REENTRY FOR THE NET GENERATION

ADDRESSING INTERNATIONAL STUDENT NEEDS THROUGH AN ONLINE TRAINING

INSTRUMENT

Elizabeth K. Weisenburger

PIM 63

Capstone Paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Master of Intercultural

Service, Leadership, and Management at the School for International Training, Brattleboro,

Vermont, USA.

September 15, 2008

Linda Gobbo, Advisor

The author hereby grants to the School for International Training the permission to reproduceeither electronically or in print format this document in whole or in part for library archival

purposes only.

The author hereby does _____ does not _____ grant to the School for International Training thepermission to electronically reproduce and transmit this document to the students, alumni, staff,

and faculty of the World Learning Community.

Author’s Signature__________________________

Elizabeth K. Weisenburger, 2008. All rights reserved.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I’d like to thank my loving family and friends for their support and prayers for me throughout theCapstone process. I would most especially like to thank my parents, Dr. Thomas and DianeWeisenburger, for laboring to love and support me so enthusiastically through my graduate

studies and the completion of my Capstone Research, which was accomplished under their carewhile recuperating from a debilitating illness. I heartily thank Dr. Christina Sanchez, Director ofthe University of San Francisco (USF) International Student Services Office. She was not only

my practicum advisor, but she was also my professional mentor and friend. It was under herapproval and support that this research was born and conducted. Additionally, a big thanks goesout to the USF staff and faculty whom I interviewed. Their collaborative nature and passion forinternational students made my work all the more enjoyable. My heartfelt love and thanks to my

dearest friend Janie Worster, my PIM 63 Capstone Buddy Michaela Brehm, and my Christiancommunity of friends whom all persisted in their encouragement, love and spiritual support to

help me persevere and finish what I had begun, even when my health challenges seemedinsurmountable. Lastly, gratitude goes to my Lord Jesus Christ, my sun, my bread, and my

sustaining grace for whose glory this research is due.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Tables iv

Abstract v

Introduction and Statement of Research Question 1

Literature Review 6

Research Methodology 19

Presentation of Data 22

Analysis of Data 35

Conclusions 39

Statement of Conclusion

Practical Applicability

Recommendations for further research

Appendix A 46

Appendix B 48

Bibliography 50

iv

LIST OF TABLES

Table

1. USF Staff & Faculty Perceived Roles and the Demographic of International 22

Students They Serve

2. Perceived International Student Reentry Needs 24

3. USF Staff & Faculty Suggestion to Address International Student Re- Entry 29

Needs via an Online Reentry Training Instrument

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ABSTRACT

For international students who leave the familiarity of home to study in the US, it can be

surprising to find that in returning home they may face a re-acculturation process similar to the

one experienced abroad. Reentry workshops have been proven to be the most effective ways of

preparing students for the process of returning home, yet due to the concrete challenges that US

colleges and universities face in implementing them to unaware students, they are a topic of low

priority are rarely administered. In this digital age, practitioners have suggested implementing

online reentry training as an inventive solution to the challenges of reentry preparation.

This research explores the perceived reentry needs specific to international students at the

University of San Francisco (USF) and how those needs can be addressed through a online

reentry training instrument. Standardized open-ended interviews were conducted with nine

members of USF faculty and staff to assess their perceived needs of the international students

with whom they closely work, investigating ways to creatively address those needs via an online

reentry training and ongoing orientation efforts with the International Student Services office.

The findings indicated seven salient reentry needs including reconciling residency

expectations after graduation, successful career transition, and contextualizing reentry in overall

life transition. Accompanied training suggestions include online role-playing, utilizing and

developing international job social networking databases and web spaces, and posting alumni

student anecdotes. Done to equip international students for a more successful reentry home, the

process undertaken by USF to assess and implement an online reentry training can be a template

of collaboration for other colleges and universities seeking to address reentry preparation.

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Introduction and Statement of Research Question

“There’s nothing half so pleasant as coming home,” wrote the essayist Margaret Sangster.

Indeed, “home” for most of us conjures up the deepest sense of belonging and familiarity. Yet,

for those who leave the familiarity of home to work or study abroad, it can be surprising to find

that in returning home, what was once so intimately familiar can become surprisingly alien. It

would naturally seem unreasonable that anyone should have difficulty fitting back to one’s

country whose values and customs are so intimately familiar (Austin 1996). Yet, this is a reality

most intercultural sojourners experience in leaving their place of belonging at home in exchange

for belonging elsewhere.

In returning home, intercultural sojourners can find that they have developed and

integrated values, expectations, and behaviors that are different from the ones they had at home,

undergoing a re-acculturation process similar to the one experienced abroad (Freedman 1983;

Butcher 2003; Brabant, Palmer, Gramling 1990; Gama and Pedersen 1977). This re-adaptation at

home can lend itself to surprise, shock, and unpreparedness, an experience also known as

“reentry shock.” Reentry shock has been shown to create a range of difficulties, including

psychological distress with interpersonal relationships, particularly with friends and family,

conflict with self and family expectations, and reverse homesickness (Storti 1997).

A large demographic of intercultural sojourners are represented by the international

students enrolled in US colleges and universities whose numbers reached approximately over

half a million in the 2006/2007 academic year1. Drawn to the opportunities of higher education

in the US, they expend vast amounts of personal and economic capital in pursuit of their

academic and career goals. Entering the US, they are granted an F-1 or J-1 visa intended for 1 582,984 students according to The Institute of International Education’s 2007 Open Doors report

2

students and scholars who can demonstrate non-immigrant intent. Though some international

students come for short-term semester or year-long study, most come to complete a degree

program, spending the entirety of their undergraduate and graduate years studying and living in

the culture and language of their American university and its environs. In sum, their study abroad

and reentry experience, which most often ends with practical training and/or a career transition,

can be one of profound adaptation and transition.

Having lived and worked with international students and in field of study abroad in

various personal and professional capacities, I sought to further my theoretical and skill training

in intercultural education and management at the School for International Training. My graduate

student practicum at the International Student Services Office (ISS) at the University of San

Francisco (USF) returned me to the field of international student services and allowed me to put

my newly-acquired knowledge and training into practice. USF enrolls approximately 550

international students and scholars each year2. With the support of the ISS Director, I sought and

was given the task of implementing an accessible and portable way to address reentry

preparation for USF international students through an online training instrument, developed and

implemented in collaboration with the Information Technology (IT) department. My interest in

addressing international student reentry was born from an identified need at USF and my own

experience as a study abroad student who experienced reentry shock. It was further fueled by the

discrepancies I witnessed in the professional field of international education where intercultural

tools and reentry trainings were being widely employed by study abroad offices and seemingly

less so in the international student services offices, who were increasingly burdened with

immigration compliance.

2 Accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), the university’s 8,500-member studentbody is composed of students from 75 countries, and is ranked in the Top 15 national universities for studentdiversity and international student enrollment.

3

I began my Capstone research addressing the most basic cornerstone of training

development, a needs assessment (Silverman & Auerbach 1998). In tandem with the needs

assessment, I wanted to generate ideas on how those needs could be creatively addressed through

the online training instrument that would be implemented. My research thus sought to answer the

following question: What are the perceived reentry needs of international students at the

University of San Francisco and how can those needs be addressed through a culture-general

online training instrument? The findings will be used by the International Student Services

Office (ISS) to inform the content of this instrument and its ongoing orientation of international

students.

It has been advocated and proven that through training and preparation, international

students can understand that the emotions and experiences they may face upon reentry are

normal and be given skills, attitudes, and knowledge to help them re-adapt successfully. The fact,

however, is that most international students are not being prepared before returning home

(Williams 2006). Though it is common for international students who study in the United States

to attend extensive orientation programs held by their universities when they first arrive in this

country, it is rare for American colleges and universities to offer reentry preparation or training

(Williams 2006; Cox 2006; Adams 1993; Arthur 2003). It is a topic of low priority in most US

colleges and universities due to challenges in institutional support, the prohibitive time and

resources necessary to design, implement, and advertise a workshop, and uninterested

international students. Because of these challenges, few reentry workshops or information

sessions are being implemented (Cox 2006, Williams 2006).

4

The ISS office at USF is charged with both an advisory and programmatic mission. 3 Its

staff carries out this mission through on-campus orientation, immigration advising, Student and

Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS)4 compliance, year-round tax and visa workshops,

personal counseling appointments, and the sponsorship of on-campus global awareness and

cultural enrichment programs. With a campus culture that seeks to promote seamless learning,

ISS staff are not limited to their collaboration with only those in the Student Life Department,

under which it is housed. The ISS Director often accepts invitations to do intercultural trainings

with both Student Life and academic departments and chairs a task force with ISS staff that

involves faculty and staff who are interested in promoting the well being of international students

in all areas of on-campus life: the classroom, housing, academic services, etc. Though they make

their work seem easy, it accomplished with great dedication, Herculean efforts, and a minimal

budget.

Incoming orientation and the above-stated on-campus programs help to support

international students throughout the academic year. There are efforts to give graduating students

recognition, celebrating their accomplishments with a newly instituted annual graduation party.

Yet, apart from this party and a career workshop done in collaboration with Career Services,

there is no existing preparation for students’ return home. Implementing an online reentry

training takes advantage of the growing technological options available to educators and

administrators in surmounting the lack of time and resources available in offering student reentry

support (Cox 2006).

