Success On The World Stage:

The purpose of this research study is to measure the impact of international and intercultural experiences and/or courses provided by Queens College (QC), on minority immigrant students and alumni.

Internationalization is defined as "the conscious effort to integrate and infuse international, intercultural, and global dimensions into the ethos and outcomes of postsecondary education," according to the National Association of Foreign Student Advisers (NAFSA), the world’s largest nonprofit association dedicated to international education.

In an article written by Carolin Kreber in the New Directions for Teaching and Learning Journal, she stated that Internationalization has become relevant for economic, academic and socio-cultural reasons, and it is widely claimed that internationalization is a crucial investment, that international learning experiences better prepare students to live and work in our increasingly globalized world.

We wanted to test this claim, and design a study that measured the impact of internationalization on our campus with our uniquely diverse student body. Initial results seem to indicate that there have been many positive benefits, perceived and actual.

QC prides itself on being one of the most diverse colleges in the Northeast, in one of the most ethnically-diverse counties of America. With more than half of students born overseas in 170 countries, the presence of mixed perspectives, knowledge, and experiences is evident. Through our study, we have found that many students, although born in the U.S. and considered first generation, live immersed in immigrant communities and self-identify as immigrants.

But just because a student is sitting next to someone from somewhere else does not mean that both students are getting any experience that is international that can help them learn or help them become qualified for a future job.

That is why Queens College's Strategic Plan for 2015-2020 calls for an increase in international exposure and experiences for students, staff, and faculty by integrating a multi- cultural dimension into teaching, research, scholarship, creative activity, and service. It also calls for a wider variety of study abroad opportunities, an increase in the number of students studying abroad, and an increase in the number of admitted international students. It is working to globalize the curriculum and extra-curriculum. QC is not alone. In recent years, universities around the world have been adding a variety of global learning objectives and goals to their strategic plans and mission statements.

So, our study will, hopefully, be significant to the higher education community as the commitment to providing globalized learning experiences increases nationally and internationally. At Queens College, and around the City University of New York, we must increase minority immigrants' participation in internationalization as success is proven.

The hope is to encourage more resources to be devoted and more policies to be developed to enhance campus-wide participation in the work of internationalization.

As Mellon Faculty Diversity Fellows, this research was possible due to the generous support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. It was presented at the Mellon Conferences: Sustaining Diverse and Inclusive Communities in 2017 and Creating Diverse and Inclusive Communities in 2016. This research was also presented at the WC2 symposium in Sao Paulo, Brazil.