Transitions in Life: Assisting International Students

In each of our lives there have come times when we have all had to up stakes and move to pastures new. Whether that be growing up in different cities around the country (or the world), leaving home for college, or getting that first job after graduation, we've all endured transitions in our lives that can bring with them a range of emotional, physical, and psychological issues. Perhaps no transition where an individual has a choice in the matter is as daunting as moving from one country to another to pursue a dream.

This is the challenge international students face when they commit to studying abroad in the US. As much as international admissions and student services offices try, it is next to impossible to anticipate and understand all the individual circumstances of their new students arriving on campus in the next few weeks. I know from experience, at previous institutions I have worked for, we would send a series of messages to our admitted students starting in April or May through early August. These emails would make our incoming class aware of some of the relevant issues they needed to keep in mind as they prepared to come to our campus. We would send out messages about their visa interview, what to bring/wear, arrival instructions, housing information, orientation schedules, health insurance, weather, student associations on campus, friendship families, and others. These were what we thought were essential elements that would help students prepare for their transition to our campus.

These kind of communications are vital not only to prepare your incoming class for your campus environment, but also to convince these new students that you can and will be well-placed to take care of their needs. All that being said, can all US institutions say that they can anticipate the needs of students from all the various countries they receive students from each year? Probably not. EducationUSA wants to partner with your institution in this process. EducationUSA centers around the world provide pre-departure orientations for their students traveling to the US for studies. These sessions help new students physically, mentally & emotionally prepare themselves for the journey on which they are about to embark. What better way to complement the information you provide to your incoming students, than to refer them to the local EducationUSA center in their city/region for a pre-departure orientation that is specific to the needs of students from that country. The better prepared your students are for what they will face on their long journeys to your campuses and the transitions they need to make, insha'allah, the happier they will be once they arrive.

Good luck to you all in the coming month or so as you await the arrival of your incoming classes. Please, as you move forward with plans for the next recruitment cycle to include EducationUSA as a resource for your prospective students, on the ground in 170 countries. For ways in which you can connect EducationUSA with your prospective students, email me for details. Till next time...

The Value of Relationships and Face-to-Face Interactions

In looking back on the last few months of hyperactivity surrounding EducationUSA, particularly with all our Social Media outreach, I need to pause and reflect on why I love what I do. The people I've met, the relationships I've developed, the places I've been make my "work" a real passion. If you've connected with a guidance counselor, an EducationUSA adviser, a colleague from a partner institution, or even parents and students abroad, don't you want those relationships to grow and thrive? Take this picture for example. Prior to the recent NAFSA Conference in LA, over 150 EducationUSA advisers gathered for a 25th anniversary gala along with US institutional representatives who had hosted these advisers over the course of the last quarter century. These relationships that were formed 2 years, 5, 10, or 20+ years ago have grown stronger over time because they began between two people.

Having been at an institution that before I joined had precious few partner relationships around the world that were healthy and producing regular flows of students. I know how difficult and time consuming these relationships are to develop properly. What I can say, without reservation, that the best form of recruitment is working with your contacts overseas. Whether it be alumni in far flung corners of the world, a guidance counselor at a school whom you met at an OACAC conference, parents of current international students, or EducationUSA advisers in countries where you are looking for help, nothing spreads the good word about your institution better than those who have gotten to know you and/or your college and can speak informatively about the benefits of attending.

Some lucky few institutions, of course, can go a long way internationally on their reputations & rankings, but even the best universities will say it doesn't take long to ruin a good run of form, with a relationship gone south with an important alum, or an unfortunate incident on campus that wasn't handled well. In every case, institutional changes in leadership of international offices up to the presidents' offices make it difficult for even the most gifted and able to maintain all international relationships at their desired levels. What I can say, from 15 years of experience on the university side of international education, my most consistent and fruitful professional relationships have come with individuals in whom I invested time, institutional and personal resources to grow.