3 USF ISS Office Mission: International Student Services promotes a global perspective for the USF communitythrough educational and programmatic outreach while fostering the holistic development of internationalstudents/scholars by providing support services and immigration advising.4 The Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) is used to track and monitor schools andprograms, students, exchange visitors and their dependents throughout the duration of approved participation withinthe U.S. education system (http://www.ice.gov/sevis/).

5

Taking advantage of technology is nothing new. Web sites, blog spots, Facebook groups,

and other such internet developments have bursted into cyberspace with rapid growth and

international educators and administrators have responded, changing the ways in which they

educate, train, and administrate students and their programs (Rhodes 1995). There are countless

ways in which colleges, universities, and in-country sending agencies have harnessed the internet

to their advantage by hosting web pages and student blogs dedicated to the marketing of

prospective international students, posting required documents online, and utilizing Yahoo and

Facebook groups to communicate with and support students. Even the once encumbering and

voluminous International Student Advising Manual, published by the National Association of

International Educators (NAFSA), is now online with immigration updates made in real-time.

NAFSA has even formed a technology Special Interest Group and boasts an award-winning

resource website for its professional members. Though such developments do not replace

person-to-person contact and collaboration, it reflects the practical implications of technology for

international education practitioners.

In 2002-2003, Dr. LaBrack, a long-time NAFSA member and professor of Anthropology

and International Studies at the University of the Pacific, received a federal education grant to

create one of the first interactive cross-cultural training websites for use and modification by

intercultural practitioners. “What’s Up With Culture?” (http://www.uop.edu/sis/culture/) was

developed from over 30 years of cross-cultural training coursework developed at his university

and the School for International Studies (SIS). Though there are current developments in the

field to further develop online cross-cultural training, this site has remained a standard in its use

by international educators and administrators.

6

It is Dr. LaBrack’s site that will provide the basis and template for USF’s reentry training

instrument. The following literature review and the perceived international student needs and

suggestions to meet those needs that this research is intended to generate will be used to inform

and modify its content. It is hoped that the research and pursuant training instrument helps USF

international students better understand and transition back home with the skills, attitudes, and

behaviors they need to succeed.

Literature Review

Anyone interested in international student reentry quickly finds that excavating the

existing reentry literature to find current and culture-general research can be a challenging task.

Ironically, student sojourners are perhaps the best–researched group of cross-cultural travelers,

according to Bochner, Ward, and Furnham (2001). There is an extensive body of work that has

focused on friendship networks and skills acquisition, inter-group perceptions and relations, the

prediction of psychological, socio-cultural and academic adaptation, and fluctuations in cross-

cultural adaptation over time. Yet, though there is considerable theoretical and empirical research

on international students when they come to the United States, there is comparatively little on the

adaptive process of returning and adapting back home (Bochner, Ward, & Furnham 2001; Martin

1984; Grabant, Palmer, & Grambling 1990).

A major factor for this absence of reentry research is the large difficulty of conducting

cross-national research (Grabant, Palmer, & Grambling 1990). Though there has been a lack of

recent theory development in cultural general cross-cultural reentry research since the internet

age (Williams, 2006. p.12), several empirical studies have emerged, the greater of them have

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centered on one or two specific nationality group of students and the variables that affect their

reentry, such as family relations, age, nationality, and gender (Cox 2006, p.5).

Historical Reentry Research Materials

Theoretical Research

Resoundingly, the majority of intercultural scholars and practitioners are continuing the

use and modification of classic theories like the Gullahorn and Gullahorn’s classic W-curve

theory and pursuant stage theories to describe the complex reentry transition that intercultural

sojourners experience (Martin 1984, Cox 2006). Though not without its critics that question its

continued permanence and validity, these theories continue to be used for lack of alternatives.

Yet, the caveat remains: care and caution should be used and students reminded that these are

models and not exact predictors for how the will experience reentry or the emotions that attend to

it. As one international educator explained it:

Sojourners face different circumstances that can profoundly influence their entry andreentry experience and influence the phases of their transition. If educators utilize thismodel to explain entry and reentry to students; they should use caution to assure studentsthat it is a model and not an exact indicator of how they will feel or react duringacculturation and re-acculturation. (Cox 2006, p. 23)

The majority of reentry literature cites Gullahorn and Gullahorn’s classic W-curve

hypothesis. The W-curve hypothesis was first developed as a concept in 1963, extending

Lysgaard’s U-curve hypothesis (1955). Having studied Fulbright students, they found that

students, after having acculturated to their host country, found themselves undergoing a similar

re-acculturation upon return home. The W-cure has six stages: 1) Stages of euphoria and

optimism in the new country, (2) a decline in adjustment to the host culture followed by (3) a

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recovery stage of increasing adjustment, (4) initial feelings of euphoria and satisfaction after

returning to the home country followed by (5) another decline in adjustment in the home culture

and, finally (6) if they are able to make the final adjustment there is a stage of recovery and

increased adjustment (Gama and Pedersen 1997, p.47).

Stage theories, where researchers have conceptualized the adjustment process in stages

and phases, have also been used to understand reentry as well. Though there are different names

used for the stages most researchers follow something similar, to the following:

A honeymoon phase, where the sojourner is excited by the experience, followed by a periodcharacterized by confusion or disintegration in confronting new beliefs, values, andbehaviors. This “culture shock” phase may be marked by withdrawal, confrontation,depression, and alienation. A final stage is “recovery” or adjustment, characterized byincreased sensitivity, understanding and appreciation for host culture. (Martin 1984, p.115)

Other more recent and less used models are Martin’s (1986) communication-centered

theory and Art Freedman’s (1980) strategies for managing cultural transitions. Martin’s

communication-centered theory is based on four assumptions: 1) In order to understand the role

of communication in reentry, we should examine the sojourner’s communication (acquisition of

meanings and rules) in three cultural contexts: the home environment before leaving, the foreign

culture, and the reentry environment. 2) The intercultural sojourn is viewed as a process of

change for the individual, including changes in meaning structure, in internalized rules for

interaction, and in concomitant communication behaviors. 3) For the intercultural sojourner,

reentry is the process of understanding and interpreting changes- in the home environment and in

reentry relationships. 4) It is through communication with others that the sojourner reenters.

Art Freedman, in A Strategy for Managing “Cultural” Transitions: Reentry from

Training, writes of the migration from one’s host or foreign culture to one’s native culture

delineating the transition into three stages: conflict, disconfirmation, and renegotiation. Conflict

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occurs upon coming home when sojourners realize they can’t pick up where left off.

Disconfirmation happens when hopeful expectations of family, friends, and associates are

challenged or disconfirmed. During this reentry process, individuals’ level of comfort,

effectiveness, and satisfaction dip down almost as far as when they first migrated to the foreign

culture. However, after going through the same cycle of cultural shock impact, recoil, and

accommodation, their equilibrium becomes somewhat restored and new but increasingly secure

relationships begin to be established with citizens of native culture. Renegotiation happens when

enduring and meaningful new relationships are reformed and based on the creation of new and

mutually acceptable expectations. Students will have to be prepared to modify their recently

acquired foreign behavior in order not to give up the benefits derived from their travels. They

can attempt to model their newly acquired behavior for their fellow natives—inviting them to

tolerate, accept, maybe experiment with new behavior themselves (Freedman, 1980).

Critical variables have been identified in much of the empirical research done on reentry

(Martin 1984). The different kinds of variables that Martin has identified as background

variables are: (1) gender, age and academic level, previous cross-cultural experience, and

nationality, (2) host culture variables, location and duration of sojourn, degree of interaction with

host culture, and (3) reentry variables as the physical and social environment of the sojourners

return.

As a complement to Cox’s caveat to the use of the above theories, models, and concepts

used above, Martin (1986) advocates the need to consider the process nature of reentry. Reentry

cannot be defined in external temporary boundaries, as sojourners psychologically prepare and

anticipate transitions prior to physically leaving, the locus of the process thus being internal.

Additionally, in explaining the essential components of reentry training design and

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implementation, she speaks of the importance of conceptualizing reentry in the larger perspective

of adult transition. Within the larger context of adult transition, she talks about addressing three

dimensions: Interpersonal psychological adjustment, interpersonal skills leading to functional

fitness, and cognitive learning.

Empirical Research

Several empirical studies have identified reentry difficulties faced by international

students returning home and why they occur. Asuncion-Lande’s (1976) classic categorical

inventory of reentry problems, developed by a group of foreign graduate students, demonstrated

that students actually anticipate certain concerns about coming home. She categorized the

concerns into six categories: cultural, social, linguistic, political, educational, and professional.

Concerns ranged from cultural adjustments having to do with change in lifestyle, social

adjustments going from the individualism of the US to familialism (where conformity and

submission to the demands of the family) and uncertainties in interpersonal relations, and

concerns that the one’s professional aspirations would be hindered by political climate, lack of

opportunity, or a US education that was not recognized.

Brabant, Palmer, and Grambling (1990) examined the re-adaptation of 96 University of

Southwestern Louisiana foreign students to family, friends, and life in general. Their data

indicated that culture shock may not be so universal as generally assumed and that reentry shock

could be alleviated by visits home. These finding are consistent with James Corey’s5 suggestions

that international students return home to alleviate reentry shock. (Austin 1986; Corey 1986) In

addition, they found that there was a direct correlation between gender and several problems

5 Corey had taught in Saudi Arabia and had witnessed the difficulties that US-taught Arab doctoral degree earnershad faced upon return home where the social and political conventions were drastically different and theimprovement to reentry that maintained contact brought.

