My Freshman Year: What A Professor Learned By Becoming A Student

In the article, “Colleges Adapt to New Kinds of Students from Abroad,” Karin Fischer (2011) explains the increase of foreign students in U.S. universities leads to make more problems in campus and how universities are trying to overcome those problems and help foreign students to adapt to campus. Fischer explains the increase of the foreign undergraduate students due to the support from foreign governments. Fischer quotes Wesley Young, the director of services for international students and scholars at the University of California at Davis, to discuss that the increase of foreign undergraduate students especially requires more care and help than graduate students. While older students know what they need to do and what to do in U.S. university,

My palms were sweating, my heart was racing, I had no idea what to expect or who I was going to meet. I was never the type of girl to embrace new situations, I hated change and I wasn’t very good with meeting new people. I figured once I got to high school it would be my chance to start all over, turn the page in my book of life, and flip over a new leaf. I wanted to finally be the girl that fit in with everyone. I had imagined myself going to parties with big groups of my new friends, having sleepovers and doing all of the things cool high school kids normally do. I was certain that my high school career would be just like one of those really corny teen movies and I would live happily ever after with the homecoming crown and the boy of my

They are so open about wanting to get together, but they never take my phone number and they never contact me again. When I see a woman I met two days ago, she does not seem to know me or remember my name.” This part of the quote in Nathan’s book shows that American students doesn’t put any effort into communicating with international students. For an example, When Americans ask for your number, it’s most likely that they would not text or call you. Furthermore, have an American student tell you that they would call you to grab a cup of coffee, but they never did ?, this type of situations would happen once or maybe more in your lifetime. In Nathan’s book also states, “One Asian student told me how, in her linguistics class, the teacher had told the class that the native speakers should try to include international students in their groups for the study project. “But when we formed the groups,” she recounted,”nobody even responded or asked us to be in their groups, so the international students had to make their own group.” This shows how cruel American students are, they don’t know how the international students are feeling when they are being left

While auditing courses for her own education and interest a professor realized that the students were relating to her as if she was a student. She was behaving as a student, asking questions, going regularly to class and doing the required readings and in turn the other students began sharing insights, gossip and opinions she would never hear as a professor. Rebekah Nathan (pseudonym assumed by the author, Cathy Small, for purposes of the book) recognized that “even after my fiftieth birthday, I could still be a student, and treated by other students as, more or less, a peer”(Nathan, 2005, para. 71). She decided use her sabbatical to study campus life through a student’s viewpoint, instead of the professor-student perspective.

Most young people believe that studying in a different country is a privilege because they are able to experience other cultures, and learn from them. However, in the United States it is not as good as they thought because International students have much more pressure being in this country, and sometimes they cannot handle it very well. Therefore, in the United States the life of an international student is very unfavorable if people compare it to the life of an American student. International students have to learn a new language to study, they cannot work while studying, and their tuition is much more expensive.

American culture, they often develop a sense of membership in the United States despite their legal status. For many, the United States is the only country they have ever known (p. 268). In a sense, these students feel they are a part of a system that is trying to exclude them despite their similarities and integration into aspects of that system.

College level requires students to be prepared at all cost to face various challenges and learn how to overcome them before it affects their future. College also instructs students to a higher level of responsibility and management at their work place, at their house, and everywhere they might be in contact with people. As an International Students, I have had ups and downs throughout my journey in High School, and college, and I have learned so much from my mistakes. My first

However, the change from home to college can be difficult for international students (Mesidor & Sly, 2016). While some international students find it easy to adjust to the transition, others international students find it challenging to adjust to the transition (Mesidor & Sly, 2016). Studies show that international students experience many challenges as a result of language and cultural barriers, academic difficulties, financial difficulties, medical issues, housing concerns, food differences, alienation, homesickness, lack of social support system, racial discrimination, and cross-cultural loss) (Akanwa, 2015; Guzman et al., 2015; Mesidor & Sly, 2016; Sherry et al., 2010; Smith & Khawaja, 2011; Tung, 2011; Zhang & Goodson, 2010). According to Prieto-Welch (2016), international students as a group are regarded as a main minority population in campuses

I graduated from NHTI with my associates degree in Business Administration in December of 2016. After taking this past semester off to work and build my bank account, I am now looking to further my education by earning at least a Bachelor's degree in Accounting. Transferring to a new school will be a great opportunity to build life skills, meet new people, and advance my education at a school that will help me reach my career goals.

