Editor’s Note: This is a guest commentary. The opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial board.
Why do high schoolers all over the world set their sights on colleges in the United States? Why did I choose to study in a different country instead of staying back home? The long answer would be endless. The short answer is one word: experience. However, now that I’m in my senior year, I have to ask myself if I am truly getting everything I hoped for out of this so-called “experience”.
I chose Ithaca College because I fell in love with the town and I knew I would enjoy my major. I also placed great importance on the faculty support that was promised to us as first-year students. It is in that support that I am seeing a large gap. I do speak for myself when I say I feel short-changed, but I know there are students like me seeking the same help and never really finding it.
As I prepare to graduate, I decided to get an early start on reaching out to the Center for Career Exploration and Development to understand which direction I was headed in. When I met with them, I was immediately redirected to their website without any real answers to the questions I asked. They were important questions like, “What is an appropriate starting salary for the positions I am looking at?” “What job titles should I start looking at?” and even “Where is the job market more saturated, big cities or small towns?” Can you call yourself a career engagement specialist when you don’t have answers to these basic questions and when the best support you can give me is something I could have found on my own?
This sense of urgency was appallingly invalidated and simply met with a frustrating condescension by the staff at the career center, as though I was an over-eager, wide-eyed student. It’s not their fault. No one has really taken the time to think about what we go through, what we leave our homes and families for and how much we hope to achieve.
As an international student, I rely on departments like the Career Center to help me understand aspects of the job market and the workforce culture because I did not grow up in the U.S. Moreover, I have a microscopic amount of time to secure a job compared to U.S. citizens because of visa wait times and restrictions.
I strongly believe that the Career Center is a cornerstone of student success, so it is disheartening to see that they have not taken the necessary steps to sensitize pro-staff members to the different paths of senior international students. There are not enough resources for international students like me to get the answers we want. There is not enough integration between the Office of International Programs, the Career Center and the academic schools.
How can there be? The OIP is a small but mighty staff, but there is only so much three people can do to provide the entire international student body at the college with the help they need.
I have only good things to say regarding my experience with the OIP, but I will add that if they had more help, they would be able to correspond with the different schools on campus and work with faculty members on assisting international students in their postgraduate journey.
The most support I have found at the college has been from professors and mentors who have heard me out, validated my emotions and reassured me that they were there to help me. That’s really all international students look for. This process of finding and securing a job after graduation is incredibly specific, depending on a variety of circumstances, and frankly, it’s impossible for a single student to tackle on their own in the busiest year of their college career.
I can only hope that for future students this task is not a burden only on their shoulders, but is shared by a staff and faculty that puts in the effort and cares about the ambitions and success of those students.
