Top Reasons Underrepresented Students Should Study Abroad

by DA Global | Dec 5, 2015 | Articles

Posted: Thursday, December 5, 2015
By: Diversity Abroad

The following post is a cross-post with our DiversityAbroad.com blog geared toward diverse and underrepresented students and young people interested in international opportunities. On January 20, a NEW and enhanced DiversityAbroad.com will launch, and we are excited to share more opportunities with you and the students you serve!At Diversity Abroad, we believe everyone is a prime candidate for an international experience. Whether it’s as a college student earning credits toward graduation, recent graduates moving abroad to teach English, or families seeking meaningful volunteer opportunities — there are many ways that going abroad is beneficial, both personally and professionally.

While we have exhausted reasons why students of color, first-generation students, STEM majors, men and other underrepresented students hesitate to go abroad due to real or perceived fear and financial, family and faculty-based barriers, there are also a vast number of reasons why students should go abroad; even moreso than their peers. Here are our top 10 reasons why underrepresented and underserved students should go abroad:

1. Diversity Representation: Be Seen and Be Heard

While abroad, students or travelers become unofficial ambassadors to their home country. If students taking advantage of studying overseas are made up of only a specific population (let’s say, female English majors), then the world will have a very skewed perception of what Americans look like, or what our opinions are on topics like religion and politics. We need broader, more diverse representation that more adequately reflects the diversity of America, and this is one reason why more diverse Americans should consider international opportunities.

2. Gaining a broader, global perspective

Anytime students engage with people whose background or life experiences differ from theirs, they open themselves up to new perspectives and hopefully, more understanding and growth. Going abroad gives students the chance to challenge or strengthen their own beliefs and the beliefs of others.

3. Coalition Building Across Communities

One very powerful reason why more diverse student populations should consider an international experience would be to build coalitions across different countries and cultures. Recently, communities have marched together to express horror and fight injustice following racially driven killings in Ferguson and New York City, among other cities across the country. It is an extremely powerful statement to make, when diverse communities of all backgrounds can come together to celebrate or mourn in common experience as a collective whole.

4. Global to Local to Global Community Empowerment

When underrepresented students go abroad and begin coalition building as we mentioned above, the opportunity to continue that dialogue upon returning is a chance to empower their own communities at home. Their experiences abroad will inform how they work with others, and how they can empower their peers and themselves to make waves either locally or globally.

5. Networking

As students begin their professional careers, maintaining contact with the people they meet abroad is absolutely important to helping build a network of friends and professionals supporting their work. Social media makes it easier than ever to keep in touch with people from all around the world, and it’s especially meaningful to establish a lasting connection to those who have shared as unique an experience as living overseas.

6. Cross-cultural skills and sensitivity building

Living and studying among both locals and peers from a variety of backgrounds gives students the opportunity to hone their cross-cultural skills. Building this level of awareness and sensitivity is incredibly important to achieve coalition building, networking and community empowerment as we previously mentioned.

7. Leaving your comfort zone behind

Living in a different country with different customs and cultures is extremely valuable because of what students can gain by stepping outside their comfort zone. While it can be frightening to try something new, the flexibility and willingness to experience something so different exhibits an openness to try new things. We all know that fear can be a dangerous and discriminatory practice, but leaving the U.S. exhibits a fearlessness that not everyone experiences.

8. Gaining Independence

For many students of racial or ethnic minority backgrounds, it’s not uncommon to feel guilty leaving family behind to go abroad. But this skill will be very critical because it can be a stepping stone towards a direction that allows students to feel more comfortable taking on bigger and greater responsibilities.

9. Stand out from others

Because not enough diverse students are going abroad, their presence in another country carries more weight to it than they might think. Whether students continue to pursue opportunities overseas, or settle back into life in the U.S., their overseas experience sets them apart from others. The endless learning and growth you gain from studying abroad makes you stand out to future employers or colleagues, and this is extremely valuable.

10. FUN

Going abroad is FUN, and no one should deny themselves the opportunity to experience new places, make new friends, and explore uncharted territory.

So we encourage all students to pursue those international experiences! And don’t forget that DiversityAbroad.com is here to help answer all your questions!

