Over the past six months, I’ve read close to 50 books. This might not seem extraordinary for those who are avid readers, but my guilty admission is this: I had almost stopped reading for pleasure some years ago. As a writer you’re expected to read the work of others, but I was so busy writing my own book that whatever I read took the form of research to see how other authors were approaching the craft. It was more homework than the type of reading that constitutes “curling up with a good book.”

Immersing myself in books over the past six months wasn’t a resolution or a professional obligation, rather it has become a way of orienting myself during a period of external ruptures and an internal search for understanding and answers, a retreating inward yet exploring other worlds through the pages of a book.

So on this International Day of Education instead of making big declarations about access, opportunity, and the future of education, I want to instead share one of the books I read recently: Malala Yousafzai’s new memoir, Finding My Way. To be honest, I did not expect to like it as much as I did, expecting it to be yet another celebrity memoir perfectly airbrushed and edited. Instead, the book is a candid and vulnerable account of struggling with sudden visibility at such a tender age; of undertaking an educational journey at one of the world's most sought-after institutions (Oxford); and, ultimately, a coming-of-age book about a young girl from Pakistan.

Malala writes with disarming honesty about having to live up to the exacting standards and expectations of the world, especially as the youngest ever Nobel Peace Prize winner. All she wants is to have as normal and ordinary a college experience as possible, where she isn’t always seen through the lens of being a global icon of girls’ empowerment but is just another young student figuring out her way in life and education.

Although Malala was forcibly displaced and spent her high school and college years in exile in the UK, her depictions of her time at Oxford nonetheless made me think of the challenges and opportunities in store for all globally migrant students, including international students, refugees, and other new immigrants: the excitement of a new culture and being in the hallowed halls of a prestigious institution; imbibing the cultural and educational norms of learning and teaching that can be so different across cultures; and being profoundly grateful for an incredible educational opportunity yet being deeply homesick at the same time. Malala writes about the loneliness of school, the effort of learning not just English but the social grammar of a new country—important lessons that international students learn both inside and outside the classroom. The book is also an enjoyable read for any parent whose high schooler is on the cusp of beginning college, like mine is. Many young students will see their anticipation and fears reflected in Malala’s journey.

Among the many small, human moments in the book are: Malala learning to row on an English river; her experimentation with clothes; her evolving relationship with her traditional South Asian parents as they, too, adjust to life in exile and come to terms with a daughter whose education includes not just a degree but also an emancipation of mind, dreams, and values. A process of unlearning as much as learning.

There are two other powerful themes in the book. Malala reveals her struggle with mental health issues, PTSD in particular. She draws attention to it precisely because there is a shroud of silence around mental health issues in most South Asian countries and cultures. She describes her own reluctance to accept that she needed support, as well as her parents’ resistance to the idea. The other aspect that she writes compellingly about is the plight of Afghan girls and women and their lost educational futures. You an listen to the NPR episode below where she talks about this at length.

One of the most moving accounts in the book is when Malala is finally permitted by the Pakistani government to return to Pakistan to visit the Swat Valley where she grew up and where she also founded a girls’ school with her Nobel Prize money. When she eventually returns, she realizes that the mountains are the same, but she is not. It reminded me of a passage in my memoir as well, where I describe one of my trips back to Delhi, and when the realization sinks in that home is not a fixed construct. The journey of education is ultimately a migration that changes us in ways that cannot be undone.

Listen!

Here are two podcast episodes tied to the themes of the book. The first is a terrific conversation with Malala on NPR’s Fresh Air, where she talks at length about the current status of girls’ and women’s education in South and Central Asia. The second is an episode from my World Wise podcast in which I got to interview Fereshteh Forough, founder of Code to Inspire, a coding school for women in Afghanistan and a TED speaker.

Reading Recommendations

In keeping with Malala’s book and this International Day of Education, here are some more reading suggestions that focus on a journey of education and transformation, with most focusing on higher education.

What are some of your favorite books on similar themes? I would love to hear from you.

Last month I had the opportunity to speak at the P3.EDU conference in Atlanta that brings together university and industry leaders to talk about innovation and public-private partnerships (hence P3) in higher education. It was an energizing event and a first for me—I had never heard of the event within my siloed universe of international higher education.

As I listened to expertly curated panels and chatted with attendees during breaks, I was struck by how little international education featured in the conversation. To the extent that global engagement came up, it was almost entirely through the lens of international student recruitment or transnational education (including the panel I moderated on India and China as higher education markets). Both are important areas of university strategy, of course, yet are a narrow slice of what it means to be an international institution in an interconnected world and especially at a time when we need to think more broadly and creatively about how to engage globally.

This made me revisit something that is often accompanied by much hand-wringing in our field: the apparent disconnect between different higher education gatherings, resulting in echo chambers. Innovation- and industry-focused conferences often sit in one circle, concerned with their own set of issues, while global education convenings occupy another. And the divide goes both ways: at most mainstream international education conferences…

the industry and private-sector voices that are increasingly shaping higher education’s direction are rarely present, or at best are minimal. The result is a set of parallel conversations about the future of higher education that rarely intersect.

This missing link felt even more apparent as I listened to a stimulating discussion at P3:EDU between Maria Flynn, the President and CEO of Jobs for the Future, Lisa Chang, EVP and Global People Officer at the Coca-Cola Company, and others about the intersection of education, skills, and workforce development. These are exactly the sorts of conversations we need to be having within international higher education as well. Instead of engaging industry partners as an afterthought—usually when it comes to international students’ challenges such as OPT and H1Bs—we need them actively engaged from the beginning as both the co-creators and the beneficiaries of a global talent pool. Only then will industry and employers feel a sense of intersection and investment in the issues that matter to us in international education.

Virtual Workshop in Partnership with AIEA!

