Management Team

Meet the Team - Kevin Arscott
T +64 3 377 4644
M +64 27 226 1851
E kevin@auip.com
BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Kevin Arscott
Managing Director

Kevin was born in Oamaru and studied commerce and accounting at the University of Otago. He is a member of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand. With a background in investment banking, share broking, finance, and accounting, Kevin became a director of AUIP in 2008 and brought with him a savvy financial awareness to his leadership of the business. He has worked in various financial corporations in New Zealand, Australia and the UK, where he lived for two years while travelling around Europe in a kombi van in his spare time. Kevin is passionate about providing new academic and experiential opportunities for students, and about continually adding value to AUIP as a business.

I am inspired by the challenge of finance. I love to get inside the head of a business to understand how it operates and how to add value to it.

– Kevin Arscott


BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Stephen Astor
Director

Steve grew up in New York City walking two miles uphill to school through the snow. He was deeply influenced as a teenager by his service work in Utah on a Native American reservation; this experience inspires his continued interest in working with indigenous peoples around the world. Steve has a Bachelor of Arts in History and is also a U.S. Certified Public Accountant. His current work is focused on assisting Americans in New Zealand to comply with U.S. and New Zealand tax law. He has a son and daughter and is the proud grandfather of two. Because he lives in New Zealand, he has first-hand experience of the value of spending time outside of the U.S. He would like as many Americans as possible to have an international experience.

I use a moral compass when I travel. I like to meet people in their homes and natural environment, experiencing their hospitality, openness, and ways of life. This makes even the unexpected adventures of travel worthwhile.

– Stephen Astor


Meet the Team - Mary Ogburn
T +64 3 377 4644
M +64 27 584 3872
E mary@auip.com
STAFF

Mary Ogburn
International Programs and Development Director

Originally from Blacksburg, Virginia, Mary holds a bachelor’s degree in French from the College of William and Mary, and a master’s in Higher Education Administration from Boston College. She has extensive professional experience working in the study abroad field as a coordinator for education abroad at Virginia Tech, a graduate assistant at Boston College and as Program Manager and Academic and Student Support Manager at Boston University Study Abroad. She also has a personal understanding of study abroad students’ perspectives: she studied abroad herself in Germany, Italy, and twice in France. Mary is a believer that cultural experiences have a unique power to challenge personal assumptions and offer insights about students’ personal and professional goals. She is passionate about designing study abroad programs that are grounded in student development research and that offer students cultural mentorship and opportunities to reflect on their position as global citizens.

Hiking in the mountains is all about challenging yourself and finding your potential. It helps me disconnect from life’s stresses through connecting to a perspective that is grounded—literally—in the natural world that sustains us. There is no place I’d rather be than hiking to a backcountry hut for the night.

– Mary Ogburn


Meet the Team - Helen Beumelburg
T +64 3 377 4644
M +64 21 0294 0805
E helen@auip.com
STAFF

Helen Beumelburg
Operations and Programs Manager

Helen is Christchurch born and bred. She holds a Bachelor of Technology (Food Technology) majoring in marketing and product development from Massey University and a National Certificate in Adult Literacy and Numeracy Education. Post university she worked in the dairy industry before embarking on her ‘Big OE’ (overseas experience), backpacking through South East Asia and Europe and teaching in Japan for two years. These eye-opening experiences redefined her life’s purpose and priorities. Since her return to New Zealand, she has dedicated her career to education and cross-cultural communication. She has spent six years in New Zealand universities and nine years in the literacy and language sector (working with refugees and migrants), in various management, marketing, curriculum, program, and business development and teaching roles. Helen is AUIP’s Operations and Programs Manager, heading up the logistics and risk management team, which ensures seamless in-country program arrangements, so that students and faculty are freed to make the most of their own eye-opening and life-changing experiences.

I believe in a holistic approach to learning. I enjoy hoola hooping, retro caravanning and continually improving my competitive table tennis skills; these pursuits enable me to learn through experience and to connect with my family, friends and the natural environment.

Whaia te matauranga hei oranga mo koutou
Seek after learning for the sake of your wellbeing

– Helen Beumelburg


AUIP DESTINATIONS:

NEW ZEALAND

AUIP destination New Zealand
An isolated island nation in its evolutionary infancy, New Zealand is the most recently inhabited country in the world

AUSTRALIA

AUIP destination Australia
Australia is one of the most diverse countries on Earth, both in terms of its landscapes and its multicultural population

FIJI

Destination Fiji
Fiji is an archipelago of 330 islands, 110 of which are inhabited. It is a tapestry of ecological, cultural, and social complexity

ANTARCTICA

AUIP destination Antarctica
The coldest, driest, and windiest place on Earth, Antarctica is a frozen desert that is the least understood of Earth’s continents