A Simple Approach to Cultivating Resilience & Adaptability in International Students

Presented by Didan Wedderburn, Memorial University of Newfoundland

Reported by Molly Desimone, University of Tulsa

Acculturative Stress is often dealt with by international students when they first arrive on campus. This is defined as hurdles and hassles that create stress with people who are new to a country and often go unnoticed. One example of this would be the weather. One participant relayed a story discussing how she had a student who did not understand the concept of frostbite and how it was important to wear gloves. Other examples discussed were the inability to find ingredients a student may use in their home country and learning and understanding the English language.

There were two approaches discussed by Didan Wedderburn: Assimilation and Integration. Assimilation is the direct instruction on how we do something in our country. Integration relates to the social integration component that a student will need. This will help them to go through a combination of adaptation and acceptance. Didan made an excellent statement: “Different does not mean deficient.” As students begin to assimilate and integrate, they will gain more resiliency, adaptability, and flexibility.

Personal tactics we can provide students with are to encourage them to embrace their differences and to refuel themselves every day, even after harder times. Through strategic planning, one can create restorative routines. When talking with international students, motivate them to develop habits. When there are difficult days faced, practice refocusing techniques.

As a university, culturally relevant support programs can be created. These programs can be made available to students where they can adapt to the changing environment, and also accept themselves, others, and the community. By recognizing biases, they will be able to better one another.

Takeaways

Didan Wedderburn made it clear that international students face hurdles that go unnoticed and often are not even a thought to a university. It is important to provide support programs to the students that are culturally relevant. Also, by taking the learning experiences that exist within the university and making simple updates, we can change an international student’s experience drastically. n