I'm thrilled to partner with AIEA (the Association of International Education Administrators) to offer a virtual workshop: 𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐏𝐮𝐫𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐏𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐞: 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐏𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐄𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. As the international education landscape evolves, many professionals are reimagining their careers and seeking new ways to apply their expertise. The workshop will help you explore consulting as a meaningful next step—whether full-time or alongside other pursuits--and to develop both the needed mindset and gain practical strategies. This workshop will enable you to:
➡️ Reflect on your professional expertise and identify transferable skills that lend themselves to consulting work
➡️ Understand different models of consulting within the broader nonprofit/education sectors
➡️ Assess whether consulting aligns with your professional and personal goals at this stage of your career
➡️ Learn key steps to get started—such as defining a consulting focus,
identifying potential clients, and communicating your value
➡️ Gain practical strategies for exploring consulting as a flexible, purpose-driven pathway during times of transition or career growth.
𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞 & 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞: January 22, 1:00-3:30pm Eastern
Come join us! (Early bird registration ends on Dec. 15)

And if you have questions about whether this is right for you, feel free to reach out.

I want to join the workshop!

Announcing SAGE: (SouthAsia-IEN Academy for Global Engagement)

Some of you have been following my South Asia-focused work over at the South Asia International Education Network (SouthAsia-IEN). My Co-Founder, Uttiyo Raychaudhuri and I recently launched the SouthAsia-IEN Academy for Global Engagement (SAGE), the professional development and capacity-building arm of SouthAsia-IEN which helps build bridges between global higher education institutions and South Asia through training, professional development, and bespoke advisory services.
💡 𝐒𝐀𝐆𝐄’s 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬:
➡️ 𝐒𝐀𝐆𝐄 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐋𝐚𝐛: Focused on global higher education sectors and South Asia, ℎ𝑖𝑔ℎ-𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑓𝑙𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑜𝑛𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑠 led by experts and designed for professionals seeking to deepen their global engagements.
➡️ 𝐒𝐀𝐆𝐄 𝐈𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞: 𝐼𝑛-𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑜𝑛, 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑝 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑒𝑥𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑚𝑠, including short-term exchanges, leadership institutes, and delegation visits for global higher education leaders and South Asia.
➡️ 𝐒𝐀𝐆𝐄 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭: 𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑒𝑟 𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑑𝑣𝑖𝑠𝑜𝑟𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑏𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑜𝑘𝑒 𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑐𝑒𝑠 focused on unique problems and solutions for global and South Asian institutions.

𝐋𝐀𝐔𝐍𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐒𝐎𝐎𝐍:
⌚ 𝐒𝐀𝐆𝐄 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐈𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 (𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐚 𝐄𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧): An in-person transformative leadership immersion program and strategic partnership initiative driving U.S.-India higher education collaboration (Tentative travel dates for India: March 2026)
⌚ 𝐒𝐀𝐆𝐄 𝐔.𝐒.-𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐚 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐋𝐚𝐛: A high-impact online learning experience for U.S. and Indian institutions to build essential knowledge, strengthen institutional capacity, and gain practical insights. (Tentative start: April 2026)

I’m interested in learning more!

Recommended Reading: South Asians in the U.S.

𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝟓.𝟐 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐚 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔.𝐒. 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧
In the latest issue of 𝐼𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝐻𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝐸𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛, I argue that while the growing Indian diaspora in the United States serves as a critical link for furthering US–India higher education relations, its role and potential are often overlooked. The article highlights the ways in which the diaspora on US campuses—from faculty to presidents and chancellors, to second-generation Indian American students—is furthering this critical relationship. I also discuss the role of institutional partnerships and national policies. This is the work we are trying to do through SouthAsia-IEN.

International students from South Asia

The much-anticipated new Open Doors report was released last month, offering a data-based view of how the rest of the world engages with the U.S. through its universities. SouthAsia-IEN did a special analyses of what the data means for South Asia and the U.S. You can and also sign up for our SouthAsia-IEN newsletter where we will be sharing content and updates related to South Asia and higher education.

(Note: all the data below is attributable to Open Doors).

Five years ago, I made a big leap. After decades in senior nonprofit and education leadership roles, I left behind the security (and structure) of a 9–5 career to build my own consulting practice.

I’ll be honest: it was equal parts exciting and terrifying.

I had deep expertise, a strong network, and plenty of ideas. But no one had ever taught me how to turn all of that into a consulting business. How to decide what to offer. How to set prices. How to find clients. How to build visibility as a trusted advisor instead of an employee.

So I stumbled my way through, learning by trial and error, leaning on mentors, and figuring out how to combine purpose with profitability.

Fast forward to today: I’ve had the privilege of working with global nonprofits, foundations, mission-driven companies, and institutions as a consultant. I’ve built a practice that’s aligned with my values, flexible enough to fit my life, and has impact in ways that feel deeply meaningful.

But here’s the thing: I know I’m not alone in wanting this. More and more scholars, nonprofit leaders, government employees, and mission-driven professionals are wondering, “What’s next for me? Can I create something of my own?” especially during a time when traditional career paths and the world of work have been so disrupted.

When I think about the number one thing that colleagues have “picked my brain” on over the past few years, it is this: my experience with branching out on my own.

That’s why I created my new course:

👉 From Purpose to Practice: Build a Mission-Driven Consulting Business Rooted in Your Expertise

This course is my way of demystifying this path and about enabling purpose-driven people to develop the mindset and acquire the tools to build consulting practices rooted in their expertise, their story, and their values.

It’s the program I wish I’d had when I started.

An 8-week, live online course designed to take you from “Where do I even start?” to “I’m ready to launch my consulting practice with clarity and confidence.”

What we’ll cover together:

• Shifting from employee to entrepreneur mindset

• Defining your consulting niche and offerings

• Pricing and packaging your services

• Finding and attracting aligned clients

• Building visibility and credibility in your field

• Laying the foundations for a sustainable, values-driven business

When I first struck out on my own, I realized very quickly that I needed to spend a lot of time adjusting my mindset and embracing the psychological and social shifts that this type of transition requires. So my vision for this course is not only to address the knowledge, skills, and nuts-and-bolts of a successful consulting practice, but–equally importantly–provide a community and space to tackle critical issues such as identity shift, vulnerability, freedom, and motivation.

This first cohort will be small and personalized so that it feels more like a community than a classroom. That’s why enrollment will be limited.

By joining the waitlist, you’ll:

• Be the first to know when doors open

• Access early-bird pricing

• Have a chance at special founding cohort bonuses (including a 1:1 session with me for the first 10 people)

If you’ve ever thought about going independent or building a consulting practice of your own, I’d love for you to join me and to also share this with anyone else who might be considering a pivot.

