International and domestic students, along with some faculty, discussed the hardships that come with moving to a new country and learning a different culture at the Kent State Women’s Center’s “A Day in the Life of International Female Student” event.
Sonia Karkare, program coordinator for the Women’s Center, had small groups of attendees pick and discuss a topic that related to some of the student’s troubles with being in an unfamiliar place. Job security, housing and scholarships were among the listed topics.
Karkare stressed the importance of finding jobs for incoming students.
“We need to tackle the education of employers to accept international students,” she said. “People come [to Kent State] to better their lives financially. If there aren’t enough jobs either on campus or off campus, it’s a problem. If they’re not gonna get jobs after they graduate, it’s a problem.”
Each table had colored sticky notes and a large paper where students were encouraged to write down how they thought Kent State was successfully or unsuccessfully tackling these challenges and what could be improved.
Isha Gupta, a computer science sophomore and out-of-state domestic student, wishes more students and faculty were supportive of international students and their struggles.
“The distribution of resources between international and domestic students is very different,” she said. “I hear my international friends tell me they have access to very limited scholarships and to transportation and jobs.”
The Kent campus’ fall 2023 report recorded 1,774 international students admitted into Kent State — just under 13% of the total 13,652 students admitted for this fall semester.
“You’ve got a demographic cliff that Ohio is facing, which means you’re going to need to find other demographics and other populations to come to the campus,” Karkare said. “Which means then that your infrastructure needs to be set up to receive. You can’t just recruit and not focus on retention.”
Karkare said she wrote down the information and concerns raised by students and will relay it onto a spreadsheet to be circulated.
“I’m doing this through the power of coalition. I hope it moves the university and all these entities to listen to these students because ultimately they have the power, they just don’t know they have the power.”
The environment was relaxed and many international female students were open to share their thoughts.
“It’s important to have events like these because female international students have experiences that are very unique,” Gupta said. “This session definitely addresses most of those experiences, so I really like it, it’s very meaningful to me.”
Aryn Kauble is a reporter. Contact him at [email protected].
