2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

International students represent a significant portion of STEM enrollment in the U.S., with 55% of STEM students being international during the 2022-2023 academic years. These students face numerous challenges, including discrimination, homesickness, academic struggles, and loneliness. Studies have shown that international students encounter acculturative stress, with emotional strain resulting from cultural adaptation, social isolation, and academic pressures. These factors contribute to anxiety, negatively affecting academic performance. Language barriers also significantly hinder full participation in academic discussions and collaborations, making networking and seeking help more difficult. Many international students feel these barriers amplify their sense of being "outsiders."
The experience of international Women of Color (WOC) in engineering, in particular, highlights additional difficulties. These women often join a predominantly white and male-dominated culture in U.S. engineering. Much like other long-established American institutions, higher education has historically perpetuated white dominance. U.S. higher education operates under a framework that favors white students, faculty, and leadership, reproducing systemic inequalities through policies and practices that privilege whiteness, taking many opportunities away from marginalized groups, especially international students. Research shows that international doctoral WOC in engineering frequently face subtle and overt gender discrimination as well as gendered racism, with their contributions undervalued and having to work harder to prove their competence compared to their white and male counterparts. These experiences lead to feelings of isolation, invisibility, and professional instability.
Federal policies also impact international students' quality of life. Recent immigration policies, particularly those implemented by the Trump administration, introduced new barriers, such as increased visa application fees, stricter behavioral requirements, and more rigorous security checks. Although international students have not been banned outright, the tightening of visa regulations has made it more difficult to study in the U.S. Many international students feel unwelcome due to rising xenophobia and anti-immigrant sentiment.
In this paper, three international WOC doctoral students come together to discuss how different policies affect their lived experiences in graduate school, including their research, decision-making, academic trajectories, mental health, and networking. Using the Collaborative Action Research (CAR) method, this study provides a platform for sharing experiences. CAR allows for collective problem-solving through collaboration, integrating diverse perspectives. CAR starts with identifying a common challenge or problem, and once the issue is clearly defined, the co-researchers work together to create an action plan. A key aspect of collaborative action research is ongoing reflection, hence we aim to examine how U.S. policies, both institutional and federal, affect international women of color. First, each co-constructor will write a two-page reflection on their personal experiences. Then, we'll engage in a collaborative session to identify common themes and explore the intersection of race, gender, and international identity. Based on these insights, we'll develop strategies to address the challenges, such as advocating for policy reform or creating support systems. Finally, we'll implement and regularly review these strategies, using a cyclical process of reflection and adjustment to ensure long-term impact. In this paper, we seek to bring insight and awareness to the challenges navigated by international WOC so that more effective, nuanced, support can be provided to them during their graduate studies in the U.S.