👉 Join the Waitlist Here (and receive a special sign-up bonus of a curated list of my top reads and listens for making a career pivot)

This course is really the culmination of my own journey from employee to consultant, from uncertainty to clarity. If you’re standing at that same crossroads, I’d be honored to guide you through it.

Warmly,
Rajika

P.S. Joining the waitlist is free and doesn’t lock you in, but it does give you first dibs when enrollment opens.

Internship opportunity: Program and Content Intern

Rajika Bhandari Advisors has an opportunity open for a proactive, passionate, and globally-minded intern. The internship provides an excellent opportunity to gain advanced knowledge and hands-on experience in the field of international education, policy development, and educational partnerships with a focus on the higher education sectors of the U.S. and other countries, specifically South Asia.
Apply here.

A couple of months ago something happened that gave me much-needed pause, a moment to step back and reflect not just on a professional milestone, but on a much longer and more personal journey.

I was deeply honored to receive NAFSA’s inaugural John and Anne Hudzik Prize for Sustained Leadership in Higher Education Internationalization, an award that recognizes those who have introduced bold and impactful new ideas to our field. I am profoundly grateful, not only for the recognition, but for what it means at this stage of my life and career.

John Hudzik is a visionary in our field who championed the idea of comprehensive internationalization well before it became a widely adopted goal. His contributions have shaped the very way institutions think about global engagement. To be associated with his legacy, and with the generosity that he and Anne Hudzik have shown in making this prize possible, means a lot to me. I’m also aware that it is daunting to receive a prize named after John as there might be great expectations of my work to come! Read this terrific interview with John to learn about his vision for the award.

For those who’ve been part of my journey, you know that I spent many years working within institutions—nonprofits, research organizations, and institutions—helping to shape evidence and narratives around international higher education, international students, and the immigrant experience. I loved that work and I still do. But a few years ago, I made the leap into independent life: no office, no fancy organizational title, no trappings of the executive life, just me and a belief that I could still make a difference. It was thrilling, yet terrifying.

If I’m honest, there were many moments where I questioned that decision. Could I still have influence without the platform and heft of a well-known organization? Would my voice carry weight? Would my work be taken seriously? For so many of us our identities are often intertwined with our organizations. Letting go of that support system required me to redefine my work and myself.

Independent work is not “giving up.” It’s an opportunity to deepen one’s voice and mission.

Receiving the Hudzik Prize has felt like an answer to those questions and a validation of sorts. It’s a recognition that innovation, impact, and influence doesn’t always come from inside the walls of large entities and that it will take all of us acting together—be it institutions, organizations, or individuals--to advance and defend the important work of international education, especially at a moment in time when our efforts are needed more than ever. We have to, quite simply, pull our weight individually and collectively.

With Fanta Aw, CEO of NAFSA; John and Anne Hudzik; and Ahmad Ezzeddine, President of NAFSA. Photo Courtesy: NAFSA

With Fanta, dear colleague and friend of many years. I love this photo as it captures a special moment between us. Photo courtesy: NAFSA

I received the award at the annual NAFSA conference in San Diego in May, but it has taken me a while to share these reflections as this honor came during a time of personal loss for me, which made the recognition feel all the more poignant and bittersweet. It was a reminder that professional achievements don’t exist in a vacuum and are accompanied by the reality of life in all its messiness, grief, and grace. That complexity doesn’t diminish the meaning of the moment. It simply deepens it.

This award also feels especially meaningful because it honors a vision of international education that is inclusive, expansive, and evolving. Through my writing, my podcast, and the coaching and mentoring I now offer, I’ve tried to widen the lens on who gets to lead, whose stories matter, and how knowledge flows across borders—not just through students and scholars, but through lived experience.

As I reflect on my journey that began as an international student from India some three decades ago, there are two mentors whom I want to acknowledge. I know for a fact that if it weren’t for Peggy Blumenthal, former COO of IIE and an exceptional leader, I wouldn’t be where I am. Peggy took a chance on me two decades ago and opened the door to the wide, wondrous world of international education. And Jane Polin, astute guide, friend, and philanthropic advisor extraordinaire who has taught me the heart and skill of working on my own terms—always with creativity and improvisation.

𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭:

𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐏𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬

Combining the Rigor of Data With the Art of Storytelling

After years of writing for global audiences—whether research and impact reports, briefing papers, op-eds, or books—I’m excited to offer strategic writing and editorial services to help organizations and leaders amplify their voice and ideas. In just the past two years, Rajika Bhandari Advisors LLC has produced 18 publications with a range of partners. If you or your organization are working on big questions—policy, equity, global education, philanthropy—but need help turning research and ideas into readable, resonant content, let’s collaborate.
𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐖𝐞 𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫:
📄 Research & Impact Reports
📘 Position & Briefing Papers
🗞️ Thought Leadership Content
✏️ Strategic editing, content review & book coaching

Let’s shape your insight into influence—one powerful publication at a time.
🔗 𝐒𝐞𝐞 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐨 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞

Get your copy of America Calling

Amazon U.S.

Amazon India

Barnes & Noble

Signed copies (for sale in the U.S. only)

“Why are the international students in class so quiet? I keep asking them what they need but they don’t speak up,”

said a faculty member to me at the large Midwestern campus that I was visiting. I was there to do a workshop for university administrators and faculty on understanding international students and ensuring their well-being.

This question has come up in some shape or form at the 30+ American campuses I have been on in the past four years. It is a question I have considered as well and there isn’t a simple answer. One set of reasons has to do with where students come from and the cultural and social norms they have grown up with. My book describes how many young Indian women of my generation were sent the social message to be quiet and not speak too much, especially in situations where one was face-to-face with those in a position of authority. Regardless of gender, this sort of social conditioning is true for many international students, the majority of whom are from Asian countries where deference to teachers and professors—or the “sage on the stage” approach to education—is deeply ingrained, and where students struggle with the “guide on the side” ethos of American post-secondary classrooms.

But another reason for the silence has nothing to do with where students come from but has everything to do with where they have arrived.

Fear and apprehension are the travel companion of every international student and never leave their side during their journeys in the U.S.

