Voicing Solidarity: ESA (Early Study Abroad) College Students Negotiate Race and Power at a Midwest University

• In Event: Roundtable Session 38
  In Roundtable Session: Division J Section 6 Roundtable 8

Abstract

This study examines the unique global positioning of Korean ESA (Early Study Abroad) students in a Midwest university. How do their experiences place them in unique and critical ways in a global campus? This study employed multiple case narrative to provide breadth and depth of understanding of Korean college students’ complex socio-cultural and life experiences. This study suggests that ways of internalizing the ESA experience contain high degrees of variability depending on encountering and negotiating race and power structure in the US social environment. This study sheds important light on an ever increasing trend from a global standpoint and provides educators in higher education institutions to develop a more sophisticated understanding of these students’ needs.

Author

• Hee Young Choi, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign