Campus-Wide Collaboration to Uplift Equity and Inclusion in International Students’ Career Development

by HOLA@HAJINKIM.COM | Apr 29, 2025 | Fall 2022, Global Impact Exchange

Authors:

• Jane Sitter, University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, International Career Consultant
• Xi Yu, University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, Evaluation Specialist

International Students’ Diverse Career Needs

University students around the world look to higher education as a means for augmenting their career and social prospects (Abdrasheva, Morales, & Sabzalieva, 2022). Yet, for international students pursuing a university degree in the United States, the process of engaging in career development can be an inequitable experience. There is a frequent possibility for international students, who are on temporary visas with limited work authorization, to encounter barriers in the process of seeking internships and job opportunities. Inequities that international students may experience in career planning could result from a lack of local professional connections, cultural barriers, and language proficiency. Other challenges may occur due to personal factors such as family influence and lack of sense of belonging to the host country. 

At our institution, a large, public, research-1 university in the Midwestern United States, we have welcomed on average 6,000 international students on campus per year with roughly 2,300 of those being undergraduate international students, making up around 10% of the entire undergraduate student population. Results from a survey conducted on our campus indicated that the top three career activities that are most important to our international students are gaining internship experience in the United States, getting career development support on campus for staying and working in the United States, and participating in on-campus work experience (International Student Barometer, 2019). It was also found in a previous study that 73% of the participants reported that the ability to gain U.S. work experience before returning to their home country or another country was the second top career-related factor (Loo, 2016). 

Juggling between preparing for a career in the United States or returning home to begin a career has never been an easy process for international students. Many students have to prepare for multiple pathways to ensure that they have opportunities to choose from. Studies suggest that career services staff can better support international students’ diversified career needs by, for example, encouraging students to engage in career development early on, coaching students in self-advocacy, and celebrating the success of international alumni in the United States and in their home countries (Loo, 2016).

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States has faced rapidly increasing competitiveness from other countries to attract international prospective students as well as to retain international graduates, especially under ambiguous immigration policies and regulations (Esaki-Smith, 2021). As the pandemic crisis has started to ease globally, there are still several issues that have lasting and cumulative impacts on the international student experience. During the four years of the previous executive administration, there were 12 anti-immigrant executive orders or policies with direct impact on international students. The new administration is reversing some of these; however, only time can tell how these policy shifts will be reflected in enrollment numbers over the next few years or even decades (Mason, 2021). Within the past couple of years, higher education institutions have been required to adapt due to COVID-19. It is important to find ways to facilitate international student career development in a hybrid space. Staff at our institution have identified the following methods to support international student career development: flexibility toward operating across different time zones, development of virtual/asynchronous resources that help international students build their network, individualized support to meet unique needs, seeking immigration-related support from international office colleagues, along with engaging in a community of practice to discuss with other staff and receive training on supporting international student employability. 

Campus-Wide Collaboration Supporting International Students

We have found that collaboration across university departments helps us to increase equity and inclusivity in the international student career development process. Having collaboration between the International Student Office and Career Services builds a strong foundation for this effort. By combining expertise between these two units, it is possible to promote a strong message of inclusion that any staff member whose work supports the international student experience should have a basic understanding of the various barriers encountered in the career development process.

Representation and Participation Across Campus Partners

An effective practice that we have found is to have representatives from each unit collaborate on hosting yearly training sessions that the broader university community can join to learn from expert presenters across the campus and from each other. Training opportunities can include work authorization updates, tips and resources for advising students in a global job search, and perspectives from international student and alumni panels. These trainings allow us to increase student services staff knowledge, skills, and awareness of inequities international students may face in the career development process, and ways to be more inclusive in practice. Apart from training events, convening a group of staff across the institution has been beneficial. Through this collaborative group, those who are involved in supporting international student career development can meet periodically to discuss updates, share ways to resolve issues, and join together to create student resources.

Robust and Collaborative Student Programming

Another setting for collaboration to occur is in student program design and implementation. Here, Career Services can continue partnering with the International Student Office and also connect with other campus stakeholders such as the Alumni Association and English Language Support Office. Collaborative events can include career fair preparation workshops, LinkedIn and networking workshops, industry-focused or location-focused international alumni panels, and professional communication workshops, to name a few. Collaboration can also be a means to engage students in the creation of resources and programs through partnering with student organizations. By forming connections with student groups, it becomes possible to get to know specific student populations and help to meet their career development needs in a more nuanced way.