It begins when they stand outside a U.S. consulate for the first time, wondering whether their visa will be denied (as it is for over half of all African students), to when they arrive in the U.S. and wait at the border for their immigration papers to be scrutinized, to when they are on campus and are worried that they might unwittingly run afoul of rules and regulations that would result in their student visas being terminated.

We should never underestimate the trepidation that international students feel. Fanta Aw, Executive Director and CEO of NAFSA, said it just right in a recent article:

Between SEVIS and university compliance documents that record things like academic standing and residency, international students are “some of the most tracked people in the country…there is no other group that has anything comparable.”

The subliminal fear that international students feel probably also explains why so few of them seek out campus services such as mental health support despite these issues being on the rise amongst all American students, including international students.

It’s all about staying under the radar and not drawing too much attention to oneself.

Yet, in just the past few years, international students began to find their voices, motivated in part by the Black Lives Matter movement and their growing awareness of belonging to racial and ethnic minority groups in the U.S. It was exciting and inspiring to watch international students rallying and protesting alongside their Black classmates, expressing their ideas and feelings collectively as perhaps never before.

In just the past decade we have witnessed a growing number of international students going shoulder-to-shoulder with their American peers, taking on leadership roles in campus-based organizations, whether it is graduate student associations, diversity and inclusion-focused groups, or serving as student representatives on campus-wide committees—roles that allowed them to move beyond the confines of being an “international” student.

A key element of my student-facing workshops and talks in recent years has been to remind international students of their agency and to encourage them to develop self-advocacy in order to succeed on an American campus.  After all, they are surrounded by American students who have been taught the critical skills of self-expression and advocacy from an early age.

But the developments over the past month have effectively silenced the international student voice.

As of this writing, over 1,550 international student visas across 240 institutions have been revoked. I don’t know how we continue to ask international students to speak up; to participate fully in their American education; to embrace what an American education has to offer, which is so much more than just obtaining a Made-in-America credential.

Yet I also know that international students are resilient and the closing paragraph of my book applies just as much today as when I wrote it a few years ago:

From Chapter 22, America Calling: A Foreign Student in a Country of Possibility

READ!

Here are some more resources and reflections from these past few weeks:

• Inside Higher Education tracker of visa revocations: Led by reporters Liam Knox and Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed has compiled a dataset of colleges and universities across the nation that have indicated visa revocations for current students or recent alumni. The database was first published April 8 and will be updated regularly.

• Silencing international students corrodes the spirit of higher education: Op-ed by Haishan (Sam) Yang of the University of Southern California and Gerardo Blanco of Boston College.

• The Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration along with 86 institutions and higher ed associations in the U.S. has submitted an amicus brief in support of AAUP’s (American Association of University Professors) case challenging the revocation of visas and detentions of non-citizen students and scholars. The brief is long but if you have the patience to read it, it makes a comprehensive data-based argument for the short- and long-term impacts on the U.S. of international student visas being revoked.

• NYT article on the impact of these recent developments on U.S. colleges and universities.

• Our foreign students are terrified, and they have a right to be: NYT op-ed by Rachel Riedl and Stephen Yale-Loehr.

LISTEN!

With everything going on this past month with international students, it feels like an opportune time to listen to and reflect on their journeys and experiences. Here are two episodes from the World Wise podcast.

➡️ An international student’s passage from India: Aryan D’Rozario. Since the time of this recording, Aryan graduated from Oxford and is now a Programs Coordinator at the East-West Center in Washington, DC.

➡️ Helping students finance their international education dreams: A conversation with Emmanuel (Manu) Smadja. Manu is a former international student to the U.S. from France and is the co-founder of MPOWER Financing.

On the Road: Walking the red carpet!

No, I didn’t really walk the red carpet at Cannes, but I did get to take a photo on the stairs of the Palais des Festivals where the legendary film festival is held. I was there to deliver the keynote for the Global University Systems (GUS) Partners' Conference and participate in a panel discussion on how recent national and policy-related developments around the world are affecting higher education. It was an opportunity to learn from education leaders from all over, while also catching up with colleagues Tony Ogden, David Fisher, and Denver Muirhead.

Upcoming Events: Join us!

Do international students want what you’re offering? Assessing your institution’s program portfolio

When & Where: April 25, 12pm ET, Sign up here

We are pleased to have partnered once again with the Oxford Education International Group to develop a report on how academic preferences, labor market trends, and national policies are shaping international student choices. Come join us for this webinar with a panel of institution leaders, including Cheryl Matherly of Lehigh University and Bryan Gross of Hartwick college, to discuss the implications of the report. Also joining the panel will be Tonya Creamer and Alex Korda of Oxford International. Don’t forget to get your copy of the report and to sign up for the webinar.

Reserve my spot for the webinar!

𝐖𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐭𝐨𝐧 𝐃𝐂-𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐠𝐮𝐞𝐬: C𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐣𝐨𝐢𝐧 𝐮𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐧 𝐔.𝐒.-𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐚 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐬, 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬, and internationalization

Date & time of higher ed panel: May 10, 2025, 10:45 - 11:30am

Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center, Washington D.C.

Registration link: https://hopkinsindia.events.whova.com/registration/

I'm delighted to be chairing a panel and leading a timely conversation with Sunil Kumar of Tufts University, Leah Mason of IIE, Hanan Saab of the Association of American Universities (AAU) and Shuchita Sonalika of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) about how the U.S. and India can engage even further through higher education and internationalization. The panel is part of a two-day event organized by the Gupta-Klinsky India Institute at Johns Hopkins University and Indiaspora. Registration for this two day event covering various aspects of U.S.-India relations is free but will close soon.

Sign me up!

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It feels like the very foundation of American diplomacy, knowledge, and excellence has faced a perfect storm in recent weeks. I have felt helpless reading the headlines and LinkedIn posts of colleagues who have lost their jobs, many of them highly-trained experts whose talent and knowledge cannot be easily replaced—it takes years to build these sorts of talent pipelines—and nor can it be readily deployed elsewhere.

Helpless though I feel, I am not voiceless and so in this issue I am sharing with you how three U.S. federal agencies in the news have shaped who I am today. While this is one individual’s limited experience, I share it with the hope of illustrating the critical work and contributions of these agencies.