In today's fast-paced, high tech world we can often lose sight of what really matters in the long term--the people we meet and touch, the opportunities we make for ourselves, our friends and family, as well as in our work with the relationships we build. The great news here is that keeping up those relationships has become easier with the tools we have at our fingertips. Whether we choose to use them or not to advance our relationships is the question of the day.

Lately, I have seen a disturbing trend in higher education whereby international student enrollments are seen as cash cows. Institutions that set about on a campus internationalization plan who see only dollars signs when they consider expanding international student enrollment flows are missing the point. I won't spend time going on about the lasting & relational benefit of international students' presence on US campuses. I only refer you to the long list of world leaders who were educated in the US--International Students Yesterday, Foreign Leaders Today

We know that post-9/11 the US took a big relational hit globally as to how others viewed our country, in particular how they viewed our government. Of course, we're all aware of how those changes, coupled with the implementation of SEVIS, complicated our lives immeasurably in international education. But what is significant is that we know the way back--it's not easy, and will take time, but it is absolutely essential we take those steps to rebuild. From the top down, the folks in Washington began a long path back to reclaiming our good standing in the world. This administration has made use of technology a key component in the PR battle in which we are all playing a role.


In moving forward with EducationUSA's outreach to our two main audiences -- the US higher education community and prospective international students around the world -- we know we need to become more visible in what we do and where we go. We need to be connecting with more college and university representatives, and creating more opportunities for students abroad to connect with our advising centers, and with our US colleagues. As it relates to US higher education folks--we want to meet you! Please connect with us at upcoming conferences. You can always find these events on our Facebook EducationUSA Fan page. Coming soon, we'll have over a dozen EducationUSA people at OACAC at Chapman University in Orange, CA (July 16-19). We'll also be hosting 3 EducationUSA Regional Advising Conferences in Mexico City (Sept. 28-Oct 2), Prague (March 21-26, 2010), and in Africa (date & location tba in 2010). These regional conferences are where US institutions can get the most bang for their buck--over 100 advisers will be at the Mexico City & Prague conference. IMPORTANT NOTE: Registration for the Western Hemisphere EducationUSA conference in Mexico City closes on July 31. EducationUSA will also have a presence at most all of the regional NAFSA conferences this fall as well.

Please join us at these upcoming events, and of course, when and if you do visit the 170+ countries where EducationUSA has centers, please visit. Here's to seeing each other face-to-face in the coming months.

Connecting with EducationUSA: Why US institutions should

Have you ever been in a room of thousands of people and felt like a needle in a haystack? The recent NAFSA Conference in LA (this year with over 7000 attendees) can induce a feeling quite a bit like the proverbial needle, especially when you are the needle hoping to be found. For our hard working corps of EducationUSA advisers, this year a record number attended, over 150 in total, plus 14 REACs (Regional Educational Advising Coordinators).

At an event as large as the annual NAFSA conference, where many international education folks look forward to each year as perhaps their one opportunity to connect face to face with colleagues from other institutions and abroad, having a plan of attack in place to find your way is essential. You may wonder why I'm raising this topic after the conference has concluded. Well, it was clear that this year, for a variety of reasons, many of which were economic, attendance was down at NAFSA. In the scope of what we do, those few days in LA last month represented a fairly substantial physical presence for our EducationUSA network. But that conference is only the tip of the iceberg for the ways US institutions can connect with the largest global network of professionally trained advisers serving as the official source of information abroad on accredited US higher education opportunities.

While there has been much talk of late as to the use of agents by US colleges & universities, an expensive venture that can have its own share of pitfalls, EducationUSA represents a low or no-cost way to help you achieve your institution's international objectives. What many of our 150 advisers did before or shortly after the event in LA is to visit a variety of US colleges & universities around the country. Because these advisers are to represent all accredited US higher education options to the students in their regions, it is vital that advisers see for themselves what life is like on a variety of different college & university campuses. As a result of these experiences, they can help their prospective students, find their own needle in the haystack--that right school for each student, the right "fit." These advisers see what community colleges are: a great often less expensive pathway to a 4-year bachelor's degree; what a large public university looks and feels like: a wealth of people, technical and social resources on campus for students to pursue their dreams; what a solid mid-size private university can offer in terms of a best-of-both worlds approach to higher education; what a small liberal arts college or specialty school can provide in a nuturing environment with very close interaction with professors.