Does Diversity Have a Place in the Health and Safety Conversation? 

by DA Global | Dec 5, 2015 | Articles

Posted: Thursday, December 5, 2015

By: Diversity Abroad

At initial glance, it may seem that student’s health and safety considerations may have very little to do with their personal identity. All students, after all, should be prepared for the physical, emotional, and mental strain related to acclimating to a new environment. All students should be briefed in the potential safety and security concerns of the country in which they will be living. So how exactly would a student’s identity influence this conversation? The short answer is in ways that we as international educators may not have considered before. The longer response is that it depends.

Mental Health

This is an area of health and safety that has grown significantly in the previous decade, not only in education abroad, but also in higher education more broadly. Going abroad can be a major life event for many of the students who are able to participate in an activity like study abroad. The experience of adapting to a new environment, a new group of peers, a new system of coursework, and managing relationships back home can be stressful for many students who go abroad. For students from racial and ethnic minority groups, first generation college students, and low-income students these stressors have the potential to be compounded.

Isolation is a frequently cited experience for students from diverse racial and ethnic populations as well as those from lower-income households. Being “the only one” (e.g., African American, Native American, Latino) on the program has the potential to create an environment where students who identify as the only one of their background on the program may not feel comfortable discussing particular challenges they may be experiencing while abroad. Similarly, students from low-income backgrounds may feel more isolated if they are not able to participate in excursions that come at an extra cost or travel regionally as some of their peers may. Often times, situations that arise as a result of a student’s background have the potential to fester, as many students may not see such incidents as worthy of reporting. Students from underrepresented backgrounds are often taught to manage these challenges independently, and support staff may not hear about situations (e.g., faculty member calls on only Asian American student in class when discussing Chinese culture, African American student is the only one in the group who is searched upon entry of a local club).

Seeking Out Resources and Local Diversity

We hear often of students from diverse backgrounds looking for specific products, services, or venues that are connected to their identity. It may be African American students looking for hair products or barbers/stylists who have experience with their hair type, or Latino students looking for cooking ingredients that remind them of home, Jewish students looking for Kosher-friendly stores, or students of a particular faith seeking out a place of worship. At first glance this may seem related to local culture more than safety, however, if we consider that students may be finding these resources by searching online and heading to a part of town they may not be familiar with, what was initially an effort to find relevant resources could turn into a potentially complicated excursion. There is, of course, a need to balance encouraging independent exploration with health and safety concerns. However, students can be encouraged to engage in “exploration within boundaries.” If we as international educators provide some of these resources in advance about a variety of places where they can find these products and services, students will have reliable information with the option to explore these venues independently.

While these are but two examples of how identity intersects with health and safety, there are certainly other ways in which students from diverse backgrounds may have unique health and safety considerations that all students could benefit from hearing about as they prepare to go abroad. Students from diverse backgrounds certainly benefit from having information and support as it relates to these topics, but students who may not initially identify with an underrepresented group also gain from engaging in these conversations. After all, students’ health and safety is a group responsibility, and it benefits all education abroad students to know how identity intersects with their experience on the ground.

Suggested Resources for Students

• List of local resources related to health and beauty that includes venues that provide products and services for diverse populations (e.g., general drug stores, drug stores that carry ethnic beauty supplies, barbers, salons).
• Pre-departure discussion and on-site orientation that addresses current climate of diversity of the city/town (e.g., address what local “diversity” means).
• List of places of worship for diverse religious groups.
• Super market or store recommendations that include more affordable grocery options, ethnic cuisine and ingredients, and Kosher and halal options.
• A “staff picks” list of diverse restaurant options.
• Recurring conversation group (middle and end of the semester or program) for students on the program to discuss their experiences, how they’ve adapted, challenges, and highlights.
• Frequent messages either via email or social media that remind students to share their experiences with staff.
  

What other strategies has your organization or institution undertaken to address diversity and identity in health and safety discussions?