I began to learn about the notion of international development only after arriving in the U.S. in the early nineties. I was studying psychology, but my interests soon veered towards broader ideas of global inequities. Coming from a country like India, with its stark gap between the rich and the poor, I was perhaps already primed to explore these issues. Along with reading luminaries like Amartya Sen, I began to hear about entities like USAID (the United States Agency for International Development) and UNDP (the United Nations Development Programme). USAID was central to not only developing an understanding of the concepts of international development, but it also enabled the practice and work of the field.

My advisor, who was instrumental in helping me develop these interests, had projects that were funded by both agencies and which, in turn, enabled his graduate students to pursue research in these areas. My focus quickly became women and education, particularly in Asia, and how educating women and girls should be central to the developmental and progress goals of any society.

My work today is not centered in international development, but those early years created in me an awareness and sensitivity to global issues that also guides my work in international education today. Many years later, while at the Institute of International Education (IIE), I would work on a USAID-supported project that enabled a deeper understanding of educational mobility within the Asia Pacific region as a form of bilateral cooperation.

After obtaining my doctoral degree, my research work shifted to more domestic educational issues in the U.S. That is when I first got to know the U.S. Department of Education, and in particular the National Center for Education Statistics which has now been shut down. I began to work with the Center’s longitudinal, flagship surveys to generate research and an understanding of critical issues such as why some American high schools excel while others don’t; why it is important for parents to be involved in their children’s education; and studying the long-term impacts of various educational interventions. There was the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the “nation’s report card” and the Condition of Education, both of which have helped us understand how we are doing as a country at every level of education.

Generations of education researchers and policy experts have relied on these surveys, using them to advance research and policies in the American national interest.

Many years later, while at IIE, one of my last projects there was a grant from the Department’s Office of International and Foreign Language Education (IFLE) to launch the Graduate Learning Overseas (GLO) survey, the first-ever attempt to fully document the study abroad participation and global engagement of U.S. graduate students.

And then there is the National Science Foundation. As my research on global student mobility began to expand to understanding the role of international students and global talent within the U.S. STEM ecosystem, I always turned to the NSF’s Science and Engineering Indicators, a periodic compendium on any and every data point and indicator relating to science and engineering in the U.S.

These are the statistics that have helped us understand as a society that women still lag behind men in obtaining advanced degrees in the STEM fields, or how the U.S. fares as compared with other countries when it comes to STEM education and the workforce.

Over time, I would also become  involved in NSF efforts to internationalize graduate STEM education in the U.S., and initiatives such as the Partnerships for International Research and Education (PIRE), serve on technical review panels, and contribute to the Science and Engineering Indicators’ chapters that focused international higher education.

Over the past two decades, I have used these and other sources of the U.S. government’s public data to make the evidence-based case for the importance of international education, and the importance of keeping our doors open to global talent.

To not have this type of research and data is to attempt to steer and advance education—the bedrock of any advanced society—without a compass.

Such information-gathering and knowledge is the envy of other countries, and no one comes close to the U.S. in generating this type of evidence and leveraging it to shape progress.

READ!

Here are some more reflections from these past few weeks:

• Hechinger Report: Read higher education reporter Jill Barshay’s excellent analysis of the impacts of the cuts at the Institute of Education Statistics and NCES.

• Michelle Cooper, Vice President and Executive Director at the Lumina Foundation, writes about the overall impact of the diminishing of the U.S. Department of Education.

• Atul Gawande—surgeon, author, New Yorker columnist, and former senior leader at USAID—talks about the potential scale of the impact of the USAID cuts. You can listen here or read here.

LISTEN!

March has been Women’s History Month in the U.S. Check out this episode of the World Wise Podcast that focuses on three women leaders in international education who share their advice on careers and leadership.

How to be a leader: Advice from three women leaders in international education

➡️ Peggy Blumenthal has a 40+ year career spanning international education and U.S.-China relations and previously served as the Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, and Senior Counselor to the President at the Institute of International Education (IIE).
➡️ Ronit Avni is a tech and media entrepreneur who is the founder and CEO of Localized, an organization and tech platform that helps connect highly accomplished immigrants in the diaspora with young and emerging talent and graduates in their home countries.
➡️ Esther T. Benjamin is the Executive Director and CEO of World Education Services and reflects on challenges as an emerging woman leader of color while sharing advice for those of us who have intersectional identities.
➡️ The episode also includes a historical look at some of the earliest women international students who came to the U.S. in the 1800s, including Anandibai Joshee from India and three young women from Japan.  

On the Road…Events & Talks

Earlier this month, I was in Austin, Texas, for SXSW EDU where I had the pleasure of joining Dr. Andrea Golato, Dean of the Graduate College at Texas State University, for a discussion about the value of international higher education and international students in particular. It was also a thrill to see my book at the SXSW bookstore. Check out our recorded conversation here (the audio quality is excellent)!

We usually go to conferences for their professional value and the work-related networking, but it is always the "side" meetings that fulfill me and inspire me in so many different ways. Savneet Bedi Bains—an international doctoral student and instructor at UT, Austin—and I first connected in 2021, quite by happenstance, when she won a giveaway for my book. We finally met in person this month and had a chance to discuss our journeys as international students from India (albeit separated by a few decades), as South Asian women in the field of international higher education, as parents, and yes, we did hatch some plans for future collaboration!

While in Austin, I also met up with Anjum Malik, founder and Executive Director of the Global Impact Institute, and an international education leader and tireless advocate for improving access to education for all, especially vulnerable and at-risk communities.  

Connect with Rajika Bhandari Advisors if you’d like to learn more about hosting a workshop or talk on your campus or at your organization

CLIENT SPOTLIGHT:

NEW REPORT ALERT!

Do international students want what you’re offering? Assessing your institution’s program portfolio

We are pleased to have partnered once again with the Oxford Education International Group to develop a report on how academic preferences, labor market trends, and national policies are shaping international student choices. Based on secondary data sources and expert opinion, the report focuses on how U.S. institutions need to ensure that their program offerings align with student demand in order to attract international students.