Awareness Building and Education Among Potential Employers

Educating employers about international student hiring is a critical piece to address in the international student career development process. By bringing together expertise between the International Student Office and Career Services, it is possible to create resources that increase equity and inclusion by advocating for international student hiring. At our institution, staff in Career Services and the International Student Office have developed a webinar and infographic resource on hiring international student candidates. After the webinar was offered live, it was made available over YouTube so it can be shared often. 

Conclusions

International students are valued members of university communities globally. For higher education practitioners who support the international student experience, it is important to build awareness of the obstacles that students encounter when preparing for future careers, both for reasons of empathy building and fulfilling their diverse career needs and goals.

In this writing, we have highlighted various opportunities for collaboration to increase equity and inclusivity in the international student career development process. The work of supporting international students’ career development is the responsibility of the broader campus. Supporting international student career needs allows for not only improved student outcomes and satisfaction, but also engaged alumni and promotion of the positive university experience around the globe. 

References

Abdrasheva, D., Morales, D., & Sabzalieva, E. (2022). The future university in the eyes of today’s students. International Higher Education, (109), 11–12. https://ejournals.bc.edu/index.php/ihe/article/view/14481

Esaki-Smith, A. (2021). Career pathways for international students. American Council on Education. 

International Student Barometer (2019). International Student Barometer report. International Graduate Insight Group Limited. https://www.i-graduate.org/

Loo, B. (2016). Career services for international students: Fulfilling high expectations. World Education Services. https://knowledge.wes.org/wes-research-report-career-outcomes

Mason, L. (2021). International student mobility flows and COVID-19 realities. Institute of International Education. Washington, DC.

Cross-institutional Collaboration on Curriculum Design, the Visibility of Counter-Narratives, and Allyship in International Education 

by HOLA@HAJINKIM.COM | Apr 29, 2025 | Fall 2022, Global Impact Exchange

Authors:

• Silvia Marijuan, California Polytechnic State University – San Luis Obispo, Associate Professor 

Intercultural competency has been the framework that has shaped conversations about racial inequity in higher education in past decades. Recently, scholars have problematized traditional approaches to “intercultural competency” arguing that “competency” shouldn’t be seen as the training of fixed, homogeneous, and objective sociological/behavioral characteristics that culminate in the full competence of a “target culture.” This traditional view ignores within-group variability, reduces differences and conflicts to an individual level, and overlooks the role of power relationships, institutional racism, and structural inequality (e.g., Punti & Dingel, 2021). Ascribing to a more fluid and complex conceptualization of intercultural competency entails shifting the focus from the mastering of a “target culture” to the ability to negotiate multiple cultural identities and contexts especially in a diverse global society that has become highly polarized. 

As international educators and practitioners, we seek to promote intercultural dialogue; fulfilling this goal is not easy, but it is attainable with continued collaboration informed by current research and student input. First, we need to emphasize that the development of intercultural competency is not detached from learners’ (multiple) racial and ethnic identities and from the ways different cultures talk about race. Second, following an anti-racist pedagogical approach (Kishimoto, 2018), we need to incorporate topics of race and inequity into course content and help organize anti-racist efforts on campus. In this article, I discuss four areas that can be developed collaboratively to enhance equity and inclusion in global education:

1. Virtual exchanges with a focus on social justice

Virtual exchanges focusing on social justice as an overarching theme are gaining momentum in higher education (e.g., Dorroll & Caballero-Garcia, 2020) since they can promote meaningful discussions that help students reflect on unjust systems of oppression.

As part of the internationalization initiatives on the campus where I teach, we partnered students at our local university in California with peers from a public university in Argentina so that they could engage in cross-cultural conversations (both in English and Spanish) about systemic inequities in their respective communities—that is, how their communities have both experienced and resisted oppression. Organizing these virtual exchanges entailed evaluating social justice topics that could engage and benefit both groups (e.g., voters’ rights, indigenous rights, civil rights movements) as well as coordinating the structure of the exchanges with program directors, staff members, and students. After six weeks of the virtual exchanges, results from weekly student reflections and pre-/post-surveys showed that students in both universities perceived that discussing topics related to social justice helped them challenge stereotypes. Students in the United States self-identifying as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) shared their lived experiences with their counterparts in Argentina. Moreover, participants mentioned that the virtual exchanges with a focus on social justice provided them with a sense of self-discovery and insights onto their own culture as well as that of the exchange partner. 