Unconscious Bias in Education Abroad?

by DA Global | Oct 18, 2015 | Articles

Posted: Friday, October 18, 2015
By Lily Lopez-McGee

There’s a buzz in private industry about how unconscious bias is preventing more diverse and traditionally underrepresented professionals from accessing top level leadership positions within corporations. The case for having a diverse team of employees has been well documented (see Resources below), but it appears that when it comes to recruiting, hiring, and promoting we (humans) are hardwired to prefer those who look, think, and act more like we do (here’s a quick video that breaks down what unconscious bias is). As many industries are dominated, particularly at the top levels of leadership, by a fairly homogenous group of professionals (straight, white men), diversifying those who are hired and promoted at all levels appears to be more complex than changing a handful of policies (though that can be a great way to start!).

For many reasons, it makes sense that private industry is taking a serious look at how their current hiring and internal promotion practices might be limiting access to professionals who represent diverse backgrounds. One of the biggest driving factors for this may be that a company’s ability to compete in their field requires that they think innovatively to develop new solutions and create new products. Research has shown that diverse groups, when managed effectively, are more creative and productive.

While the business case for private companies might appear to be more explicit (more diverse teams leads to more sales), higher education could also benefit from exploring how unconscious bias may influence the recruitment and selection of diverse student populations as well as the subsequent services that all students receive once they are enrolled. Like so many other industries, higher education administration has not traditionally reflected the diversity of the student body on campus, and as a result institutions may have embedded and esoteric policies and practices that create unnecessary barriers to recruiting, hiring, retaining, supporting, and engaging diverse faculty, staff, and students.

Education abroad and international programs offices are not immune to these challenges, and must, if the commitment to diversify the student participation in education abroad programming is real, consider how unconscious bias might be impacting both student recruitment and engagement as well as hiring and promotion practices.

How do the learnings from corporations influence how we think about advising bias in education abroad?

Relying on study abroad office networks may not be reaching diverse and underrepresented students

Some of the most compelling findings from research done on unconscious bias in private industry is that while companies require that new positions be announced publicly and broadly, many hiring managers depend on personal networks and current employees to attract candidates for positions. Considering that our unconscious selves automatically think of people who think, act, and look like us, relying on who we know to recruit students and employees may actually be undermining our efforts to diversify those students we are reaching.

One way we can begin to address this is to reach out to those on campus who may have connections with diverse students to not only get the word out, but to also collaborate to better understand how to connect with diverse students. This can include reaching out to other student services/affairs offices (e.g., multicultural/diversity, financial aid, Trio) as well as diverse faculty members.

These efforts can help us in not only reaching a wider audience, it also has the potential to expand our own networks so that when we do rely on who we know to spread the word, that audience is also more diverse.

Assumptions about certain student populations may be undermining the advising process

The implications for unconscious bias reach beyond recruiting and hiring; they also have the potential to undermine our interactions with diverse students as we prepare them to go abroad. Before students have the opportunity to tell us what their interests or concerns might be, many advisors may already assume they know what challenges students face. We may assume that our Pell-eligible students want short-term programming and only present short-term study options in our advising session. Or we might start our conversation with a Latino student with a discussion about the Gilman scholarship. While students might take such advice in stride, students may also opt to move forward with their planning without re-engaging with the education abroad office, leaving the chance that they may miss important deadlines and information that otherwise would have been relevant to their experience.

We can begin to move beyond our assumptions by allowing the students to drive the conversation, taking note of their needs and interests, and providing information accordingly. We can also ask probing questions along the way to help them think about all of their options and consider all of the information and resources they have available to them.

It’s also important to engage students at all points in their experience with the office. Offices could include questions in existing pre-departure and re-entry surveys that ask students about their experiences with unconscious biases, or perceived barriers or challenges they may have had in their interactions with the office/organization. Involve the students in the process!

Hiring practices and ‘requirements’ may be undermining intentions to hire more diverse staff

Many of us in international education find a particular affinity with the idea that those in the field all share the common experience of having spent some time abroad during their lifetime. When it comes down to the type of job that you’re asking someone to do, though, is having an international experience really required to do the job well? This is just one example of how our expectations for job candidates may already be working against our interests in diversifying our staff (remember, those who have and do study abroad still reflect a fairly homogenous population). There, of course, may be positions that do depend heavily on an education abroad advisor’s own experience abroad. There are likely many positions, (e.g., accounting, office management), though, that rely more heavily on functional skills rather than the experience of going abroad.