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related to reentry. Females were more likely than males to report problems with both family and

daily life, and to find their friends had changed. (Brabant, Palmer, and Grambling 1990, p.397)

Gama and Pedersen’s (1976) study of 31 Brazilian students returning home from the US

reported that most of their subjects’ problems were related to their professional life and the

difficulty in adjusting to the lack of facilities, materials, opportunities for research, and

bureaucratic red tape. However, like the study above, students felt their abilities to cope were

adequate.

Andrew Butcher’s (2002) more recent study A Grief Observed: East Asian International

Students Returning to Their Country of Origin, highlights grieving as an aspect or phase of

reentry, studying 50 graduates of New Zealand Universities. He observed that East Asian

international students returning home often experienced grief that could not be observed out of

social convention and restrictions (e.g. familial piety or respect). Because of this phenomenon

their grief became “disenfranchised grief,” a grief that could not be openly acknowledged

(p.355). Their grief was produced by returning to family and family expectations, renegotiating

relationships where emotional loss was encountered, and the changing expectations and

renegotiation of relationships relating to a changed worldview.

Butcher strongly advocates reentry programs and preparation in moving from a grief

observed to a “grief understood.” In addition to keeping up with newspapers and e-mail, he cites

the importance of a workshop or preparation program that will provide students a positive

framework to reflect on the changes that took place because of their cross-cultural experiences

while establishing contact with those who can provide moral support in both home and host

countries.

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Lastly, but importantly, Dr. Nancy Arthur made a considerable contribution to

international students and the career aspect of their reentry in the new Handbook for Counseling

International Students in the United States, delivering a chapter on career development.

Given NAFSA’s focus on global workforce development issues in recent years, thechapter on career development, by Dr. Nancy Arthur, a Canadian professor, is notable.She discusses the gap between increased efforts to recruit larger numbers of internationalstudents and the needed infrastructure support and services to meet their needs. Herrecent writing uniquely focuses on the complexities of career decision-making forinternational students and the need for increases understanding of the constraints thesestudents face as they enter the global workforce. (Tillman 2008. p.15)

Cultural Reentry Workshops

Workshops or information sessions have been shown to be the most effective ways of

disseminating reverse culture shock information and preparing sojourners cognitively and

emotionally for the process of reentry (Cox 2006, p.1). Richard Brislin and H.Van Buren IV, in

their study Can They Go Home Again?, documented their reentry workshops for international

students at the East-West Center at the University of Hawaii. Using the work of psychological

theorist Irving Janis as the theoretical basis for their seminars they worked the concept of “the

work of worrying” into their workshop. Janis argues that worrying about potentially stressful

events is helpful. Such work can force the person to learn as much as possible about the event, to

prepare for its negative effects so as to not be surprised by them, and to envisage what he might

do if any of the negatives effects indeed occur. Conclusively, Brislin and Van Buren IV do not

suggest that students will have problems, but present possible problems and other conflicts as

potential problems and encourage students to think through them. The assumption is that if

students work through these issues before going home and prepare for potential conflicts, they

will have fewer problems after they actually return home.

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Art Freedman (1983) notes that his three stages of conflict, disconfirmation, and

renegotiation can be explained with the W-curve theory in training and helps absorb a great deal

of tension and anxiety that participants tend to experience toward the end of a workshop when

they begin to anticipate the reentry process and is especially helpful in providing workshop

participants with some conceptual handles that they can use in re-entering their native culture.

Laurie Cox, in her dissertation Going Home: Perceptions of International Students on the

Efficacy of a Reentry Workshop, found that very few studies have linked cultural reentry theory

with the design of a reentry workshop (Cox 2006. p 6). Seeking to bridge the gap in the

integration of empirical research and training design, she created her own culture-general

workshop for international students, representing 22 different nationalities, at the University of

Southern California, one of the largest receiver of international students. Designed specifically to

assist international students with addressing and controlling various aspects of cultural reentry,

she found that of the small student sample size that attended her workshop and returned home,

they were unanimously positive, with a few neutral, that workshop helped them to adjust back

home. The workshop elements that the students found most helpful were: discussing how

students could feel comfortable with their growth and changes, developing strategies for

successful transition back home, and renegotiating relationships.

The Challenges of Implementing Cultural Reentry Training at US Colleges and Universities

The most current research done in surveying what US colleges and universities were

doing to address reentry, was conducted by Shannon Williams. An international student advisor

and alumnus of the School for International Training, she was interested in finding out what US

colleges and universities were doing to help students in their reentry process as part of her

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master’s completion project. To test her hypothesis that US colleges and universities were

minimally addressing reentry shock, she surveyed and received responses from 68 institutions

that enrolled the highest number of international students for each of the five Carnegie

educational institutions categories: Doctoral/Research, Masters, Baccalaureate, Associate and

Specialized (Williams 2006, p.16).

Her data concluded three challenges to implementing reentry workshops for international

students, accounting for their absence in most US colleges and universities. The first challenge is

institutional. Though international student advisors were researched to show interest in

implementing reentry workshops, there exists a lack of institutional support to carry them out.

Second, is the lack of office resources to implement workshops, making it a low priority amongst

competing responsibilities. Lastly, she identified a lack of student interest and awareness. As

international students don’t anticipate a transition back home and are usually too busy making

practical preparations to leave for home or enter practical or professional training opportunities

in the US, they often will not attend a workshop, even if it is offered. Whereas Williams found

that some universities addressed reentry through online newsletters, handouts, and information

sessions, as a whole, she concluded that there was little being done to address reentry shock for

the above stated reasons.

Andrew Butcher, in his research of Asian international students returning home from

Australian Universities, noted that universities’ international student support services are

increasingly offering reentry preparedness programs, although they tend to be of varying quality

and often with only nominal support from university management. (Butcher 2002, p.363) Not to

be entirely faulted, US universities and colleges have needed to adjust to political forces and

demands of the existing market economy. Stephen Bochner, in his collaborative work The

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Psychology of Culture Shock, notes that in major receiving countries such as the US,

international students have become part of an export industry (Ward, Bochner, & Furnham 2001,

p.22). Much of the current rhetoric and literature that is produced by NAFSA’s international

student knowledge community reflects the need to sustain this educational export industry.

NAFSA’s article “Restoring US Competitiveness” (2006) and its report of the Strategic Task

Force on International Student Access (2003) persuades US lobbyists of the need to keep access

open to a steady stream of international students from abroad and argues for the educational,

security, and foreign policy benefits of doing so.

In addition to responding to political and market forces, international student offices may

be responsible for recruitment, admissions, and other tax and practical workshops that are a part

of student’s on-going orientation needs. These responsibilities leave staff and offices strapped for

time and resources. With the post 9/11 shift to using the new government tracking system

SEVIS, most international student offices are too busy to attend to the intercultural aspects of

their work by the time demanded to make sure their universities and colleges are in compliance

with government regulations. A recent International Educator article entitled, “Devil in the

Details,” narrates this experience from those working in the field:

The advent of SEVIS brought with it a paradigm shift within the international educatorcommunity. We are now compliance focused, in an environment where human errors,like entering the wrong year on a date, can have disastrous consequences… Many of usare education abroad veterans who want to facilitate the same kind of interculturalexperience that we feel has so richly enhanced our world view. (Risa 2007, p. 60)

Consequently, as Williams notes,

For a majority of international student offices immigration advising is their primaryfocus, whether the institution has less than one hundred students or thousands ofinternational students. (Williams 2006, p.2)

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Laurie Cox, in her recent doctoral dissertation (2006) cited several authoritative sources

advocating the need for colleges and universities to respond to the need for reentry preparation.

She stated (citing Adams, 1993; Arthur, 2003; Brislin & Van Buren 1974; Butcher, 2002;

Hodgson, 1994; Hogan, 1996; Pai, 1997; Seese, 1999; Workman, 1980)

Colleges and Universities can and should assist their students with reentry adjustment byoffering reentry workshops or reorientation sessions to help them internalize the conceptof cultural readjustment and create successful coping strategies. (Cox 2006, p. 43)

In addition to the challenges William’s identified, Laurie Cox’s doctoral dissertation

(2006) clearly outlined the other challenges facing advisors in developing and implementing a

workshop: time and education. Though her small student sample of nine students unanimously

reported that they found her workshop helpful in the adjustment back home, the amount of time

she had spent in developing advertising, and implementing the reentry workshop for

international students at USC led her to conclude that in addition to the prohibitive amount of

time necessary,

International student advisors may not feel that they are qualified to design and facilitatea reentry workshop undertaking considerable study and this may be one of the reasonsthat the reentry workshops are rarely offered nationally to international students oncollege campuses. (Cox 2006, p.145)

Technology: A Solution to the Challenges in a Digital Age

The use of internet technology as a pedagogical and administrative tool for international

student and study abroad providers is seen to help answer the challenge that staff and faculty face

in higher education offices that are operating with decreased budgets and resources (Rhodes

1995). It also harnesses the fruits of the information age for the purposes of internationalization

and a means of social support for students who are increasingly computer-oriented.

