Student Reflections on International Learning Experiences

A goal of the Department of Animal Sciences is to enhance the integration of international perspectives into its curriculum. One approach to achieve that goal is to capitalize on knowledge gained by current undergraduate students who have participated in learning abroad programs. Placing undergraduate students in a position to impact the internationalization of departmental teaching programs is challenging. As a first step in providing a framework for students to contribute to teaching programs through their international learning experiences, students (n=11) were asked to reflect on what they learned about themselves through their international experiences, and what impact that new knowledge had on them. Responses fell into four categories in which students discussed how their international experiences: 1) impacted their personal development with respect to altering their current behavior, their view of the complexity of world problems, or their view of their own future interests; 2) made them more aware of their differences from others, 3) caused them to be more aware of their own strengths, talents and weaknesses, or 4) changed their perspectives of the world. All responses from students included reflections that corresponded to two or more of these categories. Asking students to reflect on and communicate how they perceive the impact of their international experience on their own development and behavior provides a foundation for development of productive undergraduate-faculty partnerships aimed at integrating international perspectives into the curriculum.published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewe