International Female Graduate Students' Experience at a Midwestern University: Sense of Belonging and Identity Development.
Year: 2016

In recent years, international collaboration and cooperation have become a major national trend in the higher education sector. In the 2012 2013 academic year, according to the Open Doors report (IIE, 2013) the total number of newly enrolled international students in the U.S. was 250,920. The total enrollment of international students in U.S. institutions in 2013 was at a record high of 819,644 students. According to the Institute of International Education's Special Reports: Economic Impact of International Students, in the academic year 2013 2014, international students contributed over $27 billion to the U.S. economy through their expenditures on tuition and living expenses (IIE, 2015) Higher education is among the United States' top service sector exports, as international students provide revenue to the U.S. economy and individual host states through expenditures on living expenses, including room and board, books and supplies, transportation, health insurance, support for accompanying family members, and other miscellaneous items. Open Doors (IIE, 2013) also reports that in academic year 2012 2013, approximately 63.60% of all international students received the majority of their funds from personal and family sources.These numbers represent the promising economic value potential of the international education field. However, they also represent a new learning curve for U.S. educators needing to design and improve services for international students since many international students experience cultural, social, and linguistic challenges that are different from those of domestic students (Arkousdis, 2006) More specifically, female international students have been found to have more difficulty in adjusting to host cultures than male students (Manese, Sedlacek, Leong, 1984; McMillen, 1982; Pruitt, 1978) Being in a graduate program of study also has its own challenges as graduate students have to constantly navigate a host of different stressors, such as financial issues and getting used to the norms of their academic fields (Baird, 1990) Thus, international female graduate students have to maneuver the combined difficulties of being international, female, and graduate students at the same time, all while trying to achieve academic and social integration into the U.S. academic environment and society.The purpose of the current phenomenological study was to explore international female graduate students' experiences at a U.S. research intensive, comprehensive, predominantly white university in the Midwest. The central question of this research study is, How do the participants perceive and interpret their lived experience as international female graduate students at this particular Midwestern university?RELEVANT LITERATUREWhile all students entering higher education have to cope with the myriad new facets of the educational environment, the majority of international students have to deal with additional challenges, such as language and culture gaps (Bradley, 2000; Ellis, Sawyer, Gill, Medlin, Wilson, 2005) Similar to domestic students, international students are at risk for developing mental health problems, but international students are at higher risk due to loss of social support and family systems and to acculturation stress (McLachlan Justice, 2009) Mental health problems, such as depression, psychosomatic complaints, anxiety, and paranoid reactions, have been suggested to be more common among international students (Sam, 2001).The additional difficulties faced by international students contribute to their mental health risks. These include language difficulties, cultural shock, difficulties in negotiating day to day social activities, racial and ethnic discrimination (Lee Rice, 2007; Lee, 2007, 2008; Li, Fox, Almarza, 2007; Sam, 2001; Wang, 2009; Zhao, Kuh, Carini, 2005) and a lack of physical activity (Yoh, Yang, Gordon, 2008) The literature on international students has identified several major problems common to this population, such as loneliness, lack of support, few meaningful relationships with host nationals, culture shock, unfamiliar modes of teaching and learning, a changing sense of identity, unrealistic family and selfexpectations, financial problems, crises at home, adverse experience in the host country, isolation, and alienation (Deakins, 2009; Hanassab, 2006; Klomegah, 2006; Leask, 2009; McClure, 2007; Mitchell, Greenwood, Guglielmi, 2007)