Just as with our students, it’s important to engage current and former employees to better understand what the issues/concerns and strengths of our offices are. It may be helpful to survey current and former employees about their experiences and suggestions for improving the hiring/recruitment process.

It may also be worthwhile to explore how the current hiring and promotion process weighs certain experiences/skills over others to create a rubric that considers a wide range of talents that candidates bring to the table (e.g., add points for candidates who worked in college). It’s also important here to explore the full hiring cycle (e.g., screening resumes, interviews, onboarding, assignment process, performance evaluation) to assess potential unconscious bias. One good short-list for other suggestions is Diversity Best Practices “Proven Strategies for Addressing Unconscious Bias in the Workplace” (pg. 15).

Resources

Unconscious Bias in Private Industry

• Google Blog on Unconscious Bias
• Eliminating Bias in the Workplace
• Proven Strategies for Addressing Unconscious Bias in the Workplace
• D&I: Where to start?
• Think Slow: How Unconscious Bias Impacts the Workplace
• Discrimination and Unconscious Bias in the Workplace
• Understanding the Impact of Unconscious Bias
• Test Yourself for Hidden Bias
• In Hiring, a Friend in Need Is a Prospect, Indeed. By Nelson Shwartz. New York Times, (2013).
• Overcoming the ‘Sway’ in Professional Life. By Marci Alboher. (2008).

Unconscious Bias in Higher Education

• The Dangerous Mind: Unconscious Bias In Higher Education. By Sam Lin-Sommer and Sebastian Łucek. Brown Political Review (2015).
• Unconscious bias and higher education. Equity Challenge Unit. (2013).
• What is Unconscious Bias; considerations and top tips. Sandy Sparks. Warwick University. (2014).

Testing Unconscious Bias

• Project Implicit, Harvard University

Case for Diversity

• Why diversity matters. By Vivian Hunt, Dennis Layton, and Sara Prince. McKinsey & Company (2015).
• Business Case for Inclusion and Engagement. By Marcus Robinson, Charles Pfeffer, and Joan Buccigrossi, (2003). wetWare, Inc. Rochester, NY
• Making the Business Case for Diversity. By Dori Clark. Forbes (2014).
• The Business Case for Diversity: How Companies Keep Their Competitive Edge. By Tammy Worth. Texas Diversity Magazine (2009).
• The Business Case for Diversity. Employer’s Network for Equity and Inclusion.
• The evidence is growing – there really is a business case for diversity. By Tim Smedley. The Financial Times (2014).

Creating Partnerships in Support of First Generation College Students

by DA Global | Oct 18, 2015 | Articles

Posted: Friday, October 18, 2015
Author: Mandy Brookins Blinn, DePauw University, in collaboration with the 2014-2015 Diversity Abroad Task Force on First Generation College Students 

First Generation college students face many obstacles when it comes to success in higher education[i]. Many of those obstacles come well before study abroad, and actively influence a student’s ability or decision to study abroad.

• Knowledge gap: First generation students frequently lack the knowledge and vocabulary of higher education such as how to select a major, time management strategies, how do I approach professors for assistance, or what are the co-curricular options and what value does study abroad or internships bring to my education[ii].

• Academic Preparedness: First generation students, on average, have lower overall GPAs and drop out at a rate higher than their peers who have at least one parent who has completed a four-year degree[iii]. Study abroad often requires a minimum GPA and occasionally course pre-requisites to participate. While it’s important to ensure academic preparedness and the maturity of students on a program, first generation students who may struggle academically in their transition to college may inadvertently not meet those minimum standards and ultimately be left out.

• Financial Obligations: The cost of attending college continues to rise and puts tremendous stain on family budgets. Particularly those families where neither parent has a college degree. Just to attend university, first generation students often have significant financial obligations to their families, and are financing their education through student loans and part time, sometimes full time, employment. Taking out additional loans, or stepping away from a paying job for a semester abroad or longer is not a viable option for many first generation students. Study abroad can also be seen as an extra, or an expense, instead of an investment.

