Katie Koo wants to demystify the mental-health struggles international students face. The Covid-19 pandemic, which has separated many students from their families for more than a year, and the increase in anti-Asian racism in the United States have been difficult for international students, more than 70 percent of whom come from Asian countries.
Koo, an assistant professor of higher education at Texas A&M University at Commerce, has won awards from American College Personnel Association and the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators for her longitudinal research on the impact of campus climate and discrimination on international students’ mental health. Their challenges didn’t begin with the pandemic, Koo said, although recent events have exacerbated them.
Still, international students have “high resiliency,” Koo said. “They left their families and their home environments. It took courage to study abroad in a foreign country.”
Koo would know. She came from South Korea in 2003 to study in the United States, earning master’s degrees in counseling and counseling psychology at Michigan State and New York Universities and a doctorate in student affairs at the University of Maryland at College Park. She spoke with The Chronicle about faculty and staff members’ misperceptions of international students, the “minority stress” many overseas students of color experience, and how colleges can design more culturally responsive mental-health services. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
In your work, what have you found are some of the stressors that affect international students?
When it comes to mental health among international students, researchers talk about acculturated stress. Acculturated stress is a stress when an individual is transitioning from one culture to the other culture. When individuals struggle [to assimilate], then they have this feeling of inferiority.
I think that originally international students are adventurous, they are brave to take this adventure to live in a foreign country. My belief is that their mental-health issue is happening after they come to the U.S. because of this acculturative stress, so I started to research what made them more stressed. What I found is the language. First-year international students really struggle a lot with English proficiency. As you can imagine, this has an impact to their self-esteem and self-confidence, and it can impact their anxiety, and it can impact their depression.
Also, students are not very active learners in Asian countries. Here in America, it’s all about discussions and collaborative work and critical thinking. I was so surprised when I first came here as a graduate student, that my classmates raised their hand and then answer the question very actively, because this is very rare in the classroom in Korea. So I relate when my international students say it’s very daunting, it’s scary. They are not used to it.
You’ve noted that the conversations around international students can often start from a place of deficits — for example, why are they failing to utilize campus counseling services when they’re struggling? But you think that’s the wrong framing. Why?
There’s definitely a deficit perspective when people observe international students. People ask me questions like: I have this program, but international students don’t come. How can I have them participate? The conversation focus is on international students, that it’s their fault. But the administrators and faculty members don’t get to a deeper level on why this happened.
How do you reframe the conversation?
It is really difference. And difference is different from deficit. For a normal adult, it takes a little while for the transition from just one town to another town. Consider international students: They are over 18 years old, and they were born and raised in their home country. Then they switch their living situation, they switch the language, they switch the people around them, they switch their education system. For some people, acculturation takes only maybe two days. But some take more than 20 years.
When you raise a kid, you are told you should use positive language instead of negative language. It’s the same thing for international students. Instead of saying they’re lacking, say they are transitioning to the new system. They take time, they may face some challenges, but they are making efforts. Those positive words will make the positive attitude.
Do colleges have a responsibility to help smooth that transition?
Let’s think about when you travel abroad. It’s your choice; you go there. But if you have difficulties, you still can ask for help. This is the same thing. Although international students made up their mind to come here, at the same time, there should be some resources, as there are for domestic students — [5.5 percent of all] U.S. college students are international students. Considering that number, then definitely there should be services targeting international students.
These are ongoing challenges, but over the past year, international students have also had to cope with the pandemic and the increase in anti-Asian racism. How has that affected their mental health?
Imagine that you are experiencing a pandemic in a foreign country, far from your family and friends. And there’s lockdown, so students are isolated. If there is an evacuation order from the campus, then domestic students have a home to go to, but international students don’t. They are so concerned about their health and the safety. Some regret that they decided to come to the U.S. Because everything was online, international students who are in STEM fields were not able to do the labs and experiments that are essential for their work and degree. They paid a lot of tuition to be here, and they kind of felt that they were wasting their money.
Since the pandemic began, I feel like we’re talking a lot more about anti-Asian racism. Is this something new, or is Covid shining a light on a problem that’s been there all along?
Living as an Asian in America, we already know that we are vulnerable. This happened before pandemic, but because of the pandemic, people commit this racism or racial incidents more frequently and more obviously. Many of my Asian international students bought a Taser gun or pepper spray to protect themselves. I bought pepper spray as well.
International students’ understanding of and experience with race and racism may be different from that of domestic students of color. How does that change the dynamic?
Many Asian international students are coming from a monoculture. There is no diversity. Coming here, all of a sudden, their status changed to minority. So racism and racial discrimination are painful and very sudden to them.
What can colleges do to support their international students, particularly from Asia?
I think it’s very important for presidents and provosts to send a letter from the top down to support Asian international students to the entire campus community. The university has to say, We have zero tolerance of Asian-hate crimes. We don’t allow this happen on campus. We support the Asian community, we support the international student. The entire campus community will be aware that this is a university concern. It’s powerful.
It’s important that leaders do this statement, but hearing from faculty members is very important because international students are working with them directly. I personally support my international students by sending individual messages to them when pandemic happened, when the Atlanta shooting happened, just to check in. You show your care. You may be the only authority figure who they can turn to. And the international student office or the center for diversity and inclusion, those two offices will be critical. Please act quickly and send out emails to check if international students are OK.
But emails are a first step. You should have a town-hall meeting or an international-student support group so that students can gather together and share their concerns. Have a regular space and time to invite international students, and hear what they want. I think it’s really critical.
How can colleges make their programs more culturally responsive?
International students seldom talk about [mental-health issues] and feel shame if they have the symptoms. I really think there should be a mandatory session about mental health at the first-year international-student orientation or a training session before the new year. Explain about mental health, explain about the symptoms, and convince international students that seeking help is not wrong. If you have a stomach ache or headache, you take medicine, right? Mental-health counseling is just like taking that medication to help you just function normally.
I know it’s not easy, and it will take time for international students to change because they used to have that notion for a long time. That’s why there should be mandatory training. If it’s not mandatory, then it’s very easy for them to not participate, and if they don’t participate, it’s not easy for them to destigmatize. It’s a circle.
What about the counseling center itself — how can it meet international students’ needs?
The best way is to have a good number of counseling staff who have an international background. If there is no Chinese or Korean or Japanese or Indian counselor at the center, then the American counselors can be trained to provide culturally sensitive counseling sessions as well.
Many of my research participants say that they don’t want to talk about their emotional issue with the American counselor because they don’t think that they will fully understand. As a student myself, I remember that it took me a lot of effort and time to convince my counselor, because my counselor really didn’t understand why I was struggling. I remember the counselor said, OK, just get out of that. So I ended up not going to counseling anymore.
When I was working for the counseling center at the University of Maryland, I ran a dissertation support group for international students. International-student dissertation writers have conflict with their advisers, but they cannot act like domestic students do with their advisers. They don’t criticize their advisers, because they feel that that’s disrespectful. Universities give writing support, but they also need support for the emotional struggles.
That’s a fascinating example, because it’s not something that people might normally think of, yet international students are such a large population in graduate programs.
I think there should be some collaborations between the counseling center and the academic units. I’m just giving you the example of dissertation writers. There could be a LGBTQ support group for international students, there could be a group for anti-Asian hate crime — you name it. I think it’s another good way to create awareness across campus for international students.
