By Eileen K. McCluskey

Special to the Gazette

Though the cultures and mores from which they hail may differ vastly from each other, international students who arrive at Harvard's doorstep find that they're faced with remarkably common challenges as they enter this definitively American educational realm.

According to interviews with top administrators in three of Harvard's schools, representatives of the Harvard International Office, and a study of international students done at the Graduate School of Education (GSE), difficulties faced by international students entering American classrooms here tend to follow several common patterns.

Some academic issues include class participation, writing styles, and how to treat source material in a scholarly context (see related stories). Added to these scholastic challenges are stressors such as filing American tax returns and staying abreast of immigration regulations. And underlying these logistical concerns is the complex but basic human need to be heard, understood, and respected. And these human needs naturally extend beyond the classroom, finding expression in, for example, the desire to feel connected to family and friends.

Using a range of strategies, key resources throughout the University address these common, if varied, needs.

The Harvard International Office helps international students throughout the University navigate through the confusing maze of visa, tax, and employment issues they face. In addition, says Director Seamus Malin, the Office "plans and hosts meetings of administrators, from all the schools of the University, who are charged with providing orientation for new students. These gatherings have been a wonderful forum for an exchange of views and gleaning of new ideas, and they have complemented the admirable initiatives undertaken by the schools themselves."

Each Harvard school, in turn, is committed to providing not only those practical services that will help international students adjust to their new environment, but also cultivating an atmosphere of acceptance and comfort, an equally important step in ensuring that international students enjoy a fully successful education.

Taxing Issues

"Taxes are a huge source of stress for international students," says Malin. "Even international students who have no income are required to file an income-tax return."

Visas and related paperwork can also tax students. "It's very easy to leave the United States," Malin notes, "but it can be a real problem getting back in if your visa is not in order." Getting that visa sorted out means staying on top of paperwork, and, Malin says, "students may miss deadlines when it comes to filing the correct papers, because they get so absorbed by their studies. Our job is to keep them informed and help calm their apprehension.

"Generally, issues related to meeting visa requirements or tax laws can certainly add to any other feelings of disharmony the students might experience. And this can, in turn, lead to social and academic dissatisfaction."

Lost in Widener

Even more potentially stressful is homesickness. Maureen Walker, assistant director of Academic and Course Services at the Business School, where 27 percent of the students are born outside of the United States and are not permanent U.S. residents, points out that "any person leaving his or her home culture is likely to experience something similar to stages of grief when they attempt to live and learn in a totally new environment.

Walker speculates that the more dissimilar the student's culture is from U.S. culture, the more difficult the adaptation is on all sides. "For example," she said "it is probably somewhat easier for an upper-middle-class Parisian student to adapt -- and for her peers and faculty to adapt to her -- than for, say, a Laotian, a black South African, or someone else from a developing country. These students often face multiple, complex issues of ethnicity and class, which, combined with the typical cultural issues, make the transition even more challenging."

Garth McCavana, assistant dean for student affairs at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS), agrees that loneliness and isolation can be serious problems: "The lone graduate student working away at her carrel in the bowels of Widener Library is perhaps the most clichéd of images, but like most clichés, it contains more than a grain of truth. Add to that the fact that international students are sometimes thousands of miles away from home and you have a clear problem that needs addressing."

The GSAS's approach to the many hurdles that international students face is primarily one of "taking proactive steps to ensure that students know that these problems are common and that there are places to turn to," explains McCavana.

For example, the GSAS holds an International Student Orientation a few days after residence halls open in the fall, recognizing that most international students arrive as early as possible to begin acclimating to their new surroundings. At this year's orientation, McCavana says, "we will have a student panel composed of ongoing international students that will address issues such as cultural adjustment and American academic culture. This is where issues such as speaking in class will be raised."

As part of this orientation process, notes McCavana, "the group of approximately 100 students will be divided into five smaller groups and we will hold discussion sessions on aspects of adjustment to life in the U.S., to allow students to ask questions in a more intimate setting."

Falling In and Out of Love

McCavana also finds that social adjustment at the GSAS follows a familiar pattern: falling in love with the new culture, hating it, then, finally, being able to accept it and at the same time value one's own culture. It is the second phase -- hating the new culture -- that some students have difficulty getting beyond.

"As a student said to me once, 'There was a point when I thought that Americans couldn't do anything right. The food they ate was terrible, the company was superficial, even the place where they put the handles on car doors was wrong.' However, he managed to get beyond this stage and accept that while he might not ever love the food the way he loved his native cuisine, he could adapt to it and appreciate other things about U.S. culture that were different from what he experienced in his country."

One way that international students at the Business School are kept in the loop, Walker says, is by encouraging the student government to "elect international representatives, students who . . . are particularly helpful in calling attention to policies or practices that may have the unintended consequence of marginalizing international students.

"We are also establishing," says Walker, "a mentoring network for international students and their families. Often, domestic partners are overlooked, a situation that puts severe pressure on the students and on their relationship. . . . Sometimes, the mentoring help ranges from something as simple as how to buy groceries to dealing with the emotional stresses of displacement and change in family life."

A Host of Hosts

McCavana said that the first GSAS event of the year is geared toward international students: "During the weekend following the residence halls' opening day, we hold a session in the residence halls called 'Getting Started.' This is a nuts-and-bolts session focusing on day-to-day life in the dorms and at Harvard. It's organized and run by the resident advisers in the halls, who are all graduate students themselves."

The following day, a large event called the Host Student Dinner is held. McCavana says, "During the spring after students are admitted, all international students are asked if they would like to be paired with a host when they arrive in Cambridge and with whom they would go to dinner on this particular evening. Ongoing students, both U.S. and international, are asked to volunteer as hosts. During the summer, one of our staff matches up the approximately 250 people who have responded to the requests. Since it started some eight years ago the program has been very successful in giving international students immediate contacts in Cambridge, and some lasting friendships have developed out of it."