In Nathan’s article, she keeps her principal focus on how foreign students interact with American students and the distinctive type of relationships that they build. It is quite strange to some of the foreign student’s that Nathan has interviewed about how non-committed American students are to the foreign students because American 's students do not socialize as much, and tends to spend more time alone. Furthermore, they will make small talk rather than being close friends or let it evolve into more. At that point, Nathan turns her center towards the difference between a relationship and a friendship between American and foreign students. She also discusses with different foreign students with different background and how they interact with their American roommates, and the relationship that they bond. In addition, American student’s family is a distinct subject from school but for international students, it is something naturally integrated into their social lives, which is why they care so much about their parents (Nathan 73). Furthermore, she discusses how many foreign students make comments about how different students look and the lack of attention that they give their professor compared to in their home country. Nevertheless, the social life and making companions in American can be quite troublesome for any foreign students. However, once you become acquainted with American students and get to be

Waiting in line to go through customs I didn 't want to think about all all the things I would have to do. Support myself financially, find a place to live, figure out how to start college. It all seemed overwhelming. I immigrated on my own to US when I was seventeen. The transition was difficult, and I considered returning back to India. Even though it would have been easier to return, staying provided better opportunities. As I grappled with my new environment and struggled to acclimate. Two experiences played a pivotal role in shaping my character. First, the support I received from family and friends. The second, my work with adolescent youth. Through these I understood the importance of support and the joy of providing it. The

As the year draws to a close, I reflect on what I have accomplished in my first semester of college. Not only have I grown as a writer but also as a person. This year was full of changes but I am glad that I remained steadfast in my beliefs and skills. While I learned things about myself in this course I also gained important writing and research skills.

“In 2006 to 2007, according to the data compiled by the Institute of International Education, 582,984 students from all over the world were enrolled in American colleges and universities in a wide range of fields” (Carter, Paragraph 2, 2008). The United States has the highest number of students who are coming to study abroad than any other countries. Each year, the number of international students coming to the United States to obtain degrees is increasing by thousands, and home countries of these students are primarily India, China and Korea, all located in the whole different continent. But what are the motives of students who are crossing the sea to study? Their goal of studying abroad is to experience diversity and to adapt attitudes

International students face many different challenges when studying abroad. This is due to many factors. First, they are living in a country very far away from their own. The country they are studying at has a very different way of life than theirs. Further more, the laws in that country are much different than the laws in their own country. Due to that they face a lot of problems trying to adapt to this new culture. Me personally as an international student in the US studying at ASU, have faced three particularly difficult challenges that I was able to overcome through time. In this essay I will explain how international students can overcome tough challenges and situations.

A quantitative survey consisting of eight main sections and demographic information was given to international students at a Western United States land grant university. The survey’s eight sections assessed students’ level of agreement in the eight following categories: personal life, cultural concerns, academics, university programs, health care, safety, and the International Students and Scholars Office (ISS). The questions were evaluated on a standard 5-point Likert type scale. In addition, open-ended responses were elicited for country of origin and religious beliefs to ensure possibly answers were not omitted by the research team. Questions were divided into the eight categories to make the survey process easier for respondents while also preserving internal validity of the questionnaire. The survey was sent via email through the ISS office to the entire international student population of 862 students. 63 students responded to the survey, giving a response rate of 6.54%. This was significantly lower than the researcher’s target of 25%, but the response rate was typical for this student population (Porter & Whitcomb, 2007).