With new international student enrollment down overall, particularly for master’s degree and certificate programs at graduate schools, some fear that the prospect of less global diversity on college campuses in the U.S. could have far-reaching implications.

“These incidents,” said Okahana, “as isolated as they may be, are troubling and have created chilling effects.”

In an effort to learn about best practices for developing high-impact financial education programs, TIAA embarked on a three-year collaboration with the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) and more than 30 leading universities. While the participating institutions developed a range of innovative approaches, some common suggestions emerged for financial education programs aimed at this demographic.

Master’s degrees accounted for a staggering 83% of all graduate degrees awarded in 2018, yet there has been relatively little research conducted on master’s program admissions and how admissions criteria match student success. The recently published CGS report, Master’s Admissions: Transparency, Guidance, and Training, aims to clarify the admissions process by assessing quantitative data and regional focus group interviews to better understand master’s admissions. In this webinar, project author Robert Augustine will explain the report’s key findings and field questions from the audience. Presentation slides.

Leaders with the Council of Graduate Schools, a membership organization representing more than 500 institutions in the United States and Canada, said their member schools have been reporting similar frustrations.

"Anecdotally, we're hearing that students are experiencing either rejections or delays with their visa processing," said Lauren Inouye, the group's vice president of public policy and government affairs.

The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS), an association of universities that grant master's and doctoral degrees, and The Jed Foundation (JED), a non-profit that exists to protect emotional health and prevent suicide for our nation's teens and young adults, today announced a new initiative to support the mental health and wellness of master's and doctoral students. The 22-month project will create a foundation for evidence-based policies and resources to support graduate student mental health and well-being, prevent psychological distress, and address barriers to effective support and care. CGS and JED will give particular attention to the experiences of underrepresented racial and ethnic minorities pursuing graduate education.

At a time when the numbers of students from backgrounds like these are growing more quickly than the number who are white and whose parents went to college, this has implications for graduate school enrollment and employers who need workers with graduate educations.

Theirs is “a rapidly increasing segment of the population that will be needed to sustain the economy, and they need to have the knowledge and skills” to do that, said JoAnn Canales, dean in residence at the Council of Graduate Schools.

The Council of Graduate Schools and the Jed Foundation for youth emotional health and suicide prevention will partner to study and promote graduate student well-being, they said Tuesday. A report is due out by late 2020. The experiences of underrepresented racial and ethnic minorities will be a priority. A grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation will support a focus on students in the sciences, technology, engineering and math. A grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will support work on students in the humanities.

Sometimes a transformative moment in a graduate student’s career comes from the surprising intersection of the local and the global. A master’s student in international studies at North Carolina State University, Fatima Morys Barrios never expected to find parallels between her native Paraguay and Kinston, North Carolina. Through Rural Works!, a summer internship program connecting NC State students to rural North Carolina communities, Barrios discovered the commonalities between her home country and the rural communities around Raleigh, NC. “Paraguay’s…very similar to Kinston.” She said, “Our economy [in Paraguay] is based on agricultural products – we produce and export soybeans and corn and wheat and also beef.”

Barrios’ impact on Rural Works! in Kinston was immediate. She launched “Kickstart Kinston” with funding from NC Rural Center’s Small Business Recovery Program as a resource to help local small businesses grow and modernize. Furthermore, she connected local small businesses to one another in a network of mutual support. “Let’s say business owners do not have a website. We connected them with a web developer here in Kinston. So you don’t have to go to Raleigh, and you don’t have to go to Greenville to do that.”

Her community involvement went beyond “Kickstart Kinston,” however. Barrios worked with several local groups, including Kingston Economic Empowerment, where she organized an employment bootcamp for members of the community who had been incarcerated. She also worked on an oral history project for the African American Heritage Commission by interviewing senior citizens about their memories of Kinston.

Her experience was transformative both professionally and personally. “It changed my career goals,” said Barrios. “I never considered economic development as a way of becoming a consultant or as a person that might work in the planning department of a city hall. But I realized I was really good at that.” Beyond her career, Barrios’ experience also changed the way she thought about the relationship between her work and those it impacted. “I wanted to learn from the people, to learn what they need,” she concluded. To learn more about Fatima, visit the North Carolina State University website.

Visit the GradImpact Feature Gallery to learn more about the amazing, innovative research being done by graduate students and alumni across the world.

Photo Credit: Becky Kirkland

“Our overarching goal is to create a road map for our graduate deans and community to create services and a more supportive environment for all graduate students,” said Dr. Suzanne Ortega, president of the Council of Graduate Schools, “Because so very little is known about services that are already in place and policies that promote wellness.”

According to recent data from Get Georgia Reading, only 34% of children in the state are reading proficiently by the end of third grade. In addition to future learning barriers, these children are more likely to face other challenges, including disciplinary issues and poor health; they’re also more likely to drop out of high school and spend time in prison. Meghen Bassel, a graduate student in the library media specialist program at the University of West Georgia, has an interesting approach to help children at South Salem elementary school improve their reading skills. His name is Mr. Booker T. Pug.

“Booker offers a nonjudgmental environment for kids to practice reading,” said Bassel. “He's not going to notice if they said a word incorrectly, missed a word or didn't attempt a word. He will simply sit and listen.” Students at South Salem visit the media center at least once a week, and their reward for good behavior is time with Mr. Booker, a certified therapy dog.

“We’ve had students who become different children because of him and the program,” Bassel concluded. “They're no longer afraid of picking up books and reading in front of the class, whereas before they would whisper or pass on the opportunity. They jump at the chance now. It’s amazing to see. One little dog.” To learn more about Meghen and Booker, visit the University of West Georgia website.

Visit the GradImpact Feature Gallery to learn more about the amazing, innovative research being done by graduate students and alumni across the world.

Photo Credit: Julia Mothersole