Stay tuned for a webinar at which I will join a panel of institution leaders to discuss the implications of the report. In the meantime, don’t forget to get your copy of the report.

Download the report!

Thank You!

In the of the newsletter, I candidly discussed the challenge of how to share one’s ideas and thoughts during these difficult times. I paused several times before hitting the “send” button. My deep gratitude to all of you who wrote to me in response, and to everyone who stopped me in the hallways of the AIEA conference in Houston to say that you appreciated the issue and the message resonated with you. Your words of support mean a lot to me. A huge thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading and engaging. And if you like what you read, please consider sharing this newsletter with at least one other colleague or friend and encouraging them to read and subscribe.

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Over the past month I have attempted writing this newsletter at least three times, and each time went back to the blank page because everything that I was writing about seemed so unimportant and trivial in the face of the upheavals we are facing in the U.S. It would have almost been easier if this newsletter was about breaking news in the international higher education sector, where the objectivity of facts and information can speak volumes, yet allowing the writer some space and distance. But that is not what this newsletter is about. Instead, I have always seen it as a space to surface the issues of our field—to inform, illuminate, and inspire—and to also have an opinion on the issues and, in doing so, hopefully offer some food for thought.

But at this moment in time…

I feel galvanized, yet paralyzed.

What is okay to write about? What is kosher to talk about? And, most importantly, how to show up personally and professionally in a way where one is able to acknowledge the ruptures affecting so many of us, yet is able to do so without raving and ranting?

Hilary Kahn, a highly respected and seasoned international education leader, captured it perfectly when she used the metaphor of a plane, and that the current moment calls on us to figure out how to keep flying during a time of turbulence.

This month, I’m drawing inspiration from Black History Month in the U.S. which I have written about in this newsletter each year, drawing out lesser known aspects of America’s racial and immigrant history. A couple of years ago I shared a little-known episode in the history of educational exchanges in the U.S. that forged the country’s relationships with African countries, and that brought Barack Obama’s father to the U.S. from Kenya.

In this issue I focus on the hidden history of Black and South Asian communities to highlight how America’s Black history has also intersected with the history of South Asians in America. And, as always, I turn to the power of storytelling—in writing, through film, and through voices—to enable us to persevere and continue to talk about the things that matter, the things that bring us joy, that offer an opportunity for reflection, and that ultimately inspire us.

READ!

Vivek Bald’s book, Bengali Harlem, traces the arrival of South Asian Bengali sellers and merchants in Harlem in the early 20th century. Deeply researched, the book examines archival documents like passenger records and census papers to depict the life of early Bengali settlers in a predominantly Black neighborhood because of racial segregation, and how many of them married into African-American and Puerto Rican families.

WATCH!

The Bengali. Author Fatima Shaik embarks upon an unlikely quest when she travels from New Orleans, the city of her birth, to India, home of her grandfather Shaik Mohamed Musa. An African-American writer whose family has lived in Louisiana for four generations, Shaik travels with Kolkata-born filmmaker Kavery Kaul to a part of India where no African-American (or American) has ever gone. Through Fatima’s moving and inspiring personal journey, The Bengali tells the untold story of ties between South Asians and African-Americans in the U.S. in the late 19th century.

LISTEN!

Bridging Divides Through a Camera Lens: Filmmaker and Fulbrighter, Kavery Kaul. After you watch The Bengali, be sure to check out this episode of the World Wise podcast with the film director, Kavery Kaul, in which we not only talk about the making of the film but also talk about the overall value of educational and cultural exchanges and her Fulbright fellowship which enabled her to spend time in India to make the film.

Listen

When MLK Jr. Visited India. Tracing yet another intersection of African American and South Asian history, this episode focuses on Martin Luther King, Jr. and how he was inspired by Gandhi, India, and the non-violent movement. Take a listen as I discuss why MLK's fundamental message of bilateral interdependence and diplomatic ties is a timeless one.

Listen

On the Road…Events, Talks & Workshops

I will be in Texas for two back-to-back conferences! First up is the Association of International Education Administrators (AIEA) 2025 conference in Houston from March 2-5. If you happen to be there, please join me and my wonderful panelists for these two sessions:
➡️ 𝐃𝐨 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐒𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐖𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠? 𝐀𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧'𝐬 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦 𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐨. Cheryl Matherly, Tonya Creamer, John Clark and I will delve into the many nuances of this topic which also form the basis of a forthcoming paper by the Oxford International Education Group

➡️ 𝐒𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐔.𝐒.-𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐚 𝐇𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐄𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐬. Uttiyo Raychaudhuri and I will lead a discussion based on our ongoing project through which we have developed an in-depth online course to support Indian and U.S. institutions in their internationalization efforts.

Next up will be SXSW EDU! A huge thank you to those of you who voted for our panel last fall. Andrea Golato and I will be engaging in a fireside chat that draws upon my book and is titled, America Calling: The Impact of Global Higher Education. As international student alumni, Andrea and I will also be discussing our respective experiences as students from Germany and India.

Connect with Rajika Bhandari Advisors if you’d like to learn more about hosting a workshop or talk on your campus!

CLIENT & PARTNER SPOTLIGHT!

This past year, we had the honor and privilege of partnering with the Alliance for International Exchange, an association that represents organizations and companies comprising the educational and cultural exchange community in the United States, and serves as its only collective public policy voice. The result of our partnership is the new report 𝐀𝐧 𝐈𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐀𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚: 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐃𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐠𝐞𝐔𝐒𝐀 𝐄𝐱𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐬 𝐀𝐝𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐔.𝐒. 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐭 𝐇𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐀𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐝. The report is based on a large-scale impact study of five BridgeUSA exchange programs. Based on surveys of 9,049 global alumni and 4,335 U.S. host businesses, organizations and families, the findings demonstrate the critical role that exchanges play in:
➡️ Strengthening the U.S. economy and workforce
➡️ Advancing U.S. foreign policy goals and helping forge long-term ties with other countries
➡️ Increasing mutual understanding and enabling cultural exchange

Read the report

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This week is International Education Week in the U.S., a joint initiative between the U.S. Departments of State and Education to recognize the important role of education in building international and global connections. Yet this week comes on the heels of the recent election in the U.S., leading to much speculation, discussion, and hand-wringing on what might be in store for higher education writ large and for international students in particular. After all, according to one estimate, during Trump's presidency, more than 400 immigration-related actions were implemented that affected international students alongside other groups of visitors, migrants and immigrants.

