Promoting Intercultural Agility and Leadership Development at Home and Abroad for First-Year Students

Global learning at home and education abroad programming designed for first-year students is extremely important for promoting intercultural competency, language acquisition, and the ability to negotiate complex systems to achieve global solutions.

Through highlights of the work of faculty and international educators who create global learning experiences for students beginning postsecondary studies, we can begin to challenge many long-held assumptions about first-year student programming in international education.

By reviewing case studies of successful approaches to this programming and its assessment, Promoting Intercultural Agility and Leadership Development at Home and Abroad for First-Year Students is a practical guide for international educators, including faculty and global learning staff, aimed at promoting global learning experiences for first-year students on university campuses.

This publication showcases innovative approaches to fostering cultural agility and provides a toolbox for building robust global learning experiences for students, both at home and abroad.

Intercultural competency skills can be developed over time, which equip students with experiences that are beneficial for their roles in academics, student development, and future career preparation.

With the help of the research within this book, educators can design global learning programs for first-year university students that both build upon the assets students bring from secondary studies and introduce new concepts to students as they transition to university coursework.

This book was designed with care for use by academic scholars in international education and is a much-needed resource in an area in which literature has not yet caught up with real-world academic programming.

It is recommended for university faculty and international education offices, first-year student program offices, student affairs/residential life offices, student success professionals, enrollment management offices, community-engaged learning and service-learning program offices, university assessment offices, university risk managers, international education organizations and universities hosting education abroad programs, and equity, access, and inclusion offices/chief diversity officers.

The range of topics in this publication include the transition from high school to college, summer travel abroad and the new student seminar, living and learning communities, at-home global learning experiences, development of a growth mindset through global learning activities at home and abroad, virtual language exchanges in elementary and intermediate language classes, and much more.