These advisers cannot promote one university or college over another. They provide this free information and guidance to each student that comes to their centers with no other motive other than to help that student navigate through the college search process, a daunting task for anyone.Those who have been in admissions for more than a minute, especially those who are part of larger enrollment management structures at institutions know, retention rates are some of the truest indicators of an institution's overall success. Our EducationUSA advisers help the students who come to their offices narrow down the overwhelming number of choices based on what the student and/or family have identified as priorities. These advisers also ask the questions that perhaps the families have not considered in the selection process--beyond college & university rankings being the only criteria.

In many countries there are families that are willing to pay exorbidant amounts of money to agents and/or consultants to get their children into the best schools, or any school. This phenomenon may be part of the culture in that country, or it may be a status thing. But in the end, there is no guarantee that the student has found a good match with the right school for them, where they are happy and able to succeed. While no advisers can likely claim that every student that they see never transfers to a different institution once they arrive in the US, one thing does ring true--that student got the most comprehensive advice about all the options he/she had.

We all want our students to be happy where they come to our institutions. Having worked on the US international admissions and students services side for over 15 years, I know what it takes to keep students happy and in a healthy environment once they get to campus, but I also know in working with students during the admissions process that a student who came through an EducationUSA advising center and decided to apply to my institution has good reasons for applying. Likewise, students who randomly applied without having any prior contact with our office (or with an EducationUSA adviser), if admitted, and decided to enroll, typically had a rougher transition, and oftentimes did not know what they were getting into.

Doesn't getting your institution's admissions prospects in touch with EducationUSA advising centers as early in the application process as possible make sense? EducationUSA advisers provide soup-to-nuts advice for prospective students, from the daunting college search, testing information and sometimes prep courses, assistance with finding the funding students need to complete their dream move, preparation for the visa interview at the US consulate, and pre-departure orientation before students leave for the school they have chosen to attend. As much as we (international admissions folks) think we are experts on the world around us, nothing can compare to the on-the-ground, in country support that EducationUSA can provide to your prospective students.

Connecting with EducationUSA has never been easier for US institutions. And with budgets shrinking across the country for international recruitment, it stands to reason that our advisers around the world can assist you with your potential students. If your institution's international admissions page doesn't already have the EducationUSA logo with hyperlink to the www.educationusa.state.gov website, all you need to do to get a hyperlinked version of that logo sent to you is to email educationusa@state.gov with your institution's name, your name, position, and a request for the logo. We suggest when you add this logo to your site, that you include a descriptive paragraph indicating what EducationUSA is and how the advisers can assist students in applying to your institution throughout the process. And this service is free to institutions.

Another free benefit of partnering with EducationUSA is Weekly Update. This weekly email newsletter goes to all advisers in our network (in 170 countries). If your institution has scholarships that are available for international students and/or if you have new academic programs that may be of particular interest to an overseas audience, you can send an email with those details (a short paragraph with weblinks/email addresses for further information) to educationusa@state.gov. If there is a short video that describes these new programs or scholarships, we can embed those in the Weekly Udpate as well. We distribute the Weekly Update to all 450+ EducationUSA Advisers, many of whom for forward it to their student contacts each week.

We also invite you to sign up for the quarterly HEI E-news that highlights the upcoming conferences, recruitment fairs, and event that EducationUSA is either participating in or sponsoring worldwide. Once again, a simple email to educationusa@state.gov will get you added to that distribution list. A new edition will be coming out June 19th.

Online you can also find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pages/EducationUSA/72457958318 where we invite you to become a "fan" of EducationUSA and have a forum where will post events, photos, and other newsworthy items. This venue is meant mainly for EducationUSA advisers and US higher ed folks to come together.

With any luck we'll be seeing you either virtually or in-person at an EducationUSA event. Hope to see you soon. Comments and feedback are always welcome on how EducationUSA can be better serving the US higher education community.