Nationally Competitive Scholarships: Serving Students and the Public Good

8. International Students: A Case for More Advisor Support

8 InternationalStudents ACaseforMoreAdvisorSupport CAMILLE STILLWELL Camille Stillwell coordinates the National Scholarships Office at the University of Maryland, College Park, which she established in 1999. She is a founding member of the National Association of Fellowships Advisors and was a co-presenter on the topic of International Students and National Scholarships at the 2005 NAFA Conference in Louisville, Kentucky. Ms. Stillwell has served on national selection committees for the James Madison Fellowship, the Jacob Javits Fellowship, and the Orphan Foundation. It’s that awful moment—perhaps during office hours, perhaps at a scholarship workshop. A student asks, “I am from [FILL IN COUNTRY], and not a U.S. citizen. Can I apply for this scholarship? If not, are there any scholarships that you are aware of that I can apply for?”The problem is that many advisors rarely think about scholarships for international students and are not prepared to respond to this inquiry. The response to such a question is all too often the usual psychosomatic reactions to stress—tight throat, dry mouth, sweaty palms, the overwhelming desire to flee. . . . 73 McCray_Ch08.qxd 6/26/07 5:14 PM Page 73 At the 2005 National Association of Fellowship Advisors Conference on National Scholarships and International Students, Sharon ChambersGordon and I presented a workshop on advising international students. Afterward, several advisors shared with me that they are at a loss on advising international students. Some admit that they try to avoid these students as best they can. A typical advising method is to refer them to a few online search engines with the hope that they do not return for more information. This is, unfortunately, a very limited view of what I see as a relatively untapped scholarship group. Scholarship advisors need to take a more positive , proactive look at encouraging international students to become more actively involved in national scholarship competitions. International students with scholarship potential have the same basic attributes as aspiring American students with scholarship promise. A few adjectives describe these students collectively—they are intelligent , ambitious, focused, and determined to succeed. Many within this group have interesting stories to tell and/or have overcome obstacles in order to excel in higher education. Beyond these basic attributes, however, the path to identifying and properly preparing international students for national scholarship competitions may be fraught with obstacles— language and cultural barriers and educational differences that can result in a reluctance among international students to pursue competitive opportunities . Here are the facts. Recent data from Open Doors 2006: International Students in the United States indicate that enrollment of foreign students are on the rise.1 There are over half a million foreign students in the United States, the largest group of students (over fifty-eight percent) coming from Asian countries, primarily India, Mainland China, Korea, and Japan. Students from these traditional cultures tend to feel “distant to the American culture,” making it difficult for them to approach faculty or staff for scholarship advising because they feel intimidated by the process. GoTell It to the Mountain At the University of Maryland, I try to bridge international students’ sense of distance by attending events that are hosted by our office of International Education Services (IES). Every semester, I sponsor an International Coffee Hour event where I provide scholarship information to international 74 • Camille Stillwell McCray_Ch08.qxd 6/26/07 5:14 PM Page 74 students. Not only do they come for food and fellowship, they get an opportunity to hear critical information about scholarship opportunities, the value of the process, and strategies for being competitive. I often start my presentation by acknowledging that I am an older “new American” (I hail from a small country in the Caribbean), and I do in some part understand some of the challenges that they may be experiencing. Their ability to meet me in their comfort zone has encouraged many future oneon -one visits to my office. There, I can address their individual concerns with aspects of the scholarship process such as approaching faculty for reference letters and utilizing resources on campus such as the Writing Center if language is an issue. Show Me the Money To demystify the search process, I have made it a policy with all scholarship marketing materials that I produce and at every scholarship workshop that I conduct, by including the phrase “Open to International Students” where applicable. In this way, students know upfront whether or not it is a...