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Vija Mendelson and Stacey Woodey Thebodo in their article “Educational Connections,”

from International Educator’s April/March 2007 issue, states that online tools are becoming

increasingly popular as advisers and administrators realize their potential to add meaningful

learning opportunities to a student’s sojourn. Online tools appeal to “digital natives,” a term

coined by Marc Prensky for students who are now attending colleges and universities across the

nation and who have a lifelong familiarity and preference for different technologies.

While the initial commitment of time and resources needed to implement new technologycan be daunting, the investment is not only worthwhile, but is in fact advisable as we, part ofthe community of education abroad advisers, seek to educate this generation of digitalnatives. (p. 61)

The article summarizes a list of following benefits:

Enable the institution to reach a large audience without direct contact. Deliver both basic and in-depth information to students. Provide multiple levels of training for students with different needs and interests. Make use of multiple modes of communication. Aid in the immersion process and facilitate the integration of the study abroad

experience into students’ education as a whole. Incorporating technology into studenttraining and preparation also addresses some key points that Bruce LaBrack discussed athis session “Integrating Internet Resources into Study Abroad” at the 2005 NAFSAnational conference, specifically the primary characteristics of “Just-in-Time” (JIT)training:

o Enables the learner: they are making them take responsibility for self-directedlearning.

o Does it at their pace: resources are available 24/7, with no time limits.o Considers both ‘portability’ and specificity: both culture-general and culture-

specific materials are included.o Delivers it at the right time: the system can be designed to make content

available with the learner’s stage of transition in mind.o Emphasizes learner readiness: appropriate support can be provided in “teachable

moments.”

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In the International Educator’s May/June 2007 Issue “Social Networking Goes Abroad,”

Murray and Waller testify to the rising popularity and implementation of online social

networking in International Education.

Within the past few years, Facebook and MySpace have become an ordinary part of thelives of college students around the United States, and increasingly, around the globe.(p. 6)

These sites offer new opportunities to interact with students, market and advertise events, and

provide a public space for communication with their students.

While the arguments for both the risks of Facebook will continue to be voiced, there is nodenying that these types of social networking sites are not disappearing any time soon. AsKramb successfully points out, “It’s the hottest thing on campuses right now. There isonly so much you can do to bring students to you and then you have to go where they are.(p. 59)

The collaborative nature of International Education professionals makes the phrase

“Don’t recreate the wheel” into a creed faithfully practiced. List-serves such as SECUSSA,

regional and national NAFSA workshops, and the NAFSA website are a few examples of this

information sharing and collaborating. There are many textbook and video resources that

international educators have at hand to develop a variety of reentry programs for both

international and US student sojourners. One such source is Bruce LaBrack’s “What’s Up With

Culture?” cross-cultural online training

In responding to the challenges identified above, Williams and Cox, who concurrently

conducted their research, came to the same conclusion for future research and implementation:

the use of an online reentry workshop. Williams notes Bruce LaBrack’s online training as a

starting place for international student offices. One of her survey respondents summed up the

challenge of preparing students for reverse culture shock and the office’s solution to the

challenge:

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I am afraid that it may be an inherent dilemma that international students cannot anticipatethe need for a cultural reentry workshop. Yet this is not hard to understand. After all youwould not expect an international student to take an aspirin before he/she gets a headache,nor would you expect them to take a throat lozenge before they have a sore throat. So whyshould we assume our students would anticipate the pain and loss associated with culturalreentry prior to going home? My solution is to offer an interactive, on-line workshop thatthey can utilize whenever they feel the need that they can access from the University,specifically the international student office. (Williams 2006, p. 40)

Research Methodology

The goal of this research is to understand the perceived reentry needs of USF

international students and ways to address via an online reentry training instrument. The findings

will be used by the International Student Services Office (ISS) to inform the content of an online

reentry training instrument and its ongoing orientation of international students. Silverman and

Auerbach (1998) in their book Active Training: A Handbook of Techniques, Designs, Case

Examples, and Tips state that a clear sense of where the trainer is going and what they are

seeking to accomplish is the single most important ingredient for designing an active training

experience.

My research methodology was given parameters largely determined by institutional

access and direction from the ISS director. Rossman & Rallis, in their book Learning in the

Field, comment that “most bureaucracies have policies or regulations defining who can or cannot

have access to what.” (p. 163) In my case, though I had direct access to faculty and staff on

campus, I was not guaranteed access to international student alumni at the forefront of my

research, a reality the Director of ISS assisted in changing.

To establish breadth and reliability of data, I chose to conduct qualitative research with

USF staff and faculty, with an anticipated attempt at surveying international student alumni. My

research methodology consisted of conducting standardized open-ended interviews with selected

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USF administrators and faculty on campus and surveying identified international student alumni

with a survey questionnaire instrument I could send by email. My desire in exploring the reentry

needs of USF international students with faculty and staff, as they interacted with them on and

off campus, was to generate themes that reflect the unique and relevant aspect of their students’

reentry experience and needs as well as ways to creatively address them.

With exception of ISS staff, the ISS director identified eleven USF staff and faculty who

reside in six different departments and have considerable contact and responsibility for the

academic, career, and psychological welfare of international students at USF on an off campus.

Of the eleven identified, nine were able to participate, representing the following departments:

Career Services, Admissions, Counseling, The School of Business, The Provost, Arts &

Sciences, Graduate Computer Science, and Overseas Programs. Through my graduate internship,

I had met and interacted with most of the staff and faculty identified and recognized them all as

professionals whom had worked cooperatively with ISS staff in various capacities to facilitate

the improvement of the international student experience at USF. Overall, their input would help

integrate the academic, professional, and personal aspect of the reentry phase.

Prior to on campus interviews, I sent the identified faculty and staff members (see

Appendix A) an introductory letter, explaining the purpose of my research, a working definition

of “reentry” as I have defined it in this research, and questions I was going to ask them about

their observations working with students and suggestions they would have for an online training

instrument. I chose standardized open-ended interviews to capture responses that could be easily

compared and for the fluidity of exchange that could yield further findings.

Having the questions beforehand gave staff members and faculty time to think about the

question and take advantage of the half an hour we would have to interview together.

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Standardized open-ended interviews are “tightly prefigured, having fixed questions that are

asked of all participants in a particular order. Because of the nature of the questions, however,

participants respond freely. “ (Rossman and Rallis, pg. 62) The questions they were given were

very general open ended questions such as “Based on your observations working with

international students, what do you perceive are their greatest needs are as they return to their

home countries?” I considered the questions stepping-stones to conversation that would allow for

more nuanced and detailed observation and response.

I scheduled and conducted interviews with the staff and faculty on campus, with the

exception of the Overseas Program Coordinator whom I interviewed over the phone due to her

temporary absence at the university. These face-to-face interviews were scheduled individually

by department, with Career Services and the Arts & Sciences having two and three

representatives, respectively. For data collection purposes, I sought to use the entire half and

hour allotted for the interview, recording the conversations with a hand held tape recorder for

later transcription and analysis. The Graduate Computer Science and Overseas Programs

department faculty and staff did not use the entire half an hour as they perceived fewer needs

amongst those interviewed.

Limitations

My desire to survey USF international student alumni who had returned to their home

countries went unfulfilled, though not without effort. I had requested to be put in touch with a

minimum of ten alumni, representing an approximate breakdown of nationality, graduate, and

undergraduate percentages at USF. After creating the international student survey (See Appendix

B), the ISS Director sent e-mails to four alumni, facilitating communication and explaining the

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purpose of my research. The four alumni had either worked at the ISS office and/or shown

involvement in ISS activities while enrolled at USF.

I received only two alumni survey responses in response to the e-mails. Because of this

small response, which did not allow for sufficient reliability or breadth of data, I did not include

their responses in this research. My hope is that the survey will be used by ISS staff or future

interns to further grow reentry training support with an added alumni perspective.

Presentation of the Data

I. USF Staff & Faculty Perceived Roles and the Demographic of International StudentsThey Serve

The first two questions on the standardized interview asked participants to state their role

with international students and approximate the number or percentage of international students

they interact with at USF. Their responses helped paint the professional and relational context

from which their perceptions arose.

Table 1: USF Staff & Faculty Perceived Roles and the Demographic of International Students They Serve

USF Department (# persons)

Staff or Faculty Present

(1) Percentage or Number of Intl’ Students Served &

(2) Perceived Staff or Faculty Roles

Career Services (3)

Director, Associate Director,

& Assistant Director

(1) On average I have 20 clients per week who come by for drop-inappointments. I would guess [of the 20 clients] that 4-5 of them areinternational students. On average, I think the international studentsuse us more than domestic students…Per the 550 [internationalstudents] that are here, they would represent a bigger percentage thanthe [domestic] university [students] as a whole…As for graduatestudents, we don’t have a ton, but it feels like to me that at least, 50%of them [who actively use us] are international, which is a highpercentage. (CS Assistant Director)

(2) We are career counselors and we counsel them in their careerdevelopment and job search process. We [also] provide workshops forthem: interviewing, job search, resumes and cover-letter workshops,often collaborating with ISS to do workshops. (CS Assoc. Director)

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Counseling Services (1)

Director

(1) Interestingly, it’s about proportionate to their representation at theinstitution; so about 7% of our clients are international students.(CAPS Director)

(2) The primary role that the center has is one of direct service.Typically, they are in greater crisis than the average client when theycome in because pscyh. services are not something that many of themare familiar with and there is a bit of a voodoo around it. When theydo get to us, they are usually pretty far deteriorated in terms of theirlevel of anxiety, or depression, or panic, or whatever. So, our primaryinteraction is obviously at that direct service level of trying to helpthem when various crises come and often another flavor of it is oftenfor the students its around academic and family expectations aroundacademic ‘slash’ career issues.” (CAPS Director)

College of Arts & Sciences (2)

Associate Dean & Academic

Advisor for Student Academic

Services

(1) Approximate numbers unknown.

