Making Adjustments

When international students on their way to Grinnell College land at one of the local airports in Iowa—often at night—they pass through cornfields during the hour-long cab ride to the campus. It can be disorienting, especially for the many students who come from big cities abroad, admits Karen Edwards, associate dean and director of Grinnell’s office of international student affairs. “They think, ‘Where on earth am I?’”

To help these students succeed and feel welcome, Grinnell has created a comprehensive network of student services aimed at supporting them in ways both small and large. At their first preorientation program, all international students are handed two things: a vinyl passport and document carrier with the college’s name, phone number, and email address printed on it, and a personalized binder for students to keep their immigration, tax, health, and other vital information all in one place.

At the cultural end of the spectrum, Grinnell created a nonresidential host program called Friends of International Students that helps integrate international students into the local community of 9,000 and breaks down barriers among themselves. “A family that hosts a senior from China and a freshman from Zimbabwe—those students might not have met otherwise,” Edwards says.

Grinnell’s comprehensive focus on such details is emblematic of a larger trend among international student and scholar services (ISSS) offices: making sure that international students’ needs drive the services that are offered, and that, as they grapple with the special challenges and issues of studying in a foreign place, no one