First international bridge students arrive at UC

The first cohort of students in UC International’s pilot Summer Bridge Program arrived on campus at the University of Cincinnati early this week.

These eight first-year students from China, India and Uzbekistan are getting a personal introduction to the campus, to their new city and to the US academic system. Just as important, they’re meeting a first group of friends and learning about the comprehensive support system that UC provides to help them make the transition across cultures from their homes and high schools to life at an American university.

Confirmed international freshmen were offered the chance to enroll in the pilot early-arrival program last May.

Sunday morning, they were picked up at their doorsteps in student housing by Lindsey Barta, the graduate assistant who worked with UC International student services Program Manager Lorri Blanton to develop the bridge option. It was the start of a week of extra tours, talks, practical assistance and social events designed to supplement new international student orientation and the campus-wide events of Welcome Week.

“This program was born out of the need to improve the transition to university life for our international students, increase retention for our institution, and strengthen students’ community connection,” says Blanton.

“It’s a new addition to our student success initiatives that extend throughout the academic year. It’s designed to help them prepare for their classes, develop relationships with others, and manage cross-cultural relationships at their new home.”

This early arrival program differs both from pathway programs that focus specifically on language skills and from college programs that focus on academic readiness and professional skills in specific disciplines.

It is modeled on gen-1 bridge programs that help first-generation college students fill in the gaps in their knowledge of university social and academic culture. These programs teach them how to navigate their first-year experience and find the support that is available for them.

When designing the program, Blanton and Barta based it on the communication theory of socialization (integrating new people into an organization) and what is known through research and experience about the culture shock that international students face. There are predictable stages and specific, identifiable needs that students have during each of those stages.

Quoting the model taught by NAFSA, the global association of professionals in international education, Barta explains, “The things that research and practice have shown that students really need are an orientation to campus and a sense of social and cultural etiquette for daily life. They need to understand student rights and safety. They need to understand the educational system and the academic expectations upon them. They need to know financial and work opportunities. And they need some kind of social event to help them start developing relationships.”

Using that framework, the program planners developed the week's events, paring the possibilities down to avoid overload or any repetition, like the public safety information covered in the general new-student orientation.

On Sunday, the experience began with a tour of campus and the immediate neighborhood. The group then had dinner with some American students who showed them favorite places nearby.

They got a short introduction to Cincinnati culture — including a taste of local specialties Skyline chili and Graeter’s ice cream. And then they got a cruise down the Ohio River on a historic riverboat, the kind they might have read about in "Huckleberry Finn," which gave them a glimpse of our river city’s past.

Barta expects to find out that she has “crazily overlooked some pretty obvious things” in planning the bridge program events. She is glad that the pilot group is small so she has been able to make the experience personal and so the students are comfortable giving her feedback.

She plans to meet up with them later in the semester to see how they’re doing and to ask them what changes they would recommend for next year's program. She and Blanton are also looking at ways to market the program earlier in the international recruiting cycle.

A communications major, Barta will be reporting on the development and implementation of the bridge program as her praxis project toward her MA, which she’ll earn this December. She’ll also help Blanton present about the program at the NAFSA regional conference in Indianapolis this October.

The feature image shows the bridge students in the Richard E. Lindner center. All photos courtesy of Lindsey Barta.