(2) My role is limited to basically seeing them in their orientationweek, briefly during the overview. They come to me as they may haveproblems. (Associate Dean)

I play more of an academic role. I go over [with them] their graduationrequirements, make sure that they enroll in the correct classes, or helpthem problem-solve any academic issues [they have]…We try to alsostay in touch with them throughout the semester so that if any issuesarise, they know who to come to. (Advisor)

School of Business &

Management (1)

Academic Coordinator

(1) Approximately 60-70% (n=114 –133) of the 191 incominginternational students.*

(2) My role is to provide academic guidance with their coursework andto facilitate their enrollment, including connecting them withappropriate faculty members. So [I] sort of am a conduit between themand the faculty, getting them into classes [and] things like that.

Computer Sciences(1)

Professor & Graduate

Admissions

(1) Approximately 40 new graduate Computer Science students peryear.

(2) I am the graduate program director for Computer Science, so thatmeans that I have two primary roles: one is to review applications andthe second is to advise them when they are here as to what coursesthey should take. They also come to me with personal problems andcareer stuff… I’m Dad for two years. (laughter)

Overseas Program (1)

Coordinator

(1) Approximately 30 Jesuit Exchange students per year.

(2) My main contact with international students is with students thatare coming in as Jesuit Exchange. These are student who come to USFfrom our partner universities [on] reciprocal exchange.

*Taken from a Fall 2006 ISS Audit

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II. Perceived International Student Reentry Needs

The second part of the interview questions asked the interviewee(s) to state what they

perceived to be their international students’ greatest needs are as they return to their home

countries.

Table 2: Perceived International Student Reentry Needs

USF Department Perceived International Student Reentry Needs

Career Services • Need to understand and reconcile their unrealistic expectations tostay and remain & work in US after graduation and the frustrationconnected to familial pressure often as perceived failure in returninghome.

• Need to translate their education/work experience and be prepared tosuccessfully interview and network in their home country.

• Need to reconcile family business expectations upon return to home

country.

Counseling & Psychiatric

Services

• Need to understand and reconcile their unrealistic expectations to stayand work in US and the frustration, shame, and familial pressure oftenassociated with perceived failure in returning home.

• Need to define and navigate relational expectations back home.• Need to hold both home culture and aspects of US culture

College of Arts & Sciences Need to frame reentry within the larger developmental transition from

student to employee, school to work and adult responsibility

School of Business &

Management

Need to reconcile family business and government-sponsored career

expectations

Computer Sciences Need to be prepared for the differences in work style and technological

resources and infrastructure in home country.

Overseas Program Need an easier way to secure academic transcripts online after reentry.

Career Services (CS) perceived three salient needs in the students they interact with. The

biggest perceived need comes from meeting with students who don’t want to go home and have

unrealistic expectations about staying and getting a job in San Francisco after degree completion.

The staff perceive students’ sense of failure and shame when they can’t get a job and stay,

leaving their transition out of the university and home less than positive.

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I would say, first of all, [that] many of them don’t want to return. So, if they are returning,it’s [often] with a sense of defeat [due to] a failed job search, or a failure to land their OPT[Optional Practical Training] or they couldn’t get their H-1B. So, my impression is that theygo grudgingly. (CS Associate Director)

…towards the end…graduation is supposed to be a happy, joyous, occasion, and for many ofmy students that I’ve interacted with over the years, it’s not. These confrontative experiencesleave the students angry and frustrated with Career Services and with the university ingeneral. (CS Director)

Secondly, Career Services indicated that international students need to be able translate

their education and work experience successfully in their home country. This need includes

learning to interview in the customary fashion of a student’s home country versus the American

way that is taught in Career Services workshops, meeting with staff to make one’s resume

relevant, and identifying job and networking resources at home before returning home from the

US.

Lastly, Career Services spoke about the need to reconcile expectations about family

business upon return home. About 60% of the students they service are of Asian descent. For a

population of these international students, many are sent to take the USF Family Business

courses and are expected to return home to the family business. There are various needs that

come from these expectations in this demographic of students. Some students return eagerly and

some see other opportunities and do not want to return to the family business, creating anxiety,

tension, and expectation dissonance.

The Director of Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) perceived three salient

international student reentry needs. The first and largest need, like Career Services, is counseling

students who don’t want to go home and have unrealistic expectations about staying and getting

a job in San Francisco after degree completion.

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Their greatest needs as they return is that a fair number of them need a reality test…causethey kind of run the docket of “Well, I’m going to interview here, I’m going to interviewthere, and I’m going to turn something up,” and when we see them again, many times theyare very depressed about the reality that they are not going to stay…for many of them, thereis shame over “I didn’t get a job here.” And they need to know how few people really getpositions here. (CAPS Director)

Secondly, the CAPS director, identified needs around defining and navigating relational

expectations with families at home, including participation in the family business, dating partners

both in the US and abroad, and marriage prospects. Concerns were expressed around anticipated

“goodbye trauma” with dating relationships made at USF, being promised in an arranged

marriage and navigating expectations around sexual purity, communication around honesty with

family members, and anxiety over marriage prospects for many women returning home, to name

a few.

Lastly, the CAPS Director spoke to the transitional need of re-entering one’s home

country after acculturating to different worldviews and cultural norms at USF. University is a

time of worldview formation. For many international students, the urban, multicultural,

individualistic, and politically liberal and active environment of San Francisco is a stark change

from their home country environment and cultural norms. The CAPS Director speaks a lot to her

students about bridging the reentry culture gaps and seeking to hold both home culture and

acquired US culture dear. She mentioned she really feels like she has succeeded if students are

able to go home and value both.

My Latin American students sometimes talk, [saying] “I’ve experienced the diversity here.I’m going back to a very homogenized population, so what happens to all the people of othercolors and faith practices?” [Their reentry home] narrows [their experience], so we talk a lotaround that piece and around biculturalism, how to bridge the two the cultures. [We talkabout] how to hold and respect the one [culture] with the other, and knowing when to step inand step out. (CAPS Director)

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Contrary to Career Services and Counseling needs perceptions, the Associate Dean of the

College of Arts & Sciences and her colleague, the academic advisor, saw that students, for the

most part, were very happy to return home, stating that most students have come with

expectations to study at USF and then return home to their families and relations. Only rarely are

there students who express concerns because of political or economic instability.

They come to see me and say goodbye [when] they are leaving. And it’s always a sweetgoodbye because they have families and relationships [they are returning to]. (A&S Assoc.Dean)

Questioning the relevancy of the international component of their students’ reentry, the

Associate dean stated that the overarching need of international students returning home lay

within the larger context of a developmental life transition from the confines of academia and

being a student, to the world of work and responsibility.

It may not be related to being international [as much as] it may be related to changes. Changeis scary. Because the students have finished a milestone, they are expected to just go, andstart a life, or go to grad school. (A&S Assoc. Dean)

The most salient reentry need assessed from conversation with the coordinator for The

School of Business and Management (SBM) came from those students returning home and

dealing with career expectations from their parents or their sponsoring governments. These

included family business expectations with many of her Asian students as well as government

expectations for those students’ whose scholarship to complete a degree in a narrow field of

concentration put a lot of pressure on them.

Some students, before they leave, talk to me about their concerns. A lot of them have familybusinesses and they have to go back. Working with their family may not be what they reallywant to do because they have explored other careers at USF…I’ve had several students thatare miserable. They are accounting majors [because] their parents are forcing them to. Sothey are dealing with career issues once they go back home…Even students from Norway,have to have a business degree to be funded by the government, so there’s some fundingissues and I have a couple of students that the Saudi Government is funding and they get

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scholarships but only if they study specific majors. The pressure that is put upon them affectsthem and weighs greatly upon them. (SBM Coordinator)

Wearing many hats for his students, the Professor and Graduate Admissions Coordinator

for Computer Sciences (CPS), takes his job seriously in teaching and mentoring his group of fifty

students, forty of whom are international. Known to both mentor and teach his students, he hosts

dinners for students with colleagues, creates focus groups to deal with any concerns students

might have, and works very closely with students during their stay. Because the department

serves the market niche of computer technology where there is a high demand for a skilled labor

force, graduates are readily hired. Therefore, he deals with a very different reality than the other

interviewee(s) as almost all of his graduate international students, about 89% approximately, find

jobs and stay in the US after graduation. For those that do stay, the Professor works hard with his

colleagues to prepare them for entry into their jobs. For those that will return to their home

countries after graduation, the Professor speaks to professional culture shock.

