Diversity Abroad Advisor Manual: Hispanic Students

The goal of this manual is to provide a road map for professionals who work with Hispanic college and university students in the United States (U.S.) planning to study abroad. The manual begins with a terminology guide and a brief explanation of the continued increase in the U.S. Hispanic population over the past decade. This trend sheds light on the growing number of Hispanic students pursuing higher education, and how this can positively impact education abroad, and equally important, how the increase will impact the way in which we approach the advising process. The remaining sections provide detailed advice for supporting the students during the research, application, preparation, on-site and re-entry phase of the study abroad process. To facilitate reader interaction with the guide, each section begins with an introduction and defined objectives. These objectives provide anticipated knowledge and skill acquisition by the reader for that section. At the conclusion of each section, questions are provided for reflection and tips or next steps to assist the reader in considering how to better advise the student based on the information presented in the guide.

This manual acknowledges the differences between the terms Hispanic and Latino(a); however, for the purposes of clarity and uniformity, the authors will use the term Hispanic throughout the manual to refer to a group of Americans who share a common language and/or cultural origins, but who have diverse backgrounds, histories, socio-economic and political experiences (Brown et al., 2003). For more information on the differences between the terms Hispanic and Latino(a), please see the terminology section.

To navigate through the manual, click on the hyperlinked Table of Contents (TOC) to go to a specific section. If you’d like to search for a specific term in the manual, hit the “CTRL” + “F” keys and enter your search term in the search field that appears and hit “Enter”.