2. Increasing the visibility of BIPOC students studying abroad

Another way administrators, faculty, and students can collaborate on anti-racist efforts on campus is by increasing the visibility of BIPOC students who have participated in study abroad. There are common narratives (re)produced from a deficit approach that BIPOC students don’t participate in study abroad due to specific “barriers” that are attributed only to them: for example, finances, fears, lack of family support, lack of interest (see Marijuan & Sanz, 2018). Such hegemonic stories can be pervasive; however, counter-narratives, as discussed by critical race theorists, can be powerful as long as those counter-narratives are used in ways that make an argument and convey a sense of social justice that goes beyond individual references (Ladson-Billings, 2013). Making the learning experiences of BIPOC students studying abroad (more) visible in multiple campus spaces (e.g., living facilities, multicultural/advising centers, social media) and elevating their presence and voices as a collective in those same spaces can potentially contribute to the disruption of deficit approaches toward BIPOC students’ participation in global education.

3. Working with BIPOC students who studied abroad

It is recommended that during the reentry phase of a study abroad program, faculty leaders in collaboration with staff members in international centers offer BIPOC students who studied abroad opportunities to (re)elaborate their immersion experience; BIPOC students may not have (fully) disclosed discriminatory or biased treatment based on their racial and ethnic identities during immersion (e.g., with host families, in public spaces); end-of-program reflections and post-study abroad conversations are critical to continue supporting BIPOC students, and to gain a better understanding of the study abroad program sites so that improvements/interventions can be made accordingly based on BIPOC students’ experiences and feedback.

Additionally, BIPOC students who previously studied abroad (returnees) can be hired as peer advisors to support prospective BIPOC peers who are considering studying abroad; BIPOC peer-advisor students can answer questions that prospective BIPOC students may not ask other campus advisors (e.g., how to navigate cultural differences and communicationally challenging encounters, how to manage stress) and give examples of how they used the credit earned abroad to meet degree or minor requirements.

4. Enhancing constructive dialogue among faculty of diverse social identities

Lastly, a productive avenue for collaboration across campus is the creation of spaces for constructive dialogue among faculty of diverse social identities and areas of expertise so they can further evaluate different factors that may contribute to the enrichment of the immersive experience of underrepresented students, especially students from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors. For example, U.S. Latinx students who grew up speaking Spanish at home can productively develop their linguistic skills in their heritage language when studying in a Spanish-speaking country. However, this linguistic development may be constrained if Latinx students feel that their varieties of Spanish and their bicultural identities are not honored or seen as assets both at home and abroad, “perpetuating the erroneous notion that Latinx peoples in the United States are always already immigrants, useful for their agricultural, domestic, and military labor” (Holguín Mendoza & Taylor, 2021, p. 232). Faculty leaders on campus can empower Latinx students abroad by validating their unique upbringings and by incorporating specific tasks into their coursework where they can use and develop their bilingual and bicultural abilities in connection with their future professions.

References

Dorroll, C., & Caballero-Garcia, B. (2020). Creating virtual exchanges: Promoting intercultural knowledge when study abroad is not possible. Transformations: The Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and Pedagogy, 30(2), pp. 148–162.

Holguín Mendoza, C., & Taylor, A. (2021). Spanish heritage learners abroad: Inclusive pedagogies for critical sociocultural linguistic agency. In R. Pozzi, T. Quan, & C. Escalante (Eds.), Heritage Speakers of Spanish in Study Abroad (pp. 219–235). New York, N: Routledge.  

Kishimoto, K. (2018). Anti-racist pedagogy: From faculty’s self-reflection to organizingwithin and beyond the classroom. Race Ethnicity and Education, 21(4), 540–554.

Ladson-Billings, G. (2013). Critical race theory—What it is not! In M. Lynn & A. Dixson (Eds.), The handbook of critical race theory in education (pp. 34–47). New York, NY: Routledge.

Marijuan, S., & Sanz, C. (2018). Expanding boundaries: Current and new directions in study abroad research and practice. Foreign Language Annals, 51(1), 185–204.