One of the shocks that they will have going home is “why aren’t you doing it the Americanway? You are so inefficient,” so they have a culture shock when they go back professionally.Now maybe they slip back into their old ways, I don’t know, but once you’ve seen peers herethat are really ‘kick butt,’ it’s pretty hard to return. You have all the resources in the worldhere, and everything is rich, you know you are breathing fresh air for the most part. (CPSProfessor)

My last interviewee was the coordinator for Overseas Programs. As she deals with short-

term Jesuit Exchange students, she does not perceive many reentry needs, other than

administrative problems or “superficial needs.” as she states. One need is addressing the Clearing

House system that retrieves students’ transcripts without the last-minute costs of express-mailing

them. Even though she, along with the ISS office, contacts students about getting their transcripts

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before leaving, they are so busy that it is often becomes a problem after they return home and

haven’t done it.

A lot of them are having trouble with the clearing house system. It seems like there isalways a percentage of them that never receive their transcript for some reason. I get a lotof those questions. (OP Coordinator)

III. USF Staff & Faculty Perceptions of Ways to Address International Student Reentry Needs via an Online Reentry Training Instrument

Lastly, given the needs they perceived, the survey asked staff and faculty to name ways

to address those via the online reentry training.

Table 3: USF Staff & Faculty Suggestion to Address International Student Reentry Needs via an OnlineReentry Training Instrument

USF Department Ways to Address International Student Reentry needs via anonline Reentry Training Instrument

Career Services • Include a data-driven piece that reflects the real number ofstudents who stay in the US and attain a job (after OPT).

• Develop internet database with career sources in students’countries of origin through UCANN System. This can be doneby ISS or CS graduate workers/interns.

• Students can be given a “tips sheet on how to accessinformation about the global workforce.

• Have students reflect on their experience and how to transferskills on to resume.

• Have students research interview styles and expectations backhome.

Counseling & Psychiatric Services • Put a definition of biculturalism on the site.• Add anecdotes and stories of students who have successfully

transitioned back home and have found ways to embrace bothUS and Home cultural values.

• Give students questions and have them role play with a partnerabout possible situations they may be facing at home, alsohaving them list ways in which they can integrate new valuesand take care of themselves.

• Suggest using the internet to stay in touch with friends.

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Career Services, addressing students’ professional and personal reentry needs, first

suggested the implementation of a data-driven piece on actual international student numbers who

stay and get a job and those who go home. This piece would help communicate in real numbers

that there are few students who stay and in no way is it an indication of failure when one returns

home.

Second, in addition to attending the alumni panel seminar that ISS and CS put on together

each year, the Director made the suggestion to have students identify professional resources at

home before they leave the US, identifying the University Career Action Network as a possible

internet database site that can be linked to the reentry site.

What this is, is a consortium of 15 + schools where we share an internship database.But within it, we are starting to explore an international piece of it. Basically, it is forstudents here who want to have an international internship. But, the model that I am thinkingof is under this website. Resources that exist in the US may exist in their home countries andmay help them with their transition. We currently have a career counselor who is trying to

College of Arts & Sciences • Have students reflect on who they want to become.• Implement an informational data system would serve the

multifold of purposes of social and career networking, USFinternational student alumni development, the forming ofinternational mentors who have returned home to their homecountries, and wider access amongst staff and students andstudents with their peers.

School of Business & Management • Address general life transition and ways to successfully transition out of school life and into working life.• Create an open student-centered blog space where students could connect and write about their experiences.• Implement an easier way for students to secure Academic

Transcripts.

Computer Sciences • Create Yahoo news groups that save/organize information thatcan be used by alumni and new students.

Overseas Program • Implement an easier way for students to secure Academic Transcripts.

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develop her own resources to serve Japanese citizens. [Developments such as these] could belinked to this site to help them with that process. (CS Director)

It was noted that the career counselor is developing Japan-focused resources on her own time,

however, there are a wealth of other sites and resources out there, and a “tips sheet” on what to

look for can be uploaded to the online training or given to students in hard copy.

Lastly, The Associate Director spoke to her work in having students study interview

styles and expectations in their home country, as well as communicate transferable skills both

from school and internships they did while in the US onto their résumés. There are résumé sites

that that can be linked to the reentry piece can intentionally ask students to think about what they

gained and benefited on in the US. This would enable them to see what transferable skills can be

added to their résumé.

The Counseling and Psychological Services Director defined success in counseling

international students on reentry as having them re-enter their home country and be able to value

both their home country culture and the culture they attained in the US. In addressing this

valuing of both cultures, she mentioned that putting a definition of biculturalism on the reentry

site would be very helpful for students as students grasp to understand their experience. Naming

one’s experience is helpful in understanding it, they would thus have “a word to hang their

experience on,” she stated.

Giving anecdotes and stories of international students who have successfully integrated

back home after their stay at USF is a strong encouragement to international students preparing

to go home, the Director said:

That’s why its great to have those anecdotes about people who went back and are doing well.I think of a really mature person, who was from Latin America, Colombia and who found it avery classist society. She really struggled around things like that. But, from her very highclass, [she] was able to find ways to try to work in social activism there so she didn’t feel so

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disgusted with what she was experiencing at home. She saw that there were others who sharedher values. (CAPS Director)

Reentering one’s home culture, while valuing both cultures, can also bring conflict. The

director uses self-directed questions and role-play. In doing so, she helps her students address the

cultural and social contexts they are entering, allowing them to prepare mentally and practice

situations that may arise. One example she cited includes family expectation with participating in

the family business and possible expectation dissonance between students and parents. As most

US students prize individual choice and freedom, they often advise their international student

friends to make their own choice. However, their counsel does not take into account the various

social and familial obligations that are bound to students’ home culture. The director gets

students to tangibly and practically think about ways to navigate their individual issues and take

care of themselves.

How can you sell that you are not going to be in the family business, for instance, in a waythat would make sense to them. Is there is something you can do that will intersect with thefamily business? For some of them, its really just asking them “how are you going to take careof yourself in that situation? That situation is not going to change, so how are you going totake care of yourself? What sources of support do you have? How can you get some of thethings that you want or need or like?” (CAPS Director)

Lastly, she notes the power of technology to stay connected via the internet with those they left

and finding a group of people who understands their experience once they get home.

The Department of Arts and Sciences’ Academic Dean and advisor contributed two

salient suggestions in our interview. The Academic Dean stressed that for undergraduate students

it would be helpful to incorporate into the reentry training site that reentry is more about lifestyle

change and to have students reflect on who they want to become.

Have them reflect on their reentry. Their [responses] will help them to say, form apsychological perspective, that change is hard and everything is going to be okay…Most ofthe questions I would ask them would be open ended. Something like: “How do you seeyourself changed from the time you have come here?” That would leave it open for them andthen you say “How would you take this experience for who you hope to become in thefuture?” And that would prompt them to reflect on who they want to become, because what I

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suspect they are going to say is that a lot of them don’t know who they want to become. Andso it would open the conversation to so many things. (A&S Associate Dean)

Both the Associate Dean and Academic Advisor suggested that implementing an

informational data system would serve the multifold of purposes of social and career networking,

USF international student alumni development, the forming of international mentors who have

returned home to their home countries, and wider access amongst staff and students and students

with their peers.

I think that if I was to handle international students, I would suggest that the ISS Directorestablish an informational data system for international students. It would have a several foldpurpose: with the consent of alumni, there are some who may be willing to becomeinternational mentors to those who are recently returned. [Students returning home can becontacted by those who are already returned] from the same country and they can have an e-mail exchange. Then on the website, you can say “feel free to e-mail these students and thencategorize them by country.” And then you say, okay, this country, these are the resources,you can e-mail them… And the students, let’s say in Taiwan, know that these students havegone and that they have found jobs, and they can become resources for networking. (Directorof A&S)

Just like Fulbright. Every year, they put down everybody who graduated, then you put downthe country, then the e-mail address and major so that anybody who wanted to e-mail them,they could. (Academic Advisor of A&S)

With respect to undergraduate and graduate needs, the Academic Advisor mentioned that

graduate students are those who expect to stay more than undergrads, and that this would be a

useful tool for them. In addition the Director concluded that it would provide USF an opportunity

to advertise what their graduates are doing.

The Coordinator for the School of Business and Management, like the faculty and staff of

Arts & Sciences, spoke to the developmental aspect of leaving school, entering work, and the

need to implement something that addresses not only culture shock, but also general life

transition and ways to successfully transition out of school life and into working life. She

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additionally spoke to creating an open student-centered blog space where students could connect

and write about their experiences.

What I was thinking was maybe adding a component, and I don’t know if you already havethis or not, sort of like a blog- something that they can write their experiences and connectwith each other about. They might find somebody else that studied in the US or something,maybe not at the same school. And I thought that having some kind of networking tool forthem once they go back [would be a great tool to] stay connected. MySpace used to be forcollege students. Now it has opened up, so anyone can get on it. That could be the way to go,But you know, [it should be] one of those areas where students can feel like they can go in,write down whatever, so it should be student generated. For all that [USF and the ISS] does,it’s not attractive to the student [to have a university-generated web space]. It’s not at thestudent level. It’s more administrative, like all of our websites are. They are not catering tostudents.

(SBM Coordinator)

Upon going home, the only real contact the Coordinator gets from international students

are from those who are trying to obtain their academic transcripts and trying to navigate the

website. I inferred that finding an easier way for students to obtain their transcripts would be a

useful academic addition to the reentry site.

Computer Science graduates have very different transitions, the majority opting to stay in

the US, filling needed high tech jobs. For those who have returned home and those planning to

come, the CS Graduate Coordinator and professor has set up news groups, something that can be

modeled by ISS.

