Mike Keefer | Admissions Manager

Like many Midwesterners, I grew up in the suburbs of a large city (Chicago), my vacations growing up were to see my grandparents (Florida), and I attended my state school (University of Illinois). I didn’t leave the U.S. until I studied abroad outside of Sydney in my junior year. Thinking that my experience was pretty awesome but that Australian culture was pretty similar to American culture after I finished school, I moved to Chiang Mai, Thailand for two amazing years teaching first grade. I bounced around a bit when I returned to the States, but at my mom’s wedding reception to my stepdad, I got into a conversation with an old family friend who worked in international education. Since what she did sounded a lot better than the technical recruiting I was doing, I shot her a resume, and the rest, as they say, is history. I ended up working for 10 years at a company that ran a program for inbound high school exchange students. Got to travel for work, moved up a few times, and met a cute coworker who is now my wife, but after a decade, I knew I needed a change. A former colleague let me know ITA was looking, and here I am!

A suburb of Chicago, St. Charles, IL. And the University of Illinois.

I got off the plane in Sydney, Australia in July (their winter), wearing shorts in 60-degree weather, only to have the locals look at me like a crazy person. I was studying abroad with some friends so we hailed a cab to our school after arriving. We had a wonderful cab driver who welcomed us to his country, gave us some great advice, and refused a tip since he made $16 an hour due to the minimum wage laws in Australia. I remember marveling at this at the time, but I think what I was really marveling at was the revelation that what I had always known might not be the best or only way to do things? Internalizing that understanding and using that to develop a curiosity to discover what other things were different than what I’ve always known is a huge milestone in my life. 

Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, England, France, Spain, Germany, Hungary, Greece, Turkey, Australia, Thailand, China, South Korea, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore Morocco, Iceland, and India.

Australia (study abroad), Thailand (teaching).

A tie between the spider bite in Uruguay and the rabid dog bite in Thailand… injuries really do make for the best stories, as long as everything works out!

Thai.

I’m really excited to work for a company that gives people (but especially Americans) an avenue to go travel/live abroad. I feel very shaped by my experiences abroad, and being able to help others have similar experiences is very rewarding.