Punti, G., & Dingel, M. (2021). Rethinking race, ethnicity, and the assessment of intercultural competence in higher education. Education Sciences, 11(3), 110.

A Collaborative Model for Integrating Inclusive Practices Across an International Education Curriculum

by HOLA@HAJINKIM.COM | Apr 29, 2025 | Fall 2022, Global Impact Exchange

Authors:

• David Wick, Middlebury Institute, Associate Professor and Chair 
• Hsinyun Kiki Shen, Stanford Law School, International Programs Coordinator
• Melina Diaz, Middlebury Institute, Graduate Research Assistant
• Laura Manczewski, Middlebury Institute, Graduate Research Assistant 
• Hashim Muhammad, Middlebury Institute, Graduate Research Assistant
• Anne Campbell, Middlebury Institute, Associate Professor

This article highlights collaborative efforts by students, faculty, and the provost’s office to reform a graduate international education management (IEM) program, optimize for online learning, and center technology, inclusion, diversity, equity, and sustainability. We hope that this research-based case study can serve as a model for leveraging partnerships like these for systemic change to advance equity, diversity, and inclusion in global learning programs, classes, and virtual exchange. 

Faculty, students, and alumni identified technology, inclusion, diversity, equity, and sustainability, or TIDES, as values, goals, and objectives that must be woven throughout the IEM program to prepare graduates to contribute meaningfully to the field now and into the future. Four publications or initiatives underscore the immediacy of the TIDES themes: the guiding principles of equity, diversity, and inclusion in the sixth edition of the standards of Good Practice for Education Abroad (The Forum on Education Abroad, 2020); the calls to action in Social Justice and International Education (Berger, 2020); the foundation and efforts of the Climate Action Network for International Educators (CANiE); and the proliferation of technology supported global learning activities (Bhandari & Kastler, 2022). A student and faculty team reviewed these resources, and others, and rewrote program goals and student learning outcomes to integrate TIDES. These TIDES-informed goals and outcomes guided reform of all aspects of the IEM program.

TIDES Reform Process

We gathered guidelines and frameworks for integrating each of the TIDES themes into our program and discussed how we might apply them. This process allowed us to see that systemic change requires review and refinement at five interconnected levels: program, curriculum, class, teaching, and individual. Resources we reviewed provided detailed approaches to decolonizing course syllabi (Ahadi & Guerrero, 2020), online course design (Digital Learning and Inquiry, 2022), equity in online learning (Peralta Community College District, 2020), and more. With our goal of fostering change at all five levels, we created a matrix for the application of each resource and selected or adapted tools to support systemic change at each level. This article focuses on the collaborative course audit process that students led to bring program-level learning objective changes to course design and teaching. This process is built on the foundation of the abovementioned online course design rubric. 

Throughout our course audit process, students and faculty kept field notes. The co-authors of this article also interviewed all student auditors. This research-based approach provided insights into the student-faculty collaborative process and the impacts on individual courses and the overall program. The following paragraphs outline our key findings at this stage in the audit process. 

Findings from Collaborative Course Audits

The power dynamics inherent to professor-student relationships presented challenges and benefits. Students often felt intimidated when first partnering with faculty members. Although they were working with professors with whom they were familiar, they recognized the existing power structure and felt they may lack knowledge and experience in curriculum design and thus be unprepared to recommend graduate program changes. However, the student auditors highlighted how existing close relationships with faculty and faculty commitment to the TIDES audit process provided the necessary foundation for this critical review process.

Openness to change as an essential requirement for the audit process was a second theme that was present in the students’ reflections. Not only did it serve to reduce the intimidation students felt at the beginning of the collaboration, but it was also a foundation of the entire audit process that aimed at refining course curriculum. Prior to the audits faculty had reflected on their pedagogy and curriculum. The audit process heightened and focused that work. In initial conversations with the students, some faculty proposed ideas they were considering for students to investigate. Students also expressed that the faculty were open to hearing the suggestions they unearthed after completing an initial audit.

Personal biases affected the results of the audit. There were differences between student and faculty perspectives. The collaboration allowed for a view of curriculum design and how it is received. For the faculty, working with the graduate assistants made it easier to understand the diverse student experiences. The student auditors took the courses before conducting the audit and were able to consider how different topics resonated with themselves and their classmates. For the student auditors, faculty provided insights on course design and student learning with examples from student work in the class and course evaluations. 

