Xhesika Bardhi is a Program Manager in the Office of Study Abroad. Xhesika had her first exposure to foreign languages at the age of six, when she began watching Italian-dubbed Argentinian soap operas. During her BA from the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, she worked in international education in AIESEC, taught English in Alexandria (Egypt) right after the 2011 revolution, and studied Turkish in Ankara (Turkey) through CLS in 2013. She returned to Turkey after graduation through a Fulbright grant to teach English at a public university in a small coastal town on the Black Sea. After the 2016 coup attempt, she decided to pursue her MA in Modern Middle Eastern Studies, which led her to UChicago.
Post-MA, she went on to develop her Arabic skills in Jordan through a Boren Fellowship. After years teaching in the classroom, Xhesika made the shift to higher education. Prior to joining the office in early 2022, she worked in graduate programs at the university. In Study Abroad, in addition to managing programs abroad, she formerly supported operations for the Sawiris Scholars Exchange Program and advised international exchange students in the College.
Her favorite travel destinations are Istanbul, Casablanca, Malta, and pretty much most of Andalusia. Her travel bucket list features Colombia, Bosnia, and Comoros + Zanzibar.