of their story. It’s nice to come together and really feel like we’re working together for the good of the students.
What are some of the biggest opportunities or obstacles right now in building truly global educational experiences for students?
The opportunities are incredible right now in terms of students having global engagement coming out of a period where people weren’t traveling globally due to COVID. We find that students and families are really open to it, and they’re eager to engage and go abroad. We have so many incredible opportunities for students to study at other top-ranked universities all over the world, so our students can be part of their community and study there, as well as traveling with faculty and going for shorter terms like summer or winter. These opportunities are so deep and rich. They offer internship opportunities, research opportunities and hands-on learning. We have so many opportunities for students to travel in whatever part of the world that they are interested in. Certainly, there are challenges.There are still some concerns and reservations, but really, overall, we find that our students, they’re eager, they’re ready, they’re happy to engage, and we’re just here to help support and facilitate that process for them.
What are some strategies or programs that have you implemented to ensure international students thrive academically and personally?
For international students specifically, we’re proud that as of this fall 2025 semester, we established the International Student Center. It is a space that is fully dedicated to supporting our international students. It provides the opportunity for tutoring, for peer mentorship, writing tutors, academic tutors, Career Center services and social programming. We’re really excited about the center, as well as our team in the International Student Success office. Our team members are dedicated to supporting our international students in whatever way we can, from before they even arrive on campus and all the way through graduation and beyond. We want them to know that we’re here to partner with them to find success. We’re excited for this new initiative, and we are confident that it’s only going to continue to improve the students’ experience while they’re here at Stony Brook.
How did the idea for the center come about?
We have advocated for an international student center for probably eight years. While I think it was always something that was recognized as important, it just never was the right opportunity to see that realized. In the last few years, our senior leadership here at Stony Brook has really affirmed their commitment to seeing our international students succeed. We are appreciative of the support of the President and the Provost for making this happen and dedicating a space that is solely for the support and the success of our international students. We have a team of four right now that are dedicated to supporting our international students, beyond all of the other staff on our campus that are dedicated to seeing students succeed.
Tell us about our international students and the impact that they have on our campus community.
International students are such a vibrant and important part of the Stony Brook community. It is such a great opportunity for all of our students, domestic and international, to come together in the classroom and to learn together and engage in research or internships or projects together. Our international students bring great diversity, they bring new experiences, new cultures, new foods, new ideas of how to study and how to engage in the classroom, and we’re a better community when we’re more diverse and when we’re working together toward the same goals. Our international students are an integral piece of the fabric of Stony Brook.
Why should every Stony Brook student consider studying abroad?
I am such an advocate of study abroad. This is an experience that changes the lives of our students in regards to their academics, in regards to considering what they want to be and their profession and their next steps. When a student goes beyond their comfort zone and travels outside of the United States, it opens up their mind and their world to recognize all that’s available to them, the culture, the food, the people, the professions, everything that is available to them. It’s such an incredible experience. We find that students who study abroad, when they come back, they’re eager to go abroad again. They’re more open and more confident in themselves. It develops so many important lifelong skills that makes them better students, and better people. We are passionate about the impact of study abroad on the lives of our students.
If you could design the ideal global experience for a Stony Brook student, what would that look like?
I think the ideal experience would absolutely be different for each student, depending on their discipline and where they’re from. What that may be for international students coming here Stony Brook is that global experience for them, and that is why we are committed to making that the best it can be while they’re here, giving them opportunities for research and internship and engaging with faculty and possibly giving them an opportunity to study abroad in another country, outside of their home country, and outside of the United States.
For Stony Brook students, it would be wonderful if every Stony Brook student could have a study abroad experience and be able to go outside of the United States, whether that’s traveling with a faculty member, or whether it’s going independently, to study at one of our partner universities and really getting to explore a new university, a new style of learning, a new culture, new experiences, and just see that the world is open to them. We would love for every student to have that opportunity. We recognize that that isn’t always possible for every student, but that is why, if they can’t have that opportunity, we want to do our best to find ways to engage them here on our campus so they can be involved in serving as a peer mentor to our international students, or being engaged in the International Student Center and the social activities that we provide. We want to make sure that every student can leave here realizing the importance of our global impact on the community around us.
Years ago, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences students were a little hesitant or felt like they couldn’t go abroad because of the sequence of classes that they had to take for their majors. Has that changed at all?
That is still a concern. Certainly there are specific majors and disciplines where students have to plan in advance for them to be able to have a study abroad experience. For example, the College of Engineering is one where engineering students have to plan to be able to have that experience and maintain academic progress, so that it doesn’t create any type of delays in the sequencing of when they’re able to take classes. We are really excited that we introduced last year a program called the Freshman Launch Year o FLY program, and that gives the opportunity to incoming first-year students to study abroad in one of three locations — Florence, Italy; Seoul, South Korea; or Shanghai, China. For the fall 2025 semester, we had more than 70 incoming first-year students who selected to start their Stony Brook career studying abroad. This is a great opportunity for students to have that experience early on so they have fewer concerns about the sequencing of their classes to come. It really exposes them to the idea of global learning and study abroad early on. And maybe they can even study abroad again in their academic career.
