PAIS Newsletter - October, 2021 (Plain Text Version)

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In this issue:
LEADERSHIP UPDATES
•  LETTER FROM THE CO-CHAIRS
•  LETTER FROM THE EDITORS
ARTICLES
•  UPDATING ANNUAL FACULTY REVIEW PROCEDURES IN CHALLENGING TIMES
•  STUDENT SERVICES: BEFORE, DURING, AND AFTER THE STORM
•  ADAPTING PROGRAMS TO ONLINE CONTEXTS
ABOUT THIS COMMUNITY
•  STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

STUDENT SERVICES: BEFORE, DURING, AND AFTER THE STORM

Amanda Yousuf-Little, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, USA

Well, Ray Kinsella, we have built it and waited. We have rebuilt it and promoted it. We have built it again and offered prizes and honorable mentions, and they still have not come!

In working with students in an administrative role for the last two years, I have spent more of my time dealing with the repercussions of COVID-19 and trying to search through the wreckage than I have had the opportunity to live in the golden days of IEPs. I have only heard of the 300+ student enrollments with plentiful on-campus student activities, the off-campus boat trips, and the sense of belonging. More of my time has been spent post heyday and in the battle trenches, recovering from and bandaging the wounds that remain from COVID-19.

In the last two years, I have spent more time inventing and then reinventing our student life than I have had to celebrate the successes of our programming. Though borders are opening and visas are becoming more available through the National Interest Exemption, make no mistake about it, we are not re-entering a pre-COVID-19 world, we are pulling ourselves up by the bootstraps and building upon a foundation, which is all that is left by a treacherous storm.

With a small cluster of new students joining us on campus in Spring 2021 and continuing through Summer 2021, a year after COVID-19, our program errs on the side of caution, offering a combination of online workshops and on-campus events in our courtyard with games and to-go food. We have dabbled in hybrid workshops intended to attract students’ intrinsic desires to grow academically and personally. We have offered workshops on Google Drive, photo-editing, counseling services, painting, culture and language, tipping etiquette, and the list continues. With more than 25 unique workshops and activities created over the course of one-and-a-half years, time and time again, we have been met with low student attendance. Through surveys, focus groups, and candid conversations with students, the truth continues to be revealed. It is not simply a matter of providing students with opportunities that we know will benefit them, they must be opportunities that students desire. Events which their friends attend. Activities that give them more than what they have access to independently. It has nothing to do with what the activity has to offer but, instead, the experience it creates.

When we have asked alumni about their most memorable experiences in our program, they tell us that it is the friendships they created and experiences that they had that made the most significant impact. Yes, they have been grateful to teachers and administrators alike, attributing their success to them, but it was something more than that which made their experience worthwhile. It is the memories that they have taken with them, that they will carry for a lifetime that have had the most meaningful impact. It is the community and the identity of the IEP itself.

The question then becomes: How do we do this in a time of COVID-19 with students still taking classes remotely with a twelve-hour time difference, where many still elect to wear masks, when universities are wary of fully removing all restrictions put in place to protect students from COVID-19? How do we unite students who continue to be separated by distance, hindered by the lingering impacts of the pandemic, and recovering themselves from the mental strain and loss they have experienced?

As we re-emerge, we need to re-examine ourselves and what value it is that we bring to our community and the students within our program. Ideas we will be exploring in the upcoming semester that have everything to do with what students need and want. Initiatives that are built upon the lessons learned from COVID-19 and that can be offered in the altered landscape it has created. Here are some of those initiatives:

Ambassador Program

This is a twelve-week leadership program that supports student growth in leadership skills and promotes intercultural awareness. Students who participate in this program receive a certificate at the end of the program, customized promotional gifts, and honorable mention on our social media accounts. Ambassadors must be committed to promoting student life activities and will work collectively to plan one student life activity per semester. Invitation to become an ambassador will be open to all students with intermediate English proficiency or higher and will also be selective in giving personalized invitations to returning students who have performed exceptionally well in our program. The draw of being an ambassador must be intrinsic and the benefit is to the ambassadors themselves and the student body they serve, in addition to supporting programmatic initiatives.

