Campus Internationalization in Action

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Wednesday V)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Higher education and internationalization: Recruitment and challenges in Asia, Africa, and North America

Proposal

International student engagement on university campuses plays an important role in acclimation to the U.S. higher education system. Being involved and engaged is essential for all students but especially for international students who may not have been exposed to holistic learning environments in their previous educational experiences and often do not have similar local networks as domestic students when they begin their academic programs. Ultimately “greater involvement generally leads to greater academic success” in a variety of ways (Gardner and Barnes, 2007, p. 369).

Several researchers have investigated international student engagement in U.S. higher education. Zhou and Cole (2016) model a framework to predict overall satisfaction of international students in the categories of academic involvement, social involvement, and racial/ethnic diversity involvement. More involvement allows students “to engage with their peers and faculty in ways that contribute to their socialization to the norms of graduate school” (Gardner and Barnes, 2007, p. 371). Research by Mittelmeier, Kennedy, Bankart, and Obadare (2014) found for socialization that "perceived cultural understanding of the United States positively correlates with campus involvement and friendships with American students for Chinese international students" (p. 16).


INTO George Mason University is a joint venture between INTO University Partners and George Mason University with the goal of expanding international recruitment and enrollment to George Mason and offering undergraduate and graduate pathway programs, along with an intensive language program designed either to stand alone or to feed the pathway programs. INTO Mason is in its fifth year and has welcomed over 2,000 international students to its programs since the fall of 2014.

Destination: Mason is an initiative which was piloted in Spring 2018 in several courses across INTO Mason’s three programs: Academic English, the Undergraduate International Year One program, and the Graduate Pathways program. The goal was to encourage INTO Mason students to get involved on campus, in the hopes of building student retention and increase a sense of belonging for those international students. This initiative aimed to provide support and incentives for INTO Mason students to become more engaged on campus and within the Mason community. Through becoming involved and more integrated into campus life, these students furthered the internationalization efforts of the university. Weaving together university activities with required course assignments, students attend six campus events in various designated categories. In addition to satisfying certain course requirements, any student who successfully completes the program receives a recommendation letter, completion certificate, and end-of-year celebration invitation.

Since the program is jointly facilitated through the INTO Mason Academics department and Student Services, faculty members have autonomy as to how they use Destination: Mason within their course curriculum and the tracking of student progress. Student Services arranges a weekly newsletter of opportunities and facilitates the logistics of the program completion items.
Spring 2018 saw 30 students successfully complete the program from all 3 INTO Mason programs in 5 different classes. Fall 2018 current participants include 15 different faculty across all 3 INTO Mason programs in 10 different classes for a potential of upwards of 180 students completing the program. Performance Assessment for the initiative for the Fall 2018 cohort included pre and post operation participation survey. Presenters will share survey results at the session.

Authors

• Steven A Harris-Scott, George Mason University

• Mhehvish Khan, George Mason University