In addition, the graduate assistants learned about their own limitations, imposed by personal bias, interest, and privilege. Different graduate assistants found different parts of the audit easy or challenging to assess. Some found that inclusivity and educational technology were easy to assess because of their familiarity with the area, while others found equity and sustainability difficult to assess due to their own privilege or lack of knowledge. They also mentioned the content and activities were sometimes tricky to assess due to varied course structures and teaching styles. This meant that the student auditors had to conduct research to address concerns raised by the audit. Because they recognized the impact of their own experience on the audit, several also mentioned that the audit on courses may need to be conducted again by another. This finding from our interviews underscores our intention that these course audits serve as a process, not a goal. In other words, completing an audit of every class in the program will create a baseline for ongoing, iterative work.

A final theme was the consideration of sustainability, the S in TIDES, an emerging area of concern in international education. It was pointed out by several student auditors that sustainability was difficult to assess. As they completed audits of different courses, they saw how the concept of sustainability was defined and applied varied from course to course. In the first semester Principles & Practices of International Education course, the sustainability discussion focused on the carbon footprint tied to travel in global learning. In Marketing & Recruitment, however, the discussion took a turn to focus on resource management practices and employee burnout. In addition to the integration of sustainability in coursework, the graduate assistants had to strategize a way to prevent fatigue and feelings of overwhelm in themselves as they complete detailed evaluations of multiple courses.

Conclusions

We have seen immediate and long-term benefits from this audit process. The student auditors honed their critical lens and identified and prioritized opportunities for advancing equity, diversity, inclusion, and sustainability in every class. Faculty found that they began to view their courses more critically and objectively, to challenge their implicit biases, and to make changes for inclusion immediately in their teaching. Our audit process is collaborative and transparent, making course design and delivery more accessible to students and strengthening the human connection between professors and students. This collaborative effort not only integrates the student voice in curriculum refinement, but also highlights the importance of openness to mutual learning and continued refinement to both faculty and students. In this way the process and products of our collaboration both advance integration of inclusive practices into the curriculum. Reforming a program to address equity, justice, and sustainability could easily remain abstract, but by breaking down our system into levels, we were able to create a replicable course audit process and make significant progress in two semesters.

References

Ahadi, H. S., & Guerrero, L. A. (2020). Decolonizing your syllabus, an anti-racist guide for your college. Academic Senate for California Community Colleges. https://www.asccc.org/content/decolonizing-your-syllabus-anti-racist-guide-your-college

Berger, L. (Ed.). (2020). Social justice and international education: Research, practice, and perspectives. NAFSA: Association of International Educators.

Bhandari, R., & Kastler, K. (2022). Building connections during a time of global change: An international snapshot of virtual exchange. International Higher Education, 110, 27–29.

Digital Learning and Inquiry. (2022). Online course design rubric. Middlebury. https://dlinq.middcreate.net/online-course-design-rubric

Peralta Community College District. (2020). Peralta online equity rubric, version 3.0 [Creative Commons license: BY-SA]. https://web.peralta.edu/de/peralta-online-equity-initiative/equity

The Forum on Education Abroad. (2020). Standards of good practice for education abroad.

Achieving Equitable Global Education Without Mobility

by HOLA@HAJINKIM.COM | Apr 29, 2025 | Fall 2022, Global Impact Exchange

Authors:

• Anthony F. Lemieux, Georgia State University, Founding Co-Director of the Atlanta Global Studies Center and Professor 
• Hope Windle, State University of New York, Community Development Lead, COIL Center
• Maria Ines Marino, Florida International University, Associate Teaching Professor
• Tammy Rosner, University System of Georgia, Director of International Education

Abstract:

In this article, we approach the concept of “global engagement at home” to describe what it means and how it can expand opportunities for underrepresented students through international collaboration. To best serve students, and provide equitable global educational opportunities, we must expand our definition of what constitutes a “global experience.” Here we outline opportunities that exist within our own communities and institutions, while also discussing the opportunities and implications of virtual learning opportunities, to help our students engage with difference while understanding the diversity of experiences within one’s own community. Examples include international virtual exchange; creating immersive environments embedded in courses; COIL methodology, as revealed in a suite of approaches; and a case study of the opportunities, implications, and challenges experienced by a cohort of Hispanic students in a higher education context. 