We were optimistic that students would be interested in the freshman launch year program and starting their academic career abroad, but it has exceeded our expectations, especially our domestic students who are choosing to start their first semester abroad in another country. Of the 70 or so, about half of those are international students who are starting their career in another country, and half of them are domestic students who are starting their Stony Brook career in another country. This initial success has prompted us to consider how we can further develop the program, and maybe think of other locations where students can start studying abroad from their first semester.
Is there a particular student story, either an international student here, or a Stony Brook student who studied abroad that has stayed with you as a reminder of why this work matters?
Yes, I think the students’ stories and seeing them succeed is really what drives what we do and allows us to remain passionate and dedicated. Because again, the experience that they have abroad transforms their lives and even their families lives. We had one international student who started in the Intensive English Center. She was a language training student. She continued her undergraduate and her graduate degree here at Stony Brook. She ended up working at Stony Brook for a little while, and then married another Stony Brook international student. Recently, when we were back in China for a work-related trip, she actually visited us at the event. It was so nice to see her again and her family and her husband. And now she has a child. It was really great to see the success that she has found, and that started in our language training center here at Stony Brook, and has continued. To see that the impact that Stony Brook has made on her life and her family was really remarkable. We see the same thing with study abroad students, their experience abroad transforms them and transforms their goals and their way of thinking.
We had a student who returned from Tanzania, and she’s interested in the health sciences area and potentially going into the medical field. She had hands-on experience in Tanzania, where she was able to work with the doctors and help support and be there observing in the operating room. She came back and shared the impact that that experience made on her and how it took what she was passionate about from learning in the classroom and made it come alive for her, and it has really set her course. She’s now in medical school and pursuing that dream. These experiences can solidify a student’s goals and their aspirations and give them the confidence to know that they can do it and they can make a difference in the world.
Looking ahead, what are your top goals for global affairs over the next five years?
We recognize that there are challenges that exist in terms of the global community and global engagement, but we remain steadfast in our commitment to being dedicated to seeing our impact globally continue. I think that starts with a few specific things. First, diversifying our reach and continuing to expand the Stony Brook brand and impact globally. While we have seen some success in specific countries, our goal over the next five years is to expand and deepen that reach; to be intentional in having people understand who and whatStony Brook is. What are we and how are we impacting our community? We plan to be strategic, to expand our name and our brand and our impact in other countries, specifically looking into Southeast Asia and other areas of the world.
At the same time, we remain committed to our global impact here in our SBU community, guiding our international students who are coming here and ensuring that they feel supported; that we continue to provide high quality services to support their success while here, and that they’re graduating and moving on to achieve their goals.
And we are expanding the opportunities for our students to study abroad. Programs like the Freshman Launch Year program is one of those that we continue to expand and explore ways to provide global opportunities for students that are achievable from a financial perspective, from an academic perspective, and giving them the best opportunity to explore the world while they’re college students, so that then when they move on to whatever is next, they’re prepared to succeed.
Talk a little bit about how your office supports visiting scholars.
In addition to our international students on our campus, we have a large number of international faculty and scholars, and we’re really proud of the work that Visa and Immigration Services does to support that community, making sure that visitors understand everything regarding compliance while they’re here. Certainly, in recent years, there’s been many changes to regulation and to policy, and that has heightened the importance of the role that Visa and Immigration Services plays in supporting our international community. They ensure that information on the website is up to date, they’re communicating updated information through emails, providing webinars,and additional advising services to ensure that our international community is educated and informed on regulatory changes. We want them to know that we are partnering with them to make sure that they’re prepared to succeed while they’re here.
Tell us about your own study abroad experience?
I think one of the reasons why I’m so passionate about studying abroad is because I had that same experience, both as an undergraduate student and as a graduate student, and I see personally how it transformed my life, personally, but also professionally.
As an undergraduate, I studied abroad in Ghana, West Africa, and then as a graduate student, I spent a summer in Denmark as part of the European Summer School of Advanced Management. It was really that experience that charted the course and allowed me to even see that there was this idea of being involved in international education and what that may look like. After graduating, I started working at a university in Ohio, and began my work in international education from there. What really helped me get the position at Stony Brook was because I had that international education experience and was able to then share that with students who were interested in studying abroad. I see how my decision to study abroad transformed my thinking. It transformed what I felt like was open to me in terms of my professional career. I can honestly say I would not be in this position and in this role right now, today, had I not made the decision to study abroad as an undergraduate student and then as a graduate student. So for that, I will forever be grateful.