Since the elections, I’ve been asked repeatedly what I think will happen to the global fabric of our universities under the new administration and—more specifically—how will international students be impacted?

Are we poised for a new era in international enrollment?

Like I said, I’ve done my fair share of opining this past week, especially since the new Open Doors numbers were also released, providing us with the latest benchmark of the number of international students and scholars who come to the U.S. I had the opportunity to weigh in on the trends with Inside Higher Ed. My main takeaways in the article:

• Institutions must continue to diversify their recruitment efforts, not just in terms of where students come from, but also by academic level and type of program.

• Yes, India is where everyone is recruiting, but in some ways we have already moved past the huge surge, given the large visa denials for India this fall.

• Most future growth in the international enrollment space will come from the Global South--namely Africa and South Asia--but these are also regions where it hardest for students to afford a U.S. higher education.

• While most of the Trump administration’s past proposals never became policy, they might have a better chance of being enacted this time around.

• And last but not the least, as I say in the article, "𝑺𝒕𝒖𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒕—𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝑰𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒂, 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝑮𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒂, 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝑩𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒉, 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝑽𝒊𝒆𝒕𝒏𝒂𝒎—𝒊𝒔 𝒄𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒚 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒈...𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝒊𝒕’𝒔 𝒈𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒆𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒏 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑼.𝑺. 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒋𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒕’𝒔 𝒈𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒆𝒏𝒈𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒊𝒕𝒔 𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒆𝒔.”

Register for this International Education Week event!

New date! Friday, 11/22 at 3pm Eastern

One of the most significant barriers that international students face is funding and how to afford a U.S. post-secondary education. While this challenge is not new, it requires a nuanced understanding and new models and solutions. I'm delighted to have partnered with the Presidents' Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration and MPOWER Financing on a new report titled 𝑯𝒊𝒅𝒅𝒆𝒏 𝑪𝒐𝒔𝒕𝒔, 𝑵𝒆𝒘 𝑨𝒍𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒔: 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑳𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒑𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑰𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝑺𝒕𝒖𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝑭𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 which is a deep dive into these issues and releases this week. Come join us for a webinar where we will discuss the report and its issues with a stellar line-up of industry and campus leaders, and international students of course.  

I want to attend!

Our Partners and Clients:

Champions of International Education

This International Education Week my firm Rajika Bhandari Advisors recognizes and celebrates all our wonderful current and recent clients and partners who advance the cause of international education and engagement each day through their work with students and campuses.

I also want to mention two amazing nonprofits in the field of international education and whose boards I serve—ISEP and ECE. ISEP’s mission is to make study abroad accessible to anyone who wants it. With affordable and immersive study, intern and volunteer programs abroad in more than 50 countries, ISEP opens students’ path to the world. One of the most venerable credential evaluators in the field, ECE’s mission is to  ensure that educational qualifications are fairly and accurately recognized across borders, thus enabling the mobility and utilization of global talent. I feel very privileged be associated with both organizations, which have also been led by two amazing leaders, John Lucas of ISEP (currently serving) and Margit Schatzman (outgoing) of ECE.

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If you talk to any U.S. campus administrator today, most will tell you that they want to diversify their international students. This is a worthy goal, yet what exactly do we mean when we talk about international students and “diversity”? This term is bandied about in a way that assumes that we are all drawing upon a shared understanding of what it means. For the most part, it refers to the varied origins of international students and the desire to move beyond India and China, countries whose students are a large presence on any American campus.

Yet, as I have been learning…

the notion of international student diversity can be complex and nuanced.

When we consider the origins of international students, it can mean geography and where students come from; it can mean what they are studying in the U.S. (which is currently disproportionately skewed towards the STEM fields); it can mean gender and increasing access for female international students (currently, more men than women study in the U.S.); and it can mean diversity across socioeconomic status and social class.

For instance, even though Indians students have long been one of the largest groups of international students in the U.S., there is tremendous diversity across India and amongst Indian students. When my generation of Indian students arrived in the U.S., the ability to study here was still either reserved for the elite or for graduate students whose departments could support them through assistantships (I fell in the latter category). This also meant that most students were from India’s big cities or its handful of world-class institutions like the IITs (the Indian Institutes of Technology). But Indian students in the U.S. today are as diverse as the country they come from.

I recently had the opportunity to delve deeper into many of these issues in a new paper.

There are at least two other aspects to the international student and diversity conversation in the U.S.:

Where international students sit within the larger landscape of Diversity, Equity,Inclusion and Belonging conversations and efforts on U.S. campuses; and how exactly do international students themselves engage with notions of diversity in the U.S.?

Stay tuned for Part II of this issue, where I will unpack these two strands.

In case you were wondering, these diyas (clay lamps) are indeed hand-painted by yours truly.

And speaking of diversity and the rich cultural heritage of the U.S., this past weekend was Diwali, the festival of lights which heralds all the other festivals that are also celebrated with beautiful lights. As a testament to the growing size and influence of the Indian diaspora in the U.S., the White House also celebrated the occasion with remarks by President Biden. Wishing everyone a very Happy Diwali and a season of lights, love, and levity.

Read & Listen!

Four African Students, MIT, and Dreams of a Made-in-America Degree: Arthur Musah on his new film, Brief Tender Light This is one of my favourite episodes of the World Wise podcast. Arthur and I have now engaged in three conversations about the journey of international and African students, and our own journeys as storytellers—he as a filmmaker and I as a writer. If you haven’t yet seen the film, be sure to check it out on PBS.

Listen

Sometime ago I had appeared on the Keystone Education Group's Higher Ed Chat podcast to talk about how to attract and retain Indian students and what matters to them. Great to see some of those ideas distilled into this article titled, 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐂𝐚𝐧 𝐃𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐓𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐚. Listen to the full podcast episode here.

Check out all episodes of the World Wise podcast on Spotify, Apple or on my website, or wherever you get your podcasts! Links below!

