The Challenges With Integrating International Students
"They take a huge risk and it takes a lot of courage to leave their homes for a better future."
All students experience some form of hardship in school, especially in high school. However, we have parents that are always beside us, we have our homes to go back to, and our own comfy beds to hide away from the worries in. These are the privileges that international students do not have. They have to travel across the globe and settle into a new environment, with different foods, weather, language, and culture. They take a huge risk and it takes a lot of courage to leave their homes for a better future.
At Derryfield, we know many of these inspirational and courageous people. The number of international students here has increased over the years. This year, we have fourteen international students: thirteen from China and one from Turkey. Even though there is an increase in international students, there is a lack of cultural diversity and integration. International students are mostly hanging out with other international students and often do not expand their circle of friends to include American students. The challenge of integrating international students at our school is a major issue that can and should be resolved.
While Derryfield does have work to do in order to fully integrate international students, these students reveal in interviews that there are many ways in which Derryfield is successful. Shannon Chen ’17 recalls her first few days at Derryfield, and says that teachers and her classmates from across grades helped her with the schedule, classes, and trivial things. Moreover, when she first arrived here, she says everyone was welcoming and caring. In addition, Chen states that she likes the small amount of international students The Derryfield School has because it forces her to reach out of her comfort zone and make new friends who are not from her own country. She compares her friend’s school, which has around fifty Chinese international students, to Derryfield. She comments that it is one great feature about our exchange program.
However, there are still many areas where cultural and social integration is an issue. Therefore, in an interview, we have asked the international students for some suggestions. Victor Li believes there are some improvements and changes
that need to be addressed. First, the difficulty for international students to communicate in English is certainly one of the biggest challenges. I would propose a series of Q & A sessions between the American students and international students to help break the ice and expand the international students’ circle of new friends. Victor is also currently working with the Chinese Culture Club to open up some cultural lectures for students to attend during activities block. We would like to invite outside speakers or international students to talk about their experiences with Chinese and American culture. This is a very important step that we can take in integrating international students. In his opinion, not only the international students need to be active in the community but the local students must not be afraid to talk to them. In the diverse environment of college, people will need to step out of their cultural boundaries and should start paving their own path by exploring new cultures now.
Chen adds that the Lunar New Year celebration was a good way to bring students together and to help students who have never heard of the holiday to experience it for the first time. Furthermore, throughout the interview, Shannon and Victor came to an agreement that this integration process is a two-way street. Both the American students and international students need to reach out of their comfort zones. In order to improve Derryfield’s integration of different cultures, the community needs to work together as a whole to produce effective solutions to the problem.
Victor Li '17 and Bella Hoang '18 are both writers for Lamplighter. If you have any questions for them about either their piece or how you can become more involved in the international student integration initiative you can contact them through their email 17jli@deryfield.org or 18bhoang@derryfield.org