Every year people from all over the world come to the United States to pursue their dreams. Some people come in as immigrants and work hard to succeed. Others come in as tourists and get an exposure of the American success. It is known all over the world that the engine that powers the American dream is a successful college education. The vision of the American Dream – the idea that you can pursue opportunities to build your success from rags to riches by working hard and making milestone achievements like graduating from college, finding a stable professional job, and ultimately buying your own home – drives millions of students, and particularly international students, to get excited every year and start their parkour toward a successful American life. In fact, the number of international students enrolled in the US colleges in 2016 is 975,000. It increased from 1% in 1949-50 to 5% in 2014-15 (International Education Report, 2017). For these reasons international student’s topics grasped the interest of many scholars around the world (McClellan).
International students are defined as a group of students coming from different countries who bring diversity of cultural and educational backgrounds from their home countries. This diversity can be both useful and challenging to their new life in the American society (Bevice and Lucas, 2007). These foreign students in higher education contribute highly to the US economy. They contributed 36.9 billion dollars to the US economy in 2016 – 2017 academic year, and they financed the jobs of 450,00 Americans (NAFSA 2016-17). In addition to that, they offer a direct exposure of international cultures to the American students. They also allow them to positively interact with multiple cultures and languages that characterize international students. This is great for many of the American students who cannot afford to study abroad. The American higher education system is committed to help international students adjust to their new lives in a supportive environment because the American universities consider themselves as a home that will build future world leaders. The student affairs offices provide different services and program to facilitate the new transition and the integration of the international students.
Engagement is very important for students to succeed. It can fill the academic gaps that students may have before starting college (Kuh, 2009). For international students, engagement is a way to compensate their language deficiency in the United States. Another way to develop the use of engagement is to collect data from different institutions to know how much the students were engaged in their high school learning (Kuh). Student Affair professionals should communicate with the international students to find out how much they were engaged in their learning in high schools to facilitate their transition to the new education system in the United States. Engagement is a key to success in higher education (Anaya, 1996; Baxter Magolda, 1992). Higher Education professionals should encourage students to participate in activities that require a high level of engagement. Participating in campus events such as workshops, student organizations, clubs, and voluntary organizations inside and outside the campus will promote and develop international students’ learning and will increase their sense of belonging for a better success.
International students look at the student’s affairs services not only as a faculty member but a their first confident, mentors, advisors, and coaches. As one of the international students I believe that the higher education system in the United States need to invest more resources to serve international students. My interaction with the college advisors was not very good. The information provided in the website did not match the information provided to me on the phone by the advisor. I preferred if the college has an updated user-friendly website where information can be searched within two or three clicks. I would also like to see advisors who specialized in transfer credit policies of dedicated senior colleges. For example, one advisor could specialize on transfer policies for Baruch college, and another specialized for transfer policies of Brooklyn colleges. I also wish that the faculty and staff understood the challenges international students have in adapting to the school environment while learning to adapt a foreign city. Sometimes, professors speak as if they are addressing local students and leave foreign students confused about background details. Other times faculty fail to understand that cultural differences prevent many foreign students from engaging in a constructive dialogue with the class and the professor where debating opposite ideas are encouraged. professional services need to provide more resources and time to support the international students to engage in American learning system.
Student Affairs professionals can organize meetings and orientation sessions where international students discuss together their challenges engaging into the education system in the United States and how to use the available resources to adjust to this new system. For example, Student Affairs office can create programs that give the international students the ability to apply what they have learned with their professors in the real-life situation.
Sources:
International Education Report/ https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1AVNE_enUS689US689&q=international+students+in+united+states&spell=1&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjNtKOzlcHXAhUEySYKHdINCFsQvwUIJSgA&biw=1366&bih=
Kuo, 2011 Language challenges faced by international Graduate Students in the United States/ http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED526158.pdf
(McClellan). The Global Practice of Students affairs/services: An Exploratory international survey
(Anaya, 1996; Baxter Magolda, 1992) Chapter 1 Making Engagement Equitable for Students in U.S. Higher Education Shaun R. Harper and Stephen John Quaye.
Bevis, T.b. & Lucas, C. J. (2007). International Students in American Colleges and Universities. Nwe York, NY/ Https://jistudents.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/10-international-atudents-in-america.pdf.
(NAFSA 2009-17) NAFSA International Student Economic Value. Tool/http://www.nafsa.org/Policy-and-Advocacy/Policy-Resources/Policy-Trends-and-Data/NAFSA-International-Student-Economic-Value-Tool/