Anh Mai Pham, a Leadership Fellow and international student from Vietnam, in conjunction with TCU International Services, has announced the kick off of a new program for international students in their first semester at TCU.  Beyond Boundaries is meant to assist students from other countries and cultures as they make the initial transition to life in the United States.  Academic and co-curricular life in the United States are worlds apart from life in other countries.  Statistics show that students who survive their first semester in the U.S. generally go on to obtain degrees, and Beyond Boundaries has been created to assist in that.

 

Did you know that…
 
1.       Many international students pool life savings between family members in order to “buy the plane ticket” to come to the US and study;
2.       99% of universities in the world do not offer any time of extra-curricular activity for students;
3.       “Class Participation” in many cultures would result in your removal from the university;
4.       Loss of financial aid is the number one reason international students return home to their countries;
5.       Culture shock is a temporary phenomenon impacting international students primarily in their first semester, generally around mid-semester into the latter part of Fall.

 

Beyond Boundaries is a “single-semester” program, designed specifically to assist students in developing good academic and community habits.  Beyond Boundaries recognizes the cultural component of the issues above and works—through faculty and staff relationships with these students—to create good academic habits (“good” academic habits also have cultural components).  Further, the program seeks to build a relationship between the students and faculty and staff, recognizing that informal learning settings, specifically during the primary period of culture shock, may be more successful than other, more formal engagements.

 

Commitment to the program is for one semester only, and your engagement with the student will in most cases involve once or twice a month through December.  Some formal activities, including an initial “faculty-staff only” workshop (1 hour) and a dinner at the conclusion of the semester, will be part of the program, but part of the program design will come from you.  If you’ve responded before to the inquiry you need not respond again, but if not and you’re interested, please email me directly and we’ll include you in our follow-up email with specific information times, dates, etc.  While no meeting will ever be mandatory, we will provide dates and times for those that can participate in the formal events as well.

 

According to John Singleton (International Student Services), Beyond Boundaries is first and foremost and academic support program.  "ANYONE may participate, but we ask that you feel comfortable engaging students in conversation that includes not only their cultural perceptions and experiences, but also very specific conversations about how they’re progressing academically," John says.  "Beyond Boundaries is the work of a small group of students and our office, recognizing that if students are sacrificing so much for the dream of studying in the U.S. and the better life that can give their families back home, we at TCU are fortunate a role to play in that success.