That global experiences constitute an important component of the educational experience has become well-known and widely accepted. The question of what kinds of experiences count as “global” and the ability to accurately capture and categorize them, and why these are critical components of an equitable and inclusive education, are addressed in this paper. 

Starting in the Spring of 2020, many of the traditional mechanisms of global education that involved international travel and study abroad came to a screeching halt. At the same time, higher education was faced with the question of how to continue to offer compelling global experiences. As we collectively and collaboratively worked to conceptualize and implement global engagement at home, we came to the realization that such initiatives and programs could serve multiple purposes—especially as they speak to equitable access to global experiences and creating an inclusive environment for diverse student populations across higher educational institutional categories. Among the most promising and compelling of the suite of approaches for global education at home are international virtual exchange (IVE) and Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL). 

For example, in the University System of Georgia (USG) during the 2018–19 academic year, 8,859 students participated in study abroad, representing just 2.7% of the USG total student population. While the USG surpasses national trends in study abroad participation, the numbers still represent a low portion of the student body. With only 8,859 out of 330,000+ students going abroad, we can no longer focus solely on international student mobility as the dominant mechanism for providing students with high-quality global experiences. Offering in-class personalized global experiences through IVE and supplementing these with other enriching and immersive global experiences, such as immersive video, can provide more students who are not able to go abroad for a whole host of reasons with access to these types of experiences. In response to this reality, starting in Spring 2019, the USG began implementing attributes at the course-build level to track study abroad, study away, and IVE courses. The data shows that USG can provide more students with a global experience without extra cost or time away from work or family with an IVE course. Through efforts to promote both mobility and at-home global courses, all students can be provided equitable access to these transformative experiences that have implications for their career preparedness and long-term success.

In its 2018 Employer Research Report, the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) reveals preparedness gaps between employer needs and recent college graduates’ skills to be able to solve problems with people of different backgrounds (30% gap), work effectively in teams (37% gap), and apply skills to the “real world” (48% gap). For our students to work together in international teams and communicate across cultures, hands-on, project-based experience gives multiple chances for students to reflect on differences and equity between countries, institutions, and themselves. While study abroad and global education focus on culture and domestic diversity programs focus on inclusion and diversity, IVE takes this a step further, providing an experience that can be a reasonable approximation of an inclusive workplace and a space in which a shared community of practice learn how to work through differences in a global setting. As such, IVE presents an opportunity for students to practice soft skills on teams, reflect on their own as well as their peers’ identities, and work through how to bridge differences and build on similarities. Put simply, IVE is the convergence of “culture” and “inclusion.” 

IVE programs such as COIL can help lessen marginalization of underrepresented student populations in higher education. With support from the Stevens Initiative, Marino and Tadal (2022) conducted an unpublished internal study examining perceptions, experiences, and behaviors of United States-based Hispanic students who collaboratively participated in COIL courses with Latin American institutions. Their findings, along with those of others conducting research in this space (e.g., Poe, 2022), strongly suggest that IVE programs could be instrumental for underrepresented populations in higher education who seek social and economic mobility (also see O’Dowd et al., 2018). IVE programs provide marginalized audiences with opportunities to perform their cultural identity through the establishment of connections to culture and language. They found the COIL experience to impact:

1. Identity performance as a catalyst to reclaim presence through which they re-establish contact with their cultural background, and a strong sense of connection to culture and language (reported by United States-based Hispanic students), which emerged from the opportunity to interact and collaborate with Latin American peers through their COIL programs. Participants’ motivation and sentiment of togetherness propelled them to share their culture in the academic context saying: “I feel we are all in the same boat;” “I feel my voice is being heard;” “I felt closer to my roots;” and “Now I can experience what my parents talked… about.” Thus, students were able to further the performance of their cultural identity in more visible social ways through meaningful collaboration (Biggs & Tang, 2007). At its core, for these students the COIL experience was perceived as an opportunity to apply, practice, or remind of participants’ cultural identity through language (Spanish) performance, experiencing “home” language, while creating access to global experiences and interactions that might not otherwise be possible.

