Meet Project Manager Courtney Merson

“I hope that my work will make interactions with all our partners easier and create an environment where our staff can focus on the most important part of job—helping our students have a great experience at UC Davis,” said Courtney Merson, a project manager with CPE International Programs. 

In her role, Courtney works closely with staff and students to identify areas for enhancement, which have a direct impact on partners and the student experience. “I am excited about learning new skills and technologies that can improve the work lives of my colleagues and provide exceptional support to our students and our partners.” 

Tell me about your background and your experience in international education. 

I have always been fascinated by language, not just studying my own language of English but how all languages work. I studied linguistics at UC Davis, as well as Spanish and Japanese, and ultimately minored in Japanese. As part of my minor, I studied abroad at Tsuru University in Yamanashi, Japan. 

My study abroad experience gave me the confidence to pursue my passion to teach English in Japan. After graduation, I successfully joined the JET Programme to work as an assistant language teacher (ALT) in Japanese public schools. For five years I taught English at elementary and junior high schools in Niigata, Japan. 

After teaching, I obtained my M.A. in internationalization and globalization at the University of Bath, in the United Kingdom. 

When I finally returned to the United States, I spent a short time working at the Japanese Religion and Culture Center at the University of Southern California before returning to Davis. At UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education, I’ve worked with our 55+ plus learners in OLLI, high school students in the Pre-College Program and online international programming. 

What is your role at CPE International Programs? 

Though I usually work in the background at the International Programs office, I enjoy supporting all our staff who work directly with our international students! My current focus is using Lean Management principles to improve the efficiency of our internal processes. I’m hoping to improve communication with clients, streamline our application and enrollment processes, and analyze data to help our team make data-driven decisions. 

What do you value most about working in international education? 

I love encouraging the sense of adventure that students bring when they decide to study abroad or take online classes with us. It can be difficult to interact in a foreign language and learn how to thrive in a new society, but every international experience can help someone grow and understand the world better. Working in international education reminds me every day that any interaction can have a positive impact on another person, and that being open to new experiences can change the world.