NAFSA Blog

In the final installment of our series this week taking a closer look at the positive impact of foreign students on state economies and featuring real-life stories about their presence on campuses and communities around the country, we turn to the northeastern states. There, foreign students spent more than $5.2 billion during the 2008-2009 academic year across the region, according to NAFSA’s Economic Impact Statements released Monday. Overall, foreign students and their dependents contributed $17.6 billion to the U.S. economy in the same time period.

See how each state benefited in this chart (20kb ) and keep reading for a first-hand account of how international students have brought a refreshing sense of culture to one campus in New Hampshire.

Measuring the True Impact of International Education on Our Communities – One Hindi Rap Song at a Time

By Renee Capicchioni Vannata

This week, schools around the country are offering events to exhibit how international education advances learning, builds understanding and respect among different peoples, and enhances constructive leadership in the global community. And New Hampshire Governor John Lynch has declared this week to be International Education Week in the Granite State (13kb ).

On Sunday I attended Diwali at the University of New Hampshire (UNH). UNH has a small international student population compared with most other state universities, so these types of events don’t happen often on our rural campus. This year, I saw something I never thought I would witness in a small town near the New Hampshire seacoast. One of our Bulgarian students actually performed the lead in a Hindi rap song, while three other international students and one American student provided the backup vocals. The most remarkable thing is – the Bulgarian student didn’t know a word of Hindi, but was able to learn enough to rap in Hindi and the ecstatic crowd requested an encore! Even more remarkable were the Chinese students who performed traditional Indian folk dances. This is the beauty of our international students; they bond as friends, colleagues, cohorts and family while they are away from their homes.

Last spring, I was a participant in an incredible international education community event. The Moharimet Elementary school in Madbury, NH conducted a night of West African Drumming and Dance, where each kindergartner through 4th-grader performed. As part of UNH’s Office of International Students and Scholars, we were thrilled to help elevate the exposure of international education outside of the higher education community. We worked together to engage every student, and now these children have a better understanding of a culture they would have previously only known from books.

Providing dollar figures of the economic impact of international education is essential in proving the worth of international education for businesses as well as for academic and government entities. But these numbers aren’t the only measure of the true impact of international education on our communities. Each of the international and American students who performed at the West African Drumming and Dance, Diwali celebration, or any other International Education Week event has changed their learning experience and, therefore, has changed international education at UNH. As international educators, we are privileged to be part of that change.

Renee Capicchioni Vannata works in the Office of International Students & Scholars at the University of New Hampshire. These reflections are representative of her personal views only.

If you want to share your story, visit NAFSA’s Take Action Center today, and be sure to read the rest of this week’s series on the NAFSA blog.

Continuing our series this week examining the impact of foreign students on local economies and highlighting real-life stories about their presence on campuses and communities around the country, we turn to the midwestern states. There, foreign students spent more than $3.5 billion during the 2008-2009 academic year across the region, according to NAFSA’s Economic Impact Statements released Monday. Overall, foreign students and their dependents contributed $17.6 billion to the U.S. economy in the same time period.

See how each state benefited in this chart and keep reading to hear how one immigration coordinator in Ohio has witnessed first-hand the impact of the economy on her foreign students and her community, and what you can do to help.

When Dollars and Cents are Making Headlines We Have to Reach for Something Tangible

By Megan C. McCarthy

I can, without a doubt, say that I love my job. Growing up, children dream of being a doctor, a firefighter or even a movie star. Although I didn’t dream of being an immigration coordinator, at this point in my life it is hard to imagine a career path that would be more fulfilling.

Every day I meet with students from all over the world. We discuss how they can renew their visa when they return home to see their family, how challenging it is to keep up with the fast pace of academia and even how to respond to the smiling American student walking past exclaiming “Hi, how are you?” However, in the past year or so there is one recurring theme that has dominated more of my advising time than any other – paying for an American education.

If you watch the evening news or read your local paper, you are aware that economies all over the world have suffered great losses. We’ve felt it in our own community. I have a colleague whose husband lost his job when his family’s business was forced to close its doors. Similarly, we have international students whose families have been forced to close their businesses more than half a world away.

Some of the hardest conversations I have had with our students relate to how they are going to pay tuition and living expenses for another year or two in order to complete their degree. We have students who understand that they need to return home for now while others are filled with tears and disappointment that their years of planning and hard work now need to come to a halt. Even more troubling are the students who decide to remain here and struggle.

As  international educators, we advocate the intrinsic value that cultural exchange brings to our campuses and essentially to the United States. However, when dollars and cents are making headlines we have to reach for something tangible. NAFSA has published its annual Economic Impact Statements to put a dollar amount on the impact of international education in the United States. The monetary impact international students and their dependents have on our economy is astounding. It is time for us to advocate not only the cultural value but the economic value as well. Your senators and representatives need to hear from you.

