Latitudes

‘They’re primed for this’

Studies show that study abroad has an outsized effect on students who are the first in their families to go to college. Yet these students tend to go overseas in small numbers compared to their classmates — just eight percent of first-generation students study abroad, according to researchers at the University System of Georgia.

The challenges were no different at Franklin & Marshall College when Ali E. Janicek arrived at the Pennsylvania liberal-arts college six years ago.

First-generation students balked at going abroad: It was too expensive. It would disrupt their studies and potentially delay their graduation. Just getting to college had been a huge step, they told Janicek, who is assistant dean of international and off-campus study. Traveling to study in a foreign country seemed like an insurmountable hurdle.

Janicek believed the opposite was true. First-generation students are often resourceful and resilient, adept at navigating unfamiliar spaces. Those are invaluable skills in education abroad. “They’re not at a deficit because they haven’t been on a plane,” she said. “They’re primed for this.”

In fact, Janicek had answers for all the students’ concerns — myths, she calls them. But first she had to reach the students, few of whom ever made it to the study-abroad office.

That meant going to where the students were. For first-generation students, Janicek focused on Franklin & Marshall’s group of Posse Scholars, students from academic and social backgrounds who might otherwise be overlooked in the college-admission process. (She did similar outreach to student clubs and teams to try to increase the number of athletes and students in science majors going abroad.) Faculty mentors also were key allies.

Janicek answered students’ questions and concerns head-on and with specificity. For students worried that studying abroad could put them behind academically, she shared research that shows first-generation students who go abroad have a higher likelihood of graduating on time, and she mapped out how their credits would transfer from overseas.

To counter worries about cost, she explained that Franklin & Marshall has “home-school tuition,” meaning that students pay the same to study, whether they’re in Pennsylvania or overseas, and retain their student aid. Janicek developed a close working relationship with the office of financial aid so that office’s advisers can give students guidance about the financial aspects of education abroad.

Franklin & Marshall has also posted videos that go over many of the key issues about studying abroad. They are an always- and easily available primer for students, freeing up Janicek’s small staff — there are only two full-time advisers — to focus on specialized, individually tailored counseling. In addition, the videos serve as a resource for parents, who may have questions or reservations about their children studying overseas.

Advisers continue to provide “high-touch” support even after students go abroad, Janicek said, giving out their cell-phone numbers to students who may become overwhelmed while traveling internationally.

Efforts by Janicek and her team have paid off. In the 2019-20 academic year, 18 percent of students who studied abroad were first generation, closely mirroring their share, 21 percent, of the overall student body at Franklin & Marshall. The numbers have actually improved since Covid-19, with 24 percent of students going abroad in 2021-22 identifying as first generation.

As more first-generation students have gone abroad, they have become a critical part of outreach, serving as peer mentors and ambassadors. “We want to tell the students,” Janicek said, “you belong in this space, and we will make it work.”

For more reading: Check out this recent Institute of International Education report on first-generation students and study abroad.

I want to hear from you. What is your institution or organization doing to get more students from first-generation or other underrepresented backgrounds overseas? How do you support them to ensure their success in education abroad? And were you a first-generation student who studied abroad? What, or who, made a difference in your experience? Send me your thoughts at karin.fischer@chronicle.com, and I could share your approach in a future newsletter.

Study-abroad students killed in Korean crowd surge

Two American college students studying abroad in South Korea were among more than 150 people killed in a deadly crowd surge in Seoul.

Anne Gieske, a nursing student at the University of Kentucky, and Steven Blesi, an international business major at Kennesaw State University, in Georgia, were among those who died, their institutions said.

In a written statement, Gieske’s family called her a “bright light loved by all.” Blesi’s father told The Washington Post that his son had long wanted to study abroad but had been delayed going overseas by the pandemic. “This was his first big adventure,” Steve Blesi said of his 20-year-old son, a junior.

Both colleges said they would make counseling available to students. Eli Capilouto, Kentucky’s president, noted that the university has nearly 80 students from South Korea who may also be personally affected by the tragedy.

