Another Academic Year Begins: Have You Implemented Programming that Highlight Interactions Between U.S. and International Students as a High Impact Practice?

Gary Rhodes
Associate Dean, International Education & Senior International Officer,
College of Extended & International Education
Director, Center for Global Education
California State University at Dominguez Hills

In previous Terra Dotta Newsletters, I’ve emphasized the potential of study abroad to be a high impact practice that impacts retention, success and career. Last month, I focused on issues of how to effectively recruit international students and the question of whether to use agents to support that process.

Whether through the use of agents or other means of recruitment, IIE Open Doors data continues to show an increase in the numbers of international students at many U.S. colleges and universities. Particularly in public colleges and universities, a regular issue that arises is whether international students are taking the place of U.S. citizens and resident students from that state. One response is that the extra income from international students supports increased numbers of classes and enhanced aid for all students on campus while funds from most state governments to support public higher education continues to decrease.

Both promoting study abroad and fostering interactions between U.S. and international students impact retention, success, and career for U.S. students.

In George D. Kuh’s publication High-Impact Educational Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access to Them, and Why They Matter (AAC&U, 2008), he highlights a number of high impact areas in higher education. The chart at the following link provides a summary of those practices: https://www.aacu.org/sites/default/files/files/LEAP/HIP_tables.pdf. Three of the high impact practices include areas that provide opportunities for international students to make an impact:

Common Intellectual Experiences: Combining broad themes, including global interdependence is highlighted. The potential for international students to bring issues of global interdependence to life is clear.
Collaborative Assignments and Projects: Collaborative learning combines two key goals - learning to work and solve problems in the company of others, and sharpening one’s own understanding by listening seriously to the insights of others, especially those with different backgrounds and life experiences. International students can bring unique and different backgrounds and life experiences to enhance the impact of collaborative assignments and projects.
Diversity/Global Learning: Many colleges and universities now emphasize courses and programs that help students explore cultures, life experiences, and worldviews different from their own. These studies—which may address U.S. diversity, world cultures, or both—often explore “difficult differences” such as racial, ethnic, and gender inequality, or continuing struggles around the globe for human rights, freedom, and power. Frequently, intercultural studies are augmented by experiential learning in the community and/or by study abroad. Interactions with international students can bring life to issues of other cultures, life experiences, and other worldviews.

Two of the common characteristics described by Kuh of high impact practices are:

Extensive and substantive interaction with faculty and peers, and
Interaction with people different than themselves.

I would suggest that if colleges and universities develop intentional efforts to connect U.S. and international students as a high impact practice, not only can that positively impact the students, but it can also reinforce the rationale for why international students are critical to U.S. student success on campus.

Following are some highlighted practices found in the Center for Global Education’s Research on Student Mobility and Internationalization. This resource, developed with support from UCLA and Terra Dotta Software, highlights innovative international student support programming (https://www.globaled.us/internationalization):

The Ametrica Project at Macalester College (https://www.macalester.edu/isp/programs/ametrica):

The Ametrica Project begins with all members participating in Pre-Orientation for International Students (PO4IS). This requires that Domestic participants arrive on Monday, August 24, and participate in all PO4IS activities alongside their international peers until all student orientation begins. Weekly meetings take place on every Thursday afternoon(4:30 pm-6:30 pm) in the first 7 weeks of Fall semester.

This is the sixth year of the Ametrica Project. The most important aspect is for dialogue about diverse issues to take place among students from around the world – allowing students to look at these issues through different lenses. Facilitated by the Department of International Student Programs (ISP), this out-of-classroom program is both theoretical and experiential. Ametrica explores diverse cultural similarities and differences. Each student in the program will work in small groups (4-8) with Ametrica facilitators. The Ametrica facilitators will organize weekly programs in conjunction with Macalester faculty, staff and institutions around the Twin Cities during the fall semester. Topics explored will include, but not be limited to, family, peace, politics, law and order, economics, health, race and love. Ideally, international and US students will be equally represented as participants within the program as in past years.

Participants will build valuable international relationships through Ametrica, which can be a critical stepping-stone for the rest of your experiences during and after your time at Macalester College. Both domestic and international Ametrica participants are assigned ISP mentors and participate in various activities within diverse international groups (check the Mentor Program link for details). The program will include several trips to off-campus locations for small group meetings. The meetings will both be at interesting locations in the Twin Cities and homes of alumni, faculty and administrators. Our goal is for each participant to go to with a different group of students on each journey. The planned outings include going to a location in the arts (e.g., museum, theater, concert), a surprise location, the home of an alum(na), and home of a member of the Macalester faculty or staff.
University of Kansas Global Partners Program (https://iss.ku.edu/globalpartners) connected to their Global Awareness Program (https://gap.ku.edu):

The Global Partners Program: Global Partners is an exciting way to meet people from all over the world and make life-long friends at the University of Kansas. International and domestic students are matched and placed into semester-long groups of four, giving students an opportunity to get to know other cultures on a person level. The groups are formed based on members' interests, academic majors, and languages. Participation in the Global Partners Program is recognized for students working to earn their Global Awareness Program Certificate.

The Global Awareness Program: The Global Awareness Program recognizes students who demonstrate growth in cultural knowledge, expansion of international perspectives, and development of cross-cultural communications skills that prepare them to work and lead in today's interconnected world.

GAP is open to all undergraduate students and shares the same KU Common Core Goal #4.2: "Respect human diversity and expand cultural understanding and global awareness" and Learning Outcome: "Upon reaching this goal, students will be able to: Examine a variety of perspectives in the global community, distinguish one’s own cultural patterns, and respond flexibly to multiple worldviews."

The program consists of three components: Academic, Co-curricular, and International Experience. Whether for personal enrichment or improving future job prospects, the Global Awareness Program certificate can help you achieve your goals, stay connected to KU’s rich international community, and distinguish you as a Jayhawk ready to lead in a global society.
Global Case Competition at Washington State University (https://ip.wsu.edu/on-campus/overview-schedule)

The Global Case Competition at WSU began in spring 2011, bringing graduate and undergraduate (domestic and international) students from all WSU campuses to form multi-disciplinary teams to develop solutions to issues currently impacting a global community.

Teams of 4 to 6 students work together under a strict timeline to develop a strategic solution to the selected case. Teams present their strategies to a group of judges who will then decide the winners.

Many colleges and universities provide orientation programs for international students, implement social, academic, and English language support for international students, and develop buddy programs to connect international and U.S. students.

However, I would suggest that colleges and universities look more closely at their student academic success and career initiatives to design intentional ways that interactions between U.S. and international students can enhance those efforts on campus.

If your campus has designed special efforts in this area, please share that information with me so that I can add it to our Research on Student Mobility and Internationalization resource. Some ways to multiply the impact of study abroad and international students on retention, success, and career are international community service, international research, or other activities that intentionally matched international students on campus with U.S. students. I would be interested in hearing from you if you have implemented a program like this, so I could share it with others at: https://www.globaled.us/internationalization.

All the best for the 2015/16 Academic Year!