These challenges are not stand alone obstacles. They each influence the other as a student moves on the trajectory of a college education. Taken together, they can have a vicious cycle effect on a student’s mobility on campus, and ultimately their access to critical educational opportunities such as study abroad and internships.

Unlike students of color, first generation students often fly under the radar as an invisible and varied group. As a silent underrepresented group, it can be challenging to identify first generation students and develop programming and resources for them to succeed. Therefore, it is necessary to involve multiple stakeholders around campus to create seamless and comprehensive support that address the most common barriers to success on campus, and pave the way for access to co-curricular learning such as study abroad.

Step 1: Define “First Generation.”

There is no one definition for first generation college student[iv]. Before a campus can start developing programming to respond to the needs of any group, there must be an agreed upon definition. Whether first generation refers to parents who did not complete a bachelor’s degree, or simply parents who did not attend college, will make a difference in how an institution categorizes these students and how to response to their needs.

Step 2: Identify Stakeholders

Because barriers to success are intertwined, it’s vital that the campus resources most closely associated with the barriers be identified. Those stakeholders can be invited to engage in a dialogue about how the institution can develop programming or address administrative structures to best serve first generation students. Representatives from units such as Admissions, Academic Advising, Faculty, Multicultural Life, Housing, Education Abroad/Career Services and Financial Aid can speak to each of the integrated barriers. Ideally, a number of these representatives should also identify as first generation students themselves.

Step 3: Compare Notes and ask questions

What do each of the representatives see as a challenge to first generation students? What data does the university have on first generation admission rates, GPAs, retention and completion? How many first generation students are accessing study abroad compared to the number of students who actually complete a semester or more abroad? Are there opportunities for programmatic collaboration between the units, and what small changes can be implemented to lower, if not erase, barriers?

Step 4: Devise an achievable plan

No one has a perfect solution to supporting first generation students. And it’s important the task force develops a plan that is appropriate to their institution, fits within the mission of the institution, well-articulated goals with measurable outcomes. Regular task force meetings and assigning responsibility is essential in making sure the team stay on track.  

Step 5: Advocate

Institutions are often strapped for resources, and individual units often jockey for access to personnel and financial resources in order to accomplish their goals. Through the work of the task force, in order to further advance the stated goals, a narrative needs to be shaped that will influence the highest levels of the institution of the importance of supporting first generation college students. For some divisions, retention and completion is a priority (finance), for others, access for all students (student life), or curricular integration of international education (academic affairs). Successful advocacy can lead to allocation of resources and further collaboration across units and the development of program models attractive to first generation students.

Experiential learning such as education abroad, internships, and undergraduate research are quickly becoming a necessary part of a college degree. The 21st century economy demands that college graduates enter the workforce with international experience[v]. The barriers that first generation students face for success in college are the same as those who may consider a semester abroad. Without a comprehensive effort to lower the barriers to overall success in college, the field of education abroad cannot possibly expect to increase access to first generation college students.

[i]Mangan, K. (2015, May 18). The challenge of the first-generation student. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/The-Challenge-of-the/230137/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

[ii]First Generation College Students, Marquette University. http://www.mu.edu/counseling/documents/1stgenerationcollegestudents.pdf Monday, October 19, 2015

[iii] Stephens, N., Hamedani, M., Dsetin, M. (2014). Closing the social-class achievement gap: A difference-education intervention improves first generation students’ academic performance and all students’ college transition. Psychological Science. http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/02/18/0956797613518349

[iv]Supiano, B. (2014, October 9). When is a student ‘first generation’? Words fail us. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/When-Is-a-Student-First/149289/

[v]Trooboff, S., Vande Berg, M., Rayman, J. (2008). Employer attitudes toward study abroad. Frontiers: Interdisciplinary journal of study abroad, Winter, 17-34. Retrieved from   http://www.frontiersjournal.com/documents/TrooboffVandebergRaymonFRONTIERSJOURNALXVWinter2007-08-pdf.pdf