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On the Road…Events, Talks & Workshops

Nov. 11: One of the greatest gaps on U.S. campuses is effectively connecting international students and career options. It is about time that we began to take very seriously the careers and employment success of international students. The International Career Collective is doing exactly this and I’m delighted to provide the opening keynote for their International Career Summit this year. My session is titled, Thriving and Finding Your Power as an International Student.  

Nov. 12: In partnership with two clients and partners, the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration and MPOWER Financing, I will be releasing a new report on the funding challenges that international students face in the U.S. and the implications this has for our institutions to continue to attract global talent. Stay tuned for the release of the report and join us for what promises to be a stimulating discussion on this topic with a terrific line-up of speakers, including international education sector leaders and two international students. Register for the webinar here.

Connect with Rajika Bhandari Advisors if you’d like to learn more about hosting a workshop or talk on your campus!

CLIENT & PARTNER SPOTLIGHT!

Given this issue’s theme of diversity, we are featuring one of our newest clients and partner—the Oxford Education International Group—whose portfolio covers university pathway programs, and a comprehensive range of online academic and vocations courses through the OI Digital Institute and English language schools for adult and junior students in the UK, Canada and USA. Oxford International commissioned Rajika Bhandari Advisors to produce the paper, A Lack of Diversity Spells Adversity: Why U.S. Institutions Need to Attract Diverse International Students. The paper focuses on:

• Making the case for why it is critical for institutions to diversity both from a sustainability and mission-driven perspective

• What exactly do we mean by international student diversity in the context of the U.S.

• Trends in student mobility from diverse countries, particularly from the Global South

• Strategies and considerations for institutions that are looking to diversify.

Read this blog based on the paper, and the coverage in Times Higher Education, PIE News, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. We also held a webinar with university leaders on the themes of the paper and you can view the recording here.

Get your copy of America Calling

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Amazon India

Barnes & Noble

Signed copies (for sale in the U.S. only)

Many of us are familiar with the impressive stories and statistics of immigrants who lead our companies and even the health sector—who hasn’t heard of Satya Nadella of Microsoft, Sergey Brin of Alphabet, and Noubar Afeyan of Moderna? But do you know who the immigrant “rockstars” are who lead our colleges and universities and steward these massive engines of knowledge and talent production?

A growing rank of U.S. college and university presidents and chancellors are of immigrant origin, having arrived here either as international students or as children or youth accompanying their immigrant parents.

Over the past few years, my work has evolved from studying international student trends to also examining the broad impacts of this type of migration and the value of international students and immigrants.

This impact is seen very clearly in U.S. higher education not just in the form of students, but also the changing demographics of the leadership.

I first began to learn about this trend and to focus on it through my work with the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration. We began exploring this last year by looking at how exactly foreign-born and immigrant-origin individuals make their way to the top-most rungs of institutional leadership, and the pathways and challenges that exist.

I have been following Dr. Marcelo Suarez-Orozco’s research and scholarship on immigration for most of my career, so it was a thrilling moment for me to meet him at an event in Boston, jointly organized by the Presidents’ Alliance, UMass-Boston (where he is the Chancellor), and other partners.

Since then, we have begun to map—institution by institution—the origins of the leadership, beginning first with the Presidents’ Alliance’s own membership, which includes many immigrant-origin leaders like Chancellor Marcelo Suarez-Orozco of the University of Massachusetts, Boston (who is coincidentally one of the nation’s foremost immigration scholars); President Raj Echambadi of Illinois Institute of Technology; Pam Eddinger, President of Bunker Hill Community College, and so many others.

Read the full report here to learn about what we found and to read more about the 220 presidents and chancellors we have covered in this report, including in-depth profiles of 20 of them. Their origins range from Canada to China, and countries in between.

As an Indian American immigrant and former international student from India, I am especially proud to see that Indian immigrants constitute the largest group of immigrant-origin leaders of U.S. colleges and universities in our analysis. In addition to President Raj Echambadi, some of them include: Neeli Bendapudi of Penn State; Sonya Christian of the California Community Colleges; and Renu Khattor of the University of Houston system.

What is next for this important research?

We plan to continue to map these trends—there are, after all, 4000+ institutions in the U.S.! But we also need additional support to truly document the impact of the international global leadership of U.S. higher education. Please reach out to the Presidents’ Alliance or to me if you have some ideas for us.

Thanks as always for reading and engaging with this newsletter. And if you like the content, please feel free to share it with others.

Read & Listen!

Marlene M. Johnson, the former Executive Director and CEO of NAFSA: Association of International Educators, is out with a new book which is a memoir of her life. I read the book over the summer as I prepared to host Marlene on my podcast. It’s a terrific read that takes us behind the scenes of the life of an influential leader. And be sure to listen to the episode with Marlene where we have a wide-ranging discussion about her journey from politics to international education; the current state of affairs in the field; and her takeaways as a leader.

In honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month, I’m sharing one of my top picks on the theme of education and immigration. Reyna Grande’s powerful story of being a Mexican American, first-generation college student at the University of California, Santa Cruz, is a must read. I found many parallels between her book and the experiences of international students in the U.S. who are trying to acclimate to a new way of education and learning. Reyna is today the bestselling author of several books that touch upon the immigrant experience. I was honored and delighted that one of my book launch events was a conversation with her about our books.

Check out all episodes of the World Wise podcast on Spotify, Apple or on my website, or wherever you get your podcasts! Links below!

On the Road…Events, Talks & Workshops

September 14 was the three-year anniversary of America Calling, and perhaps it was fitting that I got to celebrate this day with 200+ Indian students at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, at an event organized by their Center for Indic Studies and the Provost's office.

• Not surprisingly, many of the campus faculty and leaders are also former international student, including Dr. Tesfay Meressi who serves as the Associate Provost for Graduate Studies and is originally from Eritrea.

• As I reflect on the past three years, I'm beyond grateful and thrilled that the book--and most importantly its messages--have reached so many in our sector and across US campuses. During this time I've had the opportunity to visit dozens of campuses, interact with hundreds of international students, university administrators and leaders, and so many others who serve international students and care deeply about their well-being.

• What I am reminded of each time is both the joy and once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be an international student, but also the immense challenges that remain, be it visa denials, funding, OPT, and accents.

Some time ago, I had the honor