Listing an international visitor program from a prestigious university on a resume

Question

I am trying to write my CV and I was wondering how I could list this very particular award/training I have:

I am from Bolivia and my ex-university has an agreement with the Harvard Kennedy School; earlier this year my Uni alongside the U.S. Embassy held up a contest where the winners could go to the Kennedy School as well as Dartmouth as a visitor program, similar to this: Harvard College - Visiting Undergraduate Student Program.

The main focus of the lessons there was development, in my case international development. We also had to present what the current climate was in Bolivia to some professors and students and got to meet plenty of the heads of school and other professors that had worked for the U.S. embassy in Bolivia.

First of all, I have no idea how to put this into my CV, should I put it under awards or training? The selection process selected less than 1% of the total student body to go, we were only 8 students, so it was quite the privilege, not to mention it included the travel expenses + accommodation as well as a daily "allowance".

I am hesitant to put it under training because no diploma or certification was given to us, we weren't even graded; when I asked the embassy representatives, they mentioned that no formal paper or certificate would be issued but we had been added to the embassy's to some kind of list of remarkable Bolivians, etc. and that they would also provide references through email when needed.

Any ideas? Has anyone had something similar before? I know it may not seem like a lot, but considering I am from Bolivia and still a student this could definitely help me get at least a few internships.

Answer 1

If the courses you took at the second university were directly related to the degree you received at your university and you were there for a significant length of time (at least a term) you can list in under your Education history. Something like this (there are hundreds of ways to format this though):

• Master of Computer Science
  • University of X, Bolivia (2010-2015)
  • Harvard Kennedy School (2015)

If the courses you took weren't notable enough to list as part of your core education but still valuable, I would list them under Training. Not all trainings reward you with a fancy piece of paper, that's why you usually separate Trainings from Certifications on a resume or on LinkedIn.

If the exchange program was more of a cultural thing and you didn't really learn anything that would be useful to an employer or your core domain (e.g. you graduated in CompSci but took courses in PolSci) then I would instead list this under an Accomplishments, Achievements or Experience section. If you have multiple awards to list, you could get away with an Awards section but I'd prefer to see those grouped under Accomplishments instead.

If you're in the latter scenario, I would only recommend leaving this on your resume for the first few years of your career. The cultural exchange and the fact that it was a very selective program makes it notable enough for inclusion on your resume. As you gain more working experience though, awards and scholarships lose their value as you will have actual working experience that interviewers can ask you about.