Shanti Freitas

I started in the Center for Study Away at Macalester College in 2018 as the Assistant Director, and became the Director in 2024. As Assistant Director, I led CSA efforts in evaluation and assessment, advised on a subset of Macalester Approved Study Away programs (including Macalester faculty-led programs), and worked with our online study away software and process. As Director, I still advise on some Macalester Approved Study Away programs and also oversee all our CSA office operations, policies, risk management, partner and campus relationships, and student support.

I was born in Chicago, and grew up in Evanston, Illinois. I completed my undergraduate education at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts with a B.A. in Sociology, and my Masters degree at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in International Education Policy. I studied abroad in Ecuador for a semester during college, and loved it so much that I ended up living and working in Ecuador for three years after undergrad. During that time, I worked at a non-profit doing development work in Quito, a small fair trade organization based in Otavalo, and a community-based ecotourism site near Tena. Most recently before Macalester, I worked for five years at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, managing international and domestic short-term faculty-led programming. I have also led short-term education abroad programs for high school and college students in Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Chile.

Through these various intercultural experiences as well as my own biracial and multicultural background, I value the importance and impact of study away opportunities. I am passionate about working across campus to ensure that all students have access to these programs and we support students throughout the process. Apart from my professional interests, I like to play and coach soccer, I enjoy hiking and camping, and I try to spend as much as time as I can outside with my partner and two kids.