April 23, 2008

Darrell Albon is Happy to Call Ohio Wesleyan Home

Darrell Albon, OWU’s Director of International Student Services, enjoys traveling and has visited more than 20 countries. He says Tunisia, Hungary, and Japan are among his favorite destinations.

Photo by Shade Fakunle ’10

Albon says he was introduced to the classics while attending Carleton University in Ontario, Canada. He enjoyed his Latin class so much that he decided he wanted to learn more. He also went abroad to Tunisia for an archeological dig. Soon after, Albon decided that criminology was no longer for him.

Albon says his childhood had a major influence on where he is today. Growing up, he and his family moved often, spending time in Montreal, Toronto, and Chicago.

“I spent a lot of time crossing borders,” says Albon.

This border crossing led to a love of travel. Albon has been to at least 20 countries and counts Tunisia and Hungary among his favorites. But his overall No. 1 travel destination is Japan. He has been there on more than 15 occasions, most recently in November.

“The world is full of fabulous places. Unfortunately life is short,” says Albon. He also would like to visit South Asia, Argentina, and East and West Africa.

Prior to joining the OWU staff in 2004, Albon worked at Ohio Dominican University, where he was involved in international programming. While there, he also taught Latin and Greek, and became immersed in international education through the university’s English as a Second Language program. He eventually became Ohio Dominican’s Director of International Education.

Albon says he chose to come to Ohio Wesleyan because he saw a lot of potential for innovative programming and loved the diversity here.

“The fun stuff is getting various student populations together. We’ve got so many parallel lives here, [it would be great] if we could make them intersect better,” he says.

Albon also spends time making his own interests intersect, including those of husband, father of four, and amateur hockey player. In addition, he is an adjunct professor, teaching graduate courses in the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages program at Ohio Dominican.

When he has time, Albon says he enjoys just being at Ohio Wesleyan, taking advantage of the many educational and cultural opportunities available here.

“There really is a lot going on here,” he says.

And as much as he loves to travel, Albon says, he plans to stay at Ohio Wesleyan for a while.

“OWU is a great place to be because of its large and diverse international student population,” he says. “We really have great students here. They are willing to share their life experiences, they are interested in their education, and they are very happy to be here.”

Sounds a lot like Albon himself.

– Shade Fakunle ’10