Susanne Torabi

International Student Coordinator

As the international student coordinator, Susanne Torabi is an advocate for international students in the Phillips Academy community and works to promote understanding and appreciation of foreign cultures. She also assists international students and their families with all aspects of their life here at Phillips Academy, serves as advisor to new international seniors, issues 1-20 forms, and organizes a special three day pre-school orientation to help new international students start their year with confidence.

In addition to here role as international student coordinator, Torabi serves as a German instructor and as the advisor to the International Club. Club meetings, which are both educational and social, take place on Wednesday evenings. During the meeting students explain customs, describe holidays, try to find solutions to cultural incidents, and talk about their country. The club also organizes off-campus outings to local restaurants, bowling alleys, Boston or the Topsfield Fair. In October at the time of the anniversary of the United Nations, the club sponsors the International Festival, which includes an international talent show and an international food festival prepared entirely by the students.

Born and educated in Germany, where she received a master’s degree in education from the University of Münster, Torabi had her first introduction to the American school system and to American culture in 1986 when she spent six months in Atlanta, Georgia. Afterward, she returned to Germany to finish her master’s degree, then took a tenured position in 1990 in a German inner city elementary school with a diverse multicultural and ethnic background.

In 1991, Torabi immigrated to the United States to take a position as a German teacher at the Atlanta International School (AIS) in Atlanta, where she first taught elementary students German in bilingual educational programs and then later taught middle and high school students as well. “Teaching at this school was a very unique and rewarding experience, particularly because there were many Olympic families on campus leading up to the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta,” she recalls.

Torabi joined the PA community in the fall of 2005.. She has taught German and currently is the international student coordinator and coaching girls cross country, JV swimming, and cycling. 
 
storabi@andover.edu