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Conference

What it Means to Be a First-Year International Graduate Student: Inspiration, Problems, Challenges, and Opportunities

Authors
  • E. J. Bahng (Iowa State University)
  • Richard Mensah Adonu (Iowa State University)
  • Esther Amartey (Iowa State University)
  • Morris Brako (Iowa State University)
  • Lyudmila Fillipova (Iowa State University)
  • Jieun Lee (Iowa State University)
  • Daniel A. Nyarko (Iowa State University)
  • Hui Jiang (Iowa State University)
  • Renaissance Ahmed Sayma (Iowa State University)
  • Emmanuel K. Owusu-Sekyere (Iowa State University)
  • Anna Overla (Iowa State University)

Abstract

This interactive panel storytelling session offers members of the ISU community a space to bear witness to the lived experiences of first-year international graduate students. A panel group of multilingual-multicultural leaders of international graduate students will first tell their first-year journey on campus, specifically related to the following topics: What are their inspirations? What problems have they faced to thrive as a community member? Through what challenging spaces have they navigated? What opportunities were they able to discover in their professional and personal adventures? The session participants will also engage in a Q&A session with the panelists. Our session stands along with Carl Rogers’s Humanistic approach and the concept of “Critical Friendship” in that an authentic exchange of our stories and the very action of “storytelling” are curative and build character as an agent of empathy and grace. Session participants will experience a therapeutic alliance during the session, which provides a fertile ground to enhance cultural competency and renew their commitment to the wellbeing of self, others, and the world.

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Published on
2024-02-29

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