Date of Award

Spring 2023

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Major

Educational Studies

First Advisor

Britney Jones

Abstract

The world is more diverse and multicultural nowadays than at any previous time in history. For this reason, one important goal of higher education is to prepare culturally competent individuals with the ability to work effectively with people from different backgrounds. Thus, international education has become one of the best ways to fulfill this goal. However,it is not always so easy for international students to live and work effectively with others who differ from themselves. Therefore I, an international student from Trinity College, tried to find out how a sample of Trinity College international students describes their preparation for college in a non-western countries, and do participants describe learning about specific US cultural practices? If so, how do they describe learning about cultural practices in US colleges? Ten Trinity College freshmen and sophomores international students were interviewed to help me understand international students’ preparation and what Trinity College can address if some preparation is found to be lacking. I found that International students who had more pre-college US cultural preparation described having more advantages in US colleges than students with less preparation. In this paper, findings are categorized into five aspects which are cultural shock, relationships and attitudes to professors and advisors, ESL, academic performance and choosing, and social performance and support from peers.

Comments

Senior project completed at Trinity College Hartford CT for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Educational Studies.

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