Like Blesi and Gieske, many of those killed in Saturday night’s crowd crush were in their 20s, out for a Halloween celebration. Before the pandemic, about 4,500 American students studied in South Korea, according to the Institute of International Education. But many colleges and program providers report that as study-abroad participation has begun to rebound, interest in Korea in particular has grown because the country is seen as safe and as having done a good job in responding to Covid.

Study up on race in college admissions

For years Americans have debated, litigated, legislated, and voted on affirmative action and race-conscious admissions (not the same thing). Now the U.S. Supreme Court is weighing two cases that may seal the practices’ fate. Meanwhile, our new, free newsletter, Race in Admissions, will walk you through the history of this issue.

This newsletter isn’t like others, including the one you’re reading. It’s a limited-run series. For four weeks, every Tuesday and Thursday, you’ll get an email digging into The Chronicle’s archive to explain how this debate has evolved. By looking back, you’ll be better prepared for the present moment.

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Around the globe

Massachusetts’ attorney general is looking into the practices of a Chinese-owned for-profit college that former students say misrepresented course offerings and inflated graduation and job-placement rates. Bay State College has been put on probation by its accreditor.

ASA College, a New York City college that sought to attract foreign students by promising to help them stay legally in the country after graduation, has agreed to pay a $112,500 penalty for deceptive advertising practices, as part of an agreement with city regulators.

American colleges have accepted $440 million from Saudi sources since the 2018 killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and Saudi exile, at a Saudi consulate in Turkey, according to an analysis of U.S. Department of Education data.

The University of Virginia’s student government has voted for a resolution calling on the college to divest its endowment holdings from companies with ties to the Chinese government’s human-rights violations against its Uyghur Muslim minority. It’s the latest campus group to support a pro-Chinese-divestment resolution.

Iranian university students began a sit-in strike on Tuesday, part of a weeks-long antigovernment demonstration.

More than 2,600 female scientists and engineers have signed a statement of solidarity with protesters in Iran who are advocating for human rights and gender equity. In another open letter, professors urged college leaders to speak out publicly in support of the protesters.

International applications to graduate business programs in the United States “roared back” even as domestic interest declined, according to a new survey by the Graduate Management Admission Council.

The criminal case in the 2014 disappearance of 43 Mexican students has unraveled as questions have arisen about a report that alleged they were killed by drug traffickers linked to the police and military.

Norwegian authorities arrested a visiting university lecturer from Brazil on suspicion of spying for Russia.

Legislation to ban Confucius Institutes at British universities is being drafted to fulfill a campaign pledge by new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to bar the Chinese-funded language-and-culture centers.

German universities set a record for international enrollments, with almost 350,000 students from abroad studying in the country in 2021-22.

Saudi Arabia’s government announced the creation of new educational visas that will allow students and academics to study and conduct research there without the requirement of having a sponsor.

Some foreign universities setting up campuses in India will be permitted to repatriate the profits under a recent regulatory change aimed at removing a major roadblock to the creation of international branch campuses.

Hong Kong will make it easier for graduates of the world’s top 100 universities to work there and will streamline procedures for companies seeking to hire foreign workers. This is part of a plan to stem a brain drain driven by strict Covid restrictions and a crackdown on political dissent.

And finally …

Greetings from your very jet-lagged correspondent. I spent the last week traveling through Ghana and Senegal, shadowing a group of colleges on their inaugural recruiting trip to the region. I wanted to know: Is Africa the future of international enrollments on American campuses?

While visiting schools, I met dozens and dozens of bright, eager students who told me about their ambitions to come to the United States to study. “I am very stressed and scared but also excited,” one girl confided. We were standing in a sun-drenched courtyard, her arms overflowing with brochures and college-branded swag. “America, it is the dream.”

Academically, these students are well prepared for American colleges. But even at the schools we visited, which catered to upwardly mobile families, repeatedly one of the first questions posed by students was, do you have scholarships for international students? For colleges accustomed to recruiting full-pay students from China, that will be a big shift. And finances may not be the only impediment to attracting large numbers of students from countries like Senegal and Ghana. I’ll have much more in the coming weeks, so look out for my article.

Thanks for reading. I always welcome your feedback and ideas for future reporting, so drop me a line, at karin.fischer@chronicle.com. You can also connect with me on Twitter or LinkedIn. If you like this newsletter, please share it with colleagues and friends. They can sign up here.