Leadership Program Participation for the International Students in Comparison With Domestic Students

This paper intends to provide detailed information about three articles. They include the effects associated with leadership program participation for the international students in comparison with domestic students, emerging issues related to leadership capacity and the leader efficacy of college women in science, technology and in math fields as well as leadership development on a diverse campus. It will include substantial findings concluded from research and their theoretical contributions to their immediate environment.

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Milgram (2011) examines the issue of women underrepresentation in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The admission of women in these departments has compared very low in various campuses in comparison to their male counterparts. The underrepresentation has been triggered by multiple reasons including gender bias and the harsh educational climate created by these courses. According to research conducted in 2010, 73% of the total participant's associated science courses to men and women were associated with arts. This implies that the general population is biased to the belief that science courses are best suited for men. The unconscious belief has consequently created a belief among the women that they are inferior to men hence they cannot achieve much in male-dominated courses.

Hill (2010) suggests that harsh working conditions existing in these fields have hindered the enrollment of women for these courses. Women are less likely to persevere to demanding tasks, whether manual or mental. However, for an excellent performance to be achieved in these courses, a lot of dedication and hard work is required in the study. For instance, in motor vehicle engineering, a lot of physical tasks are involved sometimes requiring the students to go beneath vehicles to perform maintenance or repair broken parts. Other jobs like changing motor vehicle oil or replacing damaged tires are more associated with the male gender. The nature of this work has contributed significantly to fewer women enrollment in these departments.

Milem (2005) elaborates the issue of leadership development on a diverse campus. The role of colleges and universities is to develop scholars to join the professional workforce. In addition, the institutions prepare future leaders to be in charge of organizations and be responsible for driving change in the society. This article examines the manner in which students are being taught to handle leadership positions while representing a racially diverse society without creating the feeling of threat of discrimination among various racial groups.

The results of the research conducted by Milem revealed that leaders equipped with knowledge of guiding a racially diverse society lasted long in their positions. The knowledge helps the leaders to understand the preferences and expectations as well as the beliefs of different groups. Possessing information related to the mentioned aspects helps the leaders to be sensitive while giving speeches and making important decisions. For instance, a white leader may intend to hold a meeting with their board of operations. During the meeting, they have to consider their audience to ensure that their speech is effective. Speaking in a manner suggestive that they are biased to certain race would create a feeling of discrimination among other members from different races and thus they would undermine his ideas irrespective of how viable they are.

Garcia (2018) declares that greater diversity has produced a lasting impact on students leadership for various reasons including the willingness of the leader to guide the people without seeking any benefits in return, the natural motivation to become a leader even when working in small groups and the intuition of responsibility towards others. Leaders with a natural feeling of responsibility to help others often win the hearts of the p-people in small ways thus ensuring re-election to their posts. The willingness of the leader to work without seeking any gains in return has also ensured effective leadership in campuses.

Bista (2016) explains how the enrollment of international students has experienced intense growth during the recent years in the United States. In this article, the author explores the differences experienced in leadership skills among domestic students and international students. Special focus is directed towards their growth capacity especially in matters involving participation in co-curricular activities and other leadership programs. Taking part in the different programs have been observed to create similar gains for both groups and thus proving to be very effective. Nevertheless, factors indicating that international students perform better than domestic students were found to differ among the results presented by different researchers. The differences portrayed served to prove that the development of leadership qualities among the students and across their national backgrounds is a complex process that has not been unified in many schools.

Komives (2012) points out the challenges faced by international students while trying to blend in their new environment. He states that the university environment has not been very friendly and welcoming to the new students who often face the problems of discrimination, ridicule as a result of the capacity of their English and stereotyping. Negative interactions develop as a result of the gap created between the students and thus causing the international students to segregate themselves due to the absence of support departments to make them feel more welcome. In a bid to address the needs of different cultures, the universities have created Student Service Units which are meant to promote cultural integration.

Nahavandi, (2006) states that the absence of collaboration departments to promote the interaction of the students has closely been associated with poor performance portrayed by the international students who are more vulnerable to feel that they're in a hostile territory. Segregation arising as a result of failure to understand each other's cultures has led to the development of a perception that the schools do not cater for all the diverse cultures. Creating cultural events where different groups exhibit their culture would help the students understand themselves and respond more positively towards one another.

Piercy (2005) cites that various reasons have been attributed to the emergence of interaction obstacles in the universities. Most common obstacles include prejudice, the pressure to achieve good grades in academics, language barrier and the common tendency of seeking friends with similar cultures to gain emotional support. Failure to create interaction programs has also led to poor interaction. This research suggests that many existing problems between the domestic and international students are due to institutional failure. Furthermore, it justifies the failure of institutions in resolving these issues due to the wide variety of cultural groups involved that makes it difficult for institutions to reach out to all the students.

Conclusion

The creation of a leadership platform incorporating representatives from all available cultural groups would enhance their association. The representation would trigger a feeling of acceptance among international students. It would further ensure that all their needs are well catered for by the institution. The good treatment would then create a good attitude among them encouraging them to contribute to co-curricular activities and compete favorably among other students in their class work. His article implies that the general comfort of both international and domestic students would serve an important purpose to ensure good performance of the institution.

References

Hill, C., Corbett, C., & St Rose, A. (2010). Why so few? Women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. American Association of University Women. 1111 Sixteenth Street NW, Washington, DC 20036.

In Ma, Y., & In Garcia-Murillo, M. A. (2018). Understanding international students from Asia in American universities: Learning and living globalization.

Komives, S. R., & Wagner, W. (2012). Leadership for a Better World: Understanding the Social Change Model of Leadership Development. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.

Milem, J. F., Chang, M. J., & Antonio, A. L. (2005). Making diversity work on campus: Ar In Bista, K., & In Foster, C. (2016). Campus support services, programs, and policies for international students research-based perspective. Washington, DC: Association American Colleges and Universities.

Milgram, D. (2011). How to recruit women and girls to the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) classroom. Technology and engineering teacher, 71(3), 4.

Nahavandi, A. (2006). The art and science of leadership, Ltd. Pearson Education.

Piercy, F., Giddings, V., Allen, K., Dixon, B., Meszaros, P., & Joest, K. (2005). Improving campus climate to support faculty diversity and retention: A pilot program for new faculty. Innovative Higher Education, 30(1), 53-66.