About

Manitou Heights is the blog of Ruth Marie Sylte as part of her consulting work.

On one level, Ruth is simply the net.goddess who enjoys finding both practical and fun ways of using technology and social media/networking to help people connect and learn more about each other.

On another level, she likes to consider the theoretical implications of using strategic communications, public relations, marketing, social media and technology in intercultural communication and international settings — because we live in a world where cross-cultural understanding is critical to success in our increasingly diverse, international business and social environments.

Sometimes Ruth invites other professionals to join the conversation by submitting Guest Posts under their own names. If you would like to contribute to the discussion in that way, or if you have an issue you'd like to see addressed or a question you'd like answered, contact Ruth.

Sometimes she recommend products or tools. When you see a recommendation or link on this blog, it is because she thinks other people should know about it — and often comes from her own experience or interest. It should go without saying that your mileage may vary.

That picture to the right? That's not really Ruth. It's one of her great-grandmothers from Norway, who is generously representing her on the Internet. Not surprisingly, if Ruth dressed in the typical garb of Norwegian peasant farmers from the late 1800s, the two might look very much alike.

Ruth is recognized internationally for her expertise in strategic communications and using technology for international educational exchange and intercultural communication — especially in international, cross-cultural and/or diverse settings. She is a frequent and popular presenter at conferences and workshops in the USA and abroad.

Ruth's paternal grandfather, an immigrant to the USA from Norway, was one of the very first farmers in Minnesota to buy a mechanized farm implement. He and two of his brothers sent money back to their home village of Elnesvågen to build a school, which the town named Sylte Skule. Ruth considers her interests in technology, education and intercultural communication as family traditions, if not genetic dispositions.

Ruth has worked in marketing, public/media relations and communications since 1983. Her higher education experience includes a broad range of institutions: public and private, two-year and four-year, liberal arts colleges and state university systems as well as proprietary schools, nonprofit organizations and third-party providers. She has worked in areas such as undergraduate and graduate school admissions, financial aid, student advising, marketing and public relations and program administration, including a field study center in Jerusalem. She has also worked for a number of years in corporate marketing.

Ruth received her first email address on a campus UNIX machine network in 1978, before the Internet existed as we know it today. Despite — or, more accurately, because of — her liberal arts education, she has been on the merry path towards "technology nirvana" ever since.

She was made an official Net.Goddess by Nordic tech geeks in 1994.

That same year, she became one of the early leaders in the use of technology and the beginnings of social media within the field of international education by creating, developing and maintaining both the the Internet's first general education abroad web site as well as the first e-mail newsletter on abroad opportunities that quickly grew to more than 6,000+ community members / subscribers.

From 1996-1999, Ruth was the first woman Chair of NAFSA: Association of International Educator's TechSIG (Technology Special Interest Group), serving on the SIG's steering committee from 1995-2001. In 1997, she was awarded an OSEAS Partnership Grant from NAFSA and USIA to work with academic advising offices/advisers in South Asia (Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand) on technology issues. In 1999, she and two colleagues were presented with the NAFSA: Association of International Educators Region XII Regional Service Award for their work in encouraging the use of technology within the field of international education.

Ruth has been an invited or accepted speaker and/or trainer at more than 50 professional conferences (including AACRAO, NAFSA, CIEE, EAIE, BUTEX, CCIS, among others), delivering hundreds of presentations about using technology and social media tools for strategic communications, public/media relations, marketing and building communities in international, cross-cultural and diverse environments.

Ruth has a B.A. from St. Olaf College with majors in Political Science and Religion and a minor in History.

To contact Ruth, send her an email through the Manitou Heights Contact Form or through one of her profiles, links to which are located in the far right column.

Manitou Heights is a consulting firm that uses strategic communications, public relations, marketing, social media and technology tools?that to empower clients to improve their relationships with their communities. The firm was founded in 1999.

The firm takes its name from "Manitou Heights", a densely wooded hill located on the west side of the small town of Northfield, Minnesota USA. The acreage was purchased in 1876 by a small group of far-sighted Norwegian Lutheran immigrant farmers and pastors in order to build an institution of higher education, St. Olaf College, for the young men and women of their emigrant community. The college was the first among the Norwegian Lutheran schools in America to grant a B. A. degree to a woman. Today, St. Olaf is renowned for its international educational exchange programs and is the number-one baccalaureate institution in the United States in the number of students who have studied abroad.

At Manitou Heights, we prefer to try to see both the forest and the trees. See what others say about us.