Orientation Sessions

Previously, our orientation sessions were exclusively on-campus. Throughout the pandemic, they have been primarily online, with a shift to the incorporation of an on-campus check-in day for in-person students. As we look ahead, orientation sessions will become a hybrid model, incorporating pre-orientation sessions to support students long before their journey into the U.S.In addition to introducing students to our campus and program during orientation, additional sessions that promote psychological and physical well-being will be incorporated. Such sessions include the following:

• Pre-orientation Sessions: These sessions will be held virtually for applicants prior to placement testing or enrollment in our program. Sessions on topics such as housing options and Q&As on immigration will support students in their transition long before they enter the U.S., setting them up for success and providing them with the proactive support they need.
• Asynchronous Sessions: Such sessions will provide students with an overview to university resources and American culture, ensuring that they are well-informed of support services and supporting them in transition to the U.S. By introducing this information asynchronously, students can view orientation sessions at their own pace, and this allows our program to scaffold and review important information with students over the course of orientation.
• Wellness Sessions: Previously offered as an optional student activity during the semester, our program will provide a mandatory wellness session provided by our counseling center and offered during orientation. During this workshop, students will learn about the stages of culture shock and the wellness wheel, discussing ways that they can care for themselves and learning about university resources. In addition, an optional wellness session offered by our wellness center will be held during the semester to facilitate the importance of physical wellness. Optional wellness sessions may include kickboxing, martial arts, or yoga classes.
• Optional Workshops: These workshops will be synchronous support sessions offered throughout the semester to provide continued support in non-academic areas. Such sessions include Email 101, Tipping Etiquette, American Manners, and Immigration and Travel Sessions.

Hybrid Celebrations and Academic Sessions Integrated into Classes

Traditionally, student life activities have been exclusively elective and offered outside of classroom hours. To foster community, affirm our commitment to spreading intercultural awareness, and support students in their adaptation to university life, student life programming will be integrated into classroom activities or be offered during early release, when teachers will accompany their students to the upcoming activity. Such activities include the following:

• Alumni Panel: An annual event attended by alumni and advanced level students currently enrolled in our program. Current students prepare questions in advance and within their classes prior to the event. Organized by topic, questions are based on coursework, course selection, communication with faculty, housing, and student life at the University of Miami.
• Professor Panel: An annual panel which hosts professors from various schools and colleges from the University of Miami are invited to join IEP students in a formal gathering. Advanced level students prepare questions in advance as it relates to the classroom, homework, and other academic expectations.
• Welcome Activities: Our program has traditionally offered a welcome lunch to students during the first week of classes. To improve upon the success of this activity, we will be offering early release from the first class of the day in order to capture students during their break between classes. Instead of lunch, small plates themed as “A taste of Miami” will be be served so that students may mingle and participate in other Miami-themed activities such as playing dominos and making mojito mocktails.
• Mid-Autumn Festival Celebration: A hybrid celebration of the East Asian festival where students will synchronously celebrate remotely and during their in-person class. The celebration has previously featured student speakers, trivia, and mooncakes for in-person students. This activity builds community among our remote and in-person students and simultaneously supports intercultural awareness.

At the time I am writing this, we are closing out our Summer 2021 semester and are preparing for incoming Fall 2021 students. With the spread of the Delta COVID-19 variant, the fluidity of the situation will likely have changed much of our student life offerings in the upcoming term. However, what remains the same is the lessons that we have learned from our experiences and the necessity to build community and provide support resources in uncertain times. Though we may look a little different than we did before the storm, our core mission has not been swayed: transforming lives through education and service. Though we may rebuild and build again, we build upon a strong foundation, unwavering in our commitment to students and their success. Instead of a field of dreams, Ray Kinsella, we will build a field of hope.