We have news groups set up for India and China. It’s something through Yahoo. People cansearch for USF India or USF China and get these news groups with all of the answers,instead of e-mailing the student reps, they use this news group to search for previous answersto asked questions… So it organizes facts. So it’s sort of a space where students from anindividual country can ask their peers about their experiences and what to bring. (CSProfessor)

Lastly, the Coordinator for Overseas Programs, when asked if she had any suggestions

for an online reentry training instrument stated:

35

No, really, I just think ISS does such a good job. I mean they are available and they areTHERE. I mean, there a whole office to help. It’s just a matter of students going to findtheir resources. And sometimes they don’t. (OP Coordinator)

Analysis of the Data

The main point of interviewing USF staff and faculty was to get other department voices

involved in contributing their perspective of student needs and ways to address those needs

collaboratively through an online reentry training instrument. Though I was unable to garner

sufficient student response, my interviews with faculty and staff generated seven salient

perceived international student reentry needs and pursuant strategies to meet them:

Reconciling unrealistic expectations for job and residency in the US after degree

completion

Successful Career Transitioning to Home Country

Contextualize Reentry within Overall Life Transition

Integrating Personal Change & Development

Negotiating a Return to the Family Business

Keeping Connected at Home and Abroad

Being Able to Access their Transcripts

These needs reflect the academic, professional, and personal aspects of USF international student

reentry and reflect workshop elements that Cox’s international students found helpful in her

workshop implementation: developing successful strategies for successful transition home,

discussing how students could feel comfortable with their growth and changes, and renegotiating

relationships (2006).

The marked disconfirmation of many USF international students’ hopes to remain in the

US and obtain a job diverges from reentry entry literature that assumes students are anticipating

36

a return to their home country. This prominent experience among international students mimics

similar disconfirmed hopes and expectations that students’ may experience on their return home

(Freedman 1980) in personal, social, or professional realms, yet has the unique quality of being

an experience that happens on US soil prior to a return home.

Strategic suggestions by Career Services staff to address this need by having real

numbers of international students who stay is consistent with Butcher’s (2002) suggestion to

allow students the space to grieve losses associated with reentry, in this case the expectation to

remain in the US. These numbers should help students understand that staying in the US is

unrealistic for most international students, grieve their loss of expectation, and hopefully be

empowered to change expectations to transition home successfully without embitterment towards

themselves and the university. As Butcher states, this reframing of loss, when done within a

positive framework, provides support and allows students to go from a “disenfranchised grief” to

a “grief understood.”

This marked disconfirmation of expectation to remain in the US can be said to lie within

the larger developmental life change and transition experience that circumscribed the reentry

experience in the data analysis process, upholding Martin’s (1984) assertion of the importance of

conceptualizing reentry in the larger perspective of adult transition. Indeed, international

students, whose sojourns last between two to four, or maybe eight years in the US, take on a

reentry transition that is more focused on career and life transition, leaving the academic life and

returning home to enter the workforce or continued studies. The perceived need to make a

successful career transition reflects that most USF international students, apart from the majority

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of Computer Science students6 who find employment in the US, face the complexities of career

decision-making in entering the global workforce.

Strategic suggestions by Career Services, the Arts and Sciences Department, Graduate

Computer Sciences, and the Graduate School of Business and Management to employ the

internet to harness and develop social and professional networking is supportive of the growing

use of technology for this generation of “digital natives” and helps address the consequent stress

and restraints that students endure (Waller and Murray 2007). Connecting to and growing

existing career databanks that serve international student needs, creating an international student

alumni databank, and hosting yahoo groups or student-centered MySpace groups or Facebook

communities for social, cultural, and professional adjustment growth utilizes students’ familiarity

and preference for online technologies.

On the university front, the collaborative use of internet technology by different on-

campus departments as an administrative tool for international student reentry support not only

helps the international student office, which operates with small budgets and resources (Rhodes

1995), it encourages the university’s relations with its alumni, their continued ties and support of

USF, and their image abroad. Additionally, it takes advantage of the missed opportunity that

Shannon William’s (2006) noted in combining the power of collaboration with other on-campus

offices in addressing reentry shock and preparation.

Within the larger experience of life transition lies the challenge and opportunity of

integrating personal change and development. The Arts and Sciences Department staff perceived

that students were very happy to go home and that it was the University’s opportunity to help

students contextualize the entire reentry experience in the larger developmental life transition of 6 Alternatively, for the Graduate School of Computer Science, the small portion of students who do return homehave professional needs that have to do with lack of technological infrastructure and opportunity in one’s homecountry as compared to the US or expectations to do things in an “American way” versus the home country.

38

leaving school to enter the work world and reflect on who they were becoming as a result of their

time at USF. This suggestion and the suggestion by the CAPS Director to engage students in

understanding and applying the definition of “bicultural” and providing anecdotes of students

who have been able to incorporate changes in themselves with changes at home, assumes

Martin’s (1986) assertion that the intercultural sojourn is a process of understanding and

interpreting changes in meaning structure, internalized rules of interaction, and communication

behaviors.

The role-play of possible scenarios to be encountered at home upon arrival addresses the

changes in meaning structure and behavior and allows students to recognize and affirm change

and mentally prepare to incorporate those changes upon their return home. In the case of

returning to the family business, a need mentioned by both Career Services and the School of

Business and Management, the act of role playing, or even providing possible scenarios online

for students forces the student to learn as much as possible about their situation, prepare for

negative effects so as not to be surprised by them, and to envisage what they might do if the

negative effects occur. Brislin and Van Buren affirm that encouraging students to think through

and anticipate an adjustment helps students prepare and cope for what they experience in going

home.

Keeping in touch and connected, as a social need for students, has never been easier and

can be addressed by the above-mentioned technologies. In addition to keeping up with

newspapers and e-mails, Butcher’s (2002) suggestion to have students establish moral support

both at home and in the host countries is an opportunity to further alumni support and the

possible use of alumni support in-country, with possible opportunities for mentoring. Adjusting

39

discrepancies in the Clearinghouse system for transcript requests would help address the need for

transcripts and navigating the system outside the US.

Conclusion

Commonly known as “reentry shock,” the reentry experience for international students

returning home after study in the US has been researched and shown to create a range of

difficulties, including psychological distress with interpersonal relationships, particularly with

friends and family, conflict with self and family expectations, and reverse homesickness. Their

intercultural experience, which includes academic and career preparation, and for many,

transition into their adult lives and the world of work, can be a profound experience of adaptation

and transition

It has been advocated and proven that through training and preparation, international students

can understand that the emotions and experiences they may face are normal. Rather than be taken

by surprise, they can be empowered to know that their re-adaptation back home is natural, and be

given skills, attitudes, and methods they can use to adapt successfully. From recent college and

university surveys done by Williams (2006), it was found that reentry preparation is a topic of

low priority in most US colleges and universities due to challenges in institutional support, the

prohibitive time and resources necessary to design, implement, and advertise a workshop, and

uninterested international students. Cox (2006), who studied international student perceptions of

a reentry workshop she implemented in person, did get positive feedback from students who

voiced that her workshop did aid in their transition. Hoping to reach a wider audience and

overcome the administrative barriers to implementing a training to unaware students, she

suggested harnessing technology to deliver a reentry training via an online resource (Cox 2006).

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Not only would this allow student portability and access, but it also would be building on the

growing creative technological advances that have practical implications for hard-pressed

international educators and administrators. The best example of harnessing technology for

intercultural training still remains as Dr. LaBrack ‘s interactive cross-cultural training website

“What’s Up With Culture?” , the open-source template for USF’s reentry online training.

This Capstone paper, in seeking to answer the reentry needs of USF international students

via a culture-general online training instrument, sought to find out the perceived needs particular

to international students returning home from the University of San Francisco and how those

needs can be addressed through this site. Interviewing the staff and faculty from six departments

that work closest with them generated collaborative ways to address those needs.

In then harnessing technology to implement these suggestions, it is hoped that USF

international students will be better helped in understanding and functioning back home with the

skills, attitudes, and behaviors they need to succeed. These were the following needs and

pursuant suggestions to meet their reentry needs:

1) Reconciling unrealistic expectations for job and residency in the US after degree completion

• With the exception of Graduate Computer Sciences give students a data-driven pieceon the number of actual international student numbers who stay and get work,assuming the have used up all their OPT, and those who go home. They will find theyare in the majority/norm. This should help communicate that not staying is not anindication of failure.

2) Successful Career Transitioning to Home Country

• Forewarned & Forearmed: Students should be told at the beginning of their time thatfew international students stay in the US after their studies. If very eager, expect tonetwork and work hard early on and from the beginning.

• Develop an internet database with career sources in students’ countries of originthrough UCANN System with the assistance of interested graduate student workers

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who can spend time doing it. This can also include site links to helpful country-basedsites.

• Post a list of job and networking resources by country of origin. If these resources areyet to be developed, give them a “tips” sheet on how to access information and/orwhere to start.

• Have students reflect on their experience and how to transfer skills on their resume.Research interview styles and expectations back home and have links to pertinentresume sites.

• Establish a student-centered blog site or networking piece via the Internet with USFalumni.

• Implement an informational data system that would serve the multifold of purposes:social and career networking, USF international student alumni development, and theformation of international mentors who have returned home to their countries.