We are all busy. But are we too busy to speak out for what we believe in? NAFSA’s made it easy for us. Visit NAFSA’s Take Action Center. There, you can customize letters on behalf of international education to send to your Ccongressional representatives. We cannot wait any longer. Now is the time to take action. You can make the difference. ACT now.

Megan C. McCarthy is an immigration coordinator with the Office of International Affairs at The Ohio State University. Currently, she serves as the NAFSA state whip for Ohio and will represent Region VI as the KC-ISSS liaison in 2010. These reflections are representative of her personal views only.

If you want to share your story, visit NAFSA’s Take Action Center today, and be on the lookout for more state-level data and personal stories throughout the week.

All this week, the NAFSA blog will take a closer look at the impact of foreign students on state economies and feature real-life stories about the positive impact they make on campuses and communities around the country. Today, the South.

In these tough times, foreign students and their dependents continue to make a significant economic contribution to local and state economies. In the southern states, that impact has been clear – foreign students spent more than $4.5 billion during the 2008- 2009 academic year across the region, according to NAFSA’s Economic Impact Statements released Monday. Overall, foreign students and their dependents contributed $17.6 billion to the U.S. economy. The report offers detailed information for each state, broken down by major higher education institutions and, for the first time, additional analysis by congressional district.

See how each state benefited in this chart (20kb ), and keep reading for a first-hand account of the contributions foreign students are making in one of the southern states.

The compelling, real-life stories about the positive impact foreign students make on our campuses and communities often come from the experiences of international educators who work with them every day. This week, NAFSA will be featuring their stories from around the country. Today we have a post about international students in Georgia from Dana Tottenham, associate director for the Center for International Programs Abroad at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. If you want to share your story, visit NAFSA’s Take Action Center today, and be on the lookout for more state-level data and personal stories throughout the week.

International Student Communities Make a Difference in Georgia

By Dana Tottenham

Last spring, I had the opportunity to participate in one of the most compelling and informative aspects of my career in international education: NAFSA Advocacy Day in Washington DC. As I sat in the offices of Senators Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss, our coalition of Georgia international educators from Georgia Institute of Technology, North Georgia College and State University, University of West Georgia, and Emory University, shared our students’ lives with the legislative aides while also listening intently to how study abroad had transformed the lives of the very aides working for our congressional representatives.

During this two-day visit to DC, I had the opportunity to reflect on the many narratives and stories that enrich my professional and personal life as an international educator. I picked up our Japanese exchange student, Rieko, from the Atlanta airport as she was about to embark on her semester of study at Emory. Years later, she returned to campus for a visit and shared her on-going connection with Jonathan, an Emory alum who capitalized on his educational experiences, passion for Japanese language, and study abroad networks to embark upon a career overseas after graduation. I organized pre-departure gatherings for students as they prepared to spend a semester in Dharamsala, India, studying among the Tibetan refugee community. Upon return, these students have conducted research on Tibetan art in exile, organized Students for a Free Tibet outreach, and volunteered with the local Drepung Loseling Institute for the Tibetan cultural festival in the community. I listened as my colleague Ursula described how her international students participated in English conversation groups and joined the local choir, sharing their intimate knowledge of Rachmaninoff Vespers in Russian with the group. The daily connection of international students living side-by-side with American students on our campus enriches everyone’s lives, as students develop new friendships, experience diversity, debate foreign policy in class, and create new rituals across campus spaces.

These narratives enrich, motivate, and inspire students, faculty, staff, and administrators on our campuses. However, in today’s economic climate, the very nature of international education is being transformed and, in some cases, perhaps threatened. As the global economy rapidly changes and campus budgets are tightened, I am concerned about what it will take to draw the attention of our state and national leaders to keep international education as a top priority.

At our university, recent budget cuts indirectly resulted in the elimination of programming previously carried out by the International Students and Scholars Office. For some of my colleagues, the way that they do their jobs has changed from a holistic approach of servicing the international student community to a regulatory and compliance model. Other divisions within the university are reassessing student needs in the wake of these changes, as we struggle to provide services to students and welcome them into our community.

How do we maintain strategic priorities in the wake of scarce resources? How do we maintain a vibrant, international academic community where diverse ideas keep the classroom alive? How do we ensure that international students continue to make a lasting impact on our campuses? How do we encourage study abroad students to make connections both here and abroad that will launch them into competitive global careers? As an international educator, one of my new priorities is continuing to share the stories of students across Georgia with my congressional representatives. Margaret Mead’s infamous words remind me on a daily basis the impact that one student can have on our campus community, the city of Atlanta, the state of Georgia and beyond: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

Dana Tottenham is the associate director for the Center for International Programs Abroad at Emory University. These reflections are representative of her personal views only.

If you want to share your story, visit NAFSA’s Take Action Center today, and be on the lookout for more state-level data and personal stories throughout the week.