2. Presence and representation as preparation for professional development and career opportunities is a notable outcome of participation: “Professionally I will be able to communicate with people from other countries;” “I feel it is an advantage.” Linking the sharing of participants’ own cultural experiences positively impacts their engagement in learning and their ability to communicate and collaborate effectively with their peers (Garcia, 2017; Jagers et al., 2018; Rovai, 2007). Feelings of representation also serve to boost participants’ sense of empowerment and confidence, which has a significant value in academia because the establishment of empowerment results from the performing, re-affirmation, and validation of their cultural identity (Ou et al., 2021; Torres et al., 2020). 

3. Social and economic mobility has the distinct potential to be impacted through the incorporation of global engagement at home experiences, especially to the extent that they intentionally incorporate the development of communication, collaboration, and multi-cultural opportunities. On a related point, bilingual students from both countries stated they wanted to practice using their second languages when collaborating with their international partners. Participants also mentioned that they felt pushed beyond their “comfort zones,” which motivated an increased openness to learning.

Virtual and augmented reality projects, along with immersive video, have also proven to be a powerful component of global education and can be readily incorporated into IVE/COIL collaborations. Examples include Global Virtual Internships as well as the SUNY COIL Global Commons connected to UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and NGO projects to virtual student teams working on specific needs to reduce poverty and inequities for accessibility within an online course setting. Again, these experiences are examples of compelling and enriching global educational opportunities that can be implemented at the local level. 

Recommendations for Increasing Access to Global Experiences at Home for Underrepresented Students

Based on our observations, experiences, and analysis, we posit that several practices will specifically frame IVE and immersive experiences such as COIL to inclusively support identity performance, generate engagement and sense of belonging, and consequently help lessen marginalization of underrepresented populations in higher education.

1. Inform students about IVE / COIL / immersive opportunities and expectations.
2. Support the incorporation of immersive global content (including 360-degree video) into courses across the curriculum with intention. 
3. In the implementation of IVE programs, match underrepresented students with international peers or countries with whom they can share their identity or feel cultural/ethnic/racial connections. 
4. Encourage students to use free and accessible virtual spaces (survey students beforehand).
5. Provide activities or icebreakers that provide students with opportunities to engage socially with their international partners.
6. Provide discussion topics, activities, and readings that allow students to research and think critically about their identities, social justice, or marginalized groups.
7. Incorporate discussions in small groups to provide a sense of belonging (while being cognizant of avoiding undue pressure on underrepresented students in majority settings where they may be put in the uncomfortable position of spokesperson by default).
8. Provide opinion-based and reflection opportunities.
9. Provide students with a certificate of completion that can be incorporated into their resumes and that will encourage students’ participation.

Armed with these suggested practices as a starting point, we hope that future practice and research will explore perceptions, behaviors, and experiences of faculty as well as other underrepresented groups in higher education such as Black students, Asian students, and students with disabilities. Recognizing that a concerted effort to make global education for all a reality by embracing practices that afford students high-quality and compelling experiences and opportunities is, at its core, an important step toward creating a truly equitable and inclusive learning environment. 

References

Bell, H. (2018). Creative interventions for teaching empathy in the counseling classroom. Journal of Creativity in Mental Health, 13(1), 106–120. https://doi.org/10.1080/15401383.2017.1328295

Biggs, J., & Tang, C. (2007). Teaching for quality learning at university: What the student does. (3rd. Ed.). Buckingham, UK: Open University Press. 

Britt, L. L. (2014). Service-learning in the service of social justice: Situating communication activism pedagogy within a typology of service-learning approaches. In L. R. Frey & D. L. Palmer (Eds.), Teaching communication activism: Communication education for social justice (pp. 139–166). New York, NY: Hampton Press.

Duffy, L. N., Stone, G. A., Townsend, J., & Cathey, J. (2020). Rethinking curriculum internationalization: Virtual exchange as a means to attaining global competencies, developing critical thinking, and experiencing transformative learning. Schole: A Journal of Leisure Studies and Recreation Education, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/1937156X.2020.1760749

Fleur, P., Volman, M. L. & Terwel, J. (2007). The influence of learner characteristics on Degree and type of participation in a CSCL environment. British Journal of Educational Technology, 38(6),1037–1055. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8535.2006.00692.x

Garcia, G. A. (2017). Defined by outcomes or culture? Constructing an organizational identity for Hispanic-Serving Institutions. American Education Research Journal, 54, 111S–134S. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831216669779

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