3) Contextualize Reentry within Overall Life Transition

Address general life transition and ways to successfully transition out of school lifeand into working life.

Communicate greater life transition stages and have students put down what theirhopes are & what they want to realize.

Communicate the reality of the work world and the transition.

4) Integrating Personal Change & Development

Put up a definition of what ‘bicultural’ means. This will give students a name and anunderstanding of their experience becoming bicultural as they’ve acculturated to lifein the US and return to their home country.

Post examples and anecdotes of students who have changed and have successfullyintegrated changes back to their lives at home.

Suggest finding like-minded people in home country upon arrival. Develop role-play scenarios in which students can practice how to communicate with

family back home.

(5) Negotiating a Return to the Family Business

Develop role-play scenarios in which students can practice how to communicate withfamily back home if they are wishing to negotiate their role in the Family Businessand/or thinking about steps to take care of oneself and respond productively if areturn to the family business is inevitable.

6) Keeping Connected at Home and Abroad

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Use the internet to keep connected. Set up newsgroups, a student-centered blog-site, or a MySpace account.

7) Students Can’t Access their Transcripts

Extend the period in which students can access their transcripts or come up withanother way in which students can access them in an easier way so that they are notshut out of the Clearinghouse system.

Practical applicability

The direct recipients for whom this reentry research was conducted are the University of

San Francisco International Student Services staff and the various faculty and staff who

collaborate with them to advance the international student experience on campus and off. The

perceived international student reentry needs and ways to address them are intended to help the

ISS staff in shaping and modifying the content of an online reentry training instrument that will

ultimately benefit and equip USF international students for the process of reentry to their home

countries and the life transition that ensues.

Additionally, the research provides a jumping point for the further collaboration between

Career Services, Counseling and Psychiatric Services, The College of Arts and Letters, The

School of Business and Management, Computer Sciences, and the Overseas Programs in the

ongoing orientation and support of USF international students. Missing in the research were USF

Admissions, Alumni Development, and the Development office. Suggestions made by USF

faculty and staff interviewees to create an alumni database, create social and professional

networking groups via yahoo, Facebook, or MySpace, and provide alumni mentors for those

returning home and those seeking admission to USF would benefit these departments.

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Due to the lack of international student reentry preparation at US colleges and

universities, the entire project undertaken at USF of assessing reentry needs for the modification

and implementation of an online reentry training, utilizing Bruce LaBrack’s “What’s Up With

Culture?” cross-cultural training website as an open template, could be a model for implementing

their own online reentry training workshop.

Suggestions for Future Research

As the reentry literature purveys, international student reentry research is a large topic

and there are just as many avenues to research it as there are variables that affect it. For purposes

of completing my Capstone, my research took a small and practical scope, focusing on the

particular reentry needs of USF international students. My findings provided several perceived

reentry needs from USF faculty and staff and consequent ways to address them via an online

reentry instrument. The reentry training instrument is a modified version of Bruce LaBrack’s

“What’s Up With Culture?” online training, a site that was funded by the Department of

Education and intended for use and modification of international education practitioners

everywhere.

On the outset of my research, I had intended to gather students’ perception of their needs

and ways to address them. However, due to minimal student access and low survey response, I

was unable to do this. This opens a research opportunity for future USF interns or staff to

research and garner international student perceptions of their own reentry needs and ways to

address them. This would lend their voices to the content of the reentry training instrument,

making it more responsive to the USF international student reentry experience. There could even

be space for collecting anecdotes to be used as examples online of students’ reentry experiences.

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Since training is a process that involves assessing needs, marketing, implementation,

delivery, and evaluation, there lie opportunities for future research in each of these areas.

Students and international education practitioners who utilize online materials with their students

could be surveyed on how best to implement and market the online reentry training instrument.

This would provide valuable feedback for student participation and instrument implementation,

especially as students are often unaware and unprepared for reentry home. And though there is

an assessment piece to the instrument, research could be furthered by asking international

students to use and evaluate the site in depth, prior to and after reentry.

With exception of the USF Graduate Computer Science graduates, who by and large gain

employment in the tech industry and remain in the US after graduation, further research could be

done on the reentry needs of international students who use their year of optional practical

training (OPT) after graduation to gain profession experience in the US. What are the

differences between those who stay a year for OPT and those who go home right after

graduation?

As the literature and research findings revealed, reentry encompasses the larger

experience of life transition, in particular a transition into the professional world of work. Given

the complexities in international student career decision-making, there are great opportunities to

further develop the suggestions made by USF faculty and staff to address career development

and preparation. These included developing or growing existing career databases that specifically

addresses international students entering the global workforce, developing an alumni mentor

support by country or profession, making tip sheets for ways to increase employment at home,

etc. Indeed, the collaborations seem endless and for prospective USF interns or student workers

in both the ISS office and Career Services, this could be a wonderful collaboration between the

45

departments. Additionally, this may look very different for undergraduates than graduates and

for engineering and business majors than liberal arts majors.

As the literature reveals there has been little research done after the proliferation of cell

phones and the internet. How does this proliferation in cheaper travel and the explosion of social

networks of sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter, which provide students a continuous

online social community, affect their reentry experience? How, in turn, can they better aid

international students in their reentry adjustment home?

In sum, though the research opportunities are numerous for implementing and evaluating

the online reentry training and preparing USF international students for reentry home, it is

helpful to be reminded that there is no blueprint for the reentry experience and that challenges

will always abound with life transitions. It is hoped that in implementing and delivering an

online reentry training, students will be provided necessary attitudes, skills, and knowledge to

help them better transition home and that the international student advisors, administrators, and

educators that work and care for them, can more effectively channel their assistance and

expertise towards these ends.

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Appendix AUSF Faculty/Staff Interview Questions

Introduction

Thank you for taking the time to answer the following interview questions.

The International Student Services office at USF is seeking to assist international students inmaking a successful transition home to their respective countries through the implementation ofan online reentry training. In designing and implementing this training, a needs assessment mustbe executed to inform its objectives and content.

The goal of this interview is to obtain a better understanding of the needs particular to USFinternational students who are returning home to their respective countries from the perspectiveof faculty and staff who work with them.

“Reentry” or “reentry adjustment,” describes the re-adaptation of an individual to the homeculture after an extended stay in a foreign culture. The process contains positive and negativeaspects as the returning sojourner becomes aware of changes in his or her self-concept, attemptsto interpret experiences and changes to others, and incorporates experiences into his or her dailylife. In process, an individual often experiences “reentry shock,” the unanticipated reactions andrange of emotions experienced by sojourners upon returning to their home country.

Transitions are not limited to purely psychological and social adjustments. International studentshave been researched to carry academic and professional concerns upon entering their homecountry, for a range of reasons: inability to work in chosen profession, translating relevance of aUS degree at home, changes in political climate, concern with quick material success, etc.

We realize each student is unique. Each one has a unique experience on campus and no studentwill be returning home to the same set of circumstances. Yet, in seeking to address the broaderinternational student experience at USF, your perspectives are valuable.

Thank you for your contribution!

Gratefully,

Elizabeth WeisenburgerFormer Graduate Assistant, International Student Services at USFM.A. Intercultural Service, Leadership, & Management, Candidate

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Demographics

Name: __________________________________________________________________

Title: ___________________________________________________________________

Academic/Student Life Department: __________________________________________

Questions

1. What is your role with international students?

2. How many international students do you come in contact with?

3. Based on your observations working with international students, what do you perceive aretheir greatest needs are as they return to their home countries?

4. With these needs in mind, can you name ways that your office/resources could be organizingfor international students to help the readjust personally, academically, professional via thisonline resource?

5. Have you been in touch with returned international students?

6. What experience/needs can you draw from your contact with them?

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Appendix B

USF International Student AlumniReentry Training Survey

Introduction

Dear USF International Student Alumnus,

Thank you for taking the time to answer the following survey questions.

The International Student Services office at USF is seeking to better assist and prepareinternational students in making a successful transition home to their respective countries.Many students returning home face a continuation of social and cultural adjustment as theybecome aware of changes in themselves and attempt to integrate their experience in the US backto their life at home.

The goal of this questionnaire is to gain a better understanding of your experience and the needsyou had when you returned to your home country after your stay in the US. The information yougive us will help our office in the implementation of an online reentry training for studentsretuning home. It will also serve us to better serve our current international student alumniabroad and the legacy of all international students.

Thank you for your contribution!

Elizabeth WeisenburgerFormer Graduate Assistant, International Student Services at USFM.A. Intercultural Service, Leadership, & Management, Candidate

Questions

Personal Information:

Country of residence before coming to USF:Academic Program:Year of Graduation:Years spent in the US:Circle: Male or FemaleDid you do optional practical training in the US? Yes No

49

1. What were 5 things you were most excited about before returning home?

2. What were 5 things you were most concerned about before you returned home?

3. When you arrived home, what were your biggest joys?

4. When you arrived home, what were your biggest challenges?

5. Returning home to one’s home country following an extended stay in another culture hasbeen researched to create an unanticipated adjustment. This can sometimes causepsychological distress with interpersonal relationships with friends and family, changedexpectations, loneliness, and reverse homesickness,

Did undergo a readjustment process similar to the one experienced while in the US?

If so, please explain?

6. How best can USF, with its various departments, help students before they return home?

7. How best can USF, with its various departments, help students after they return home?

8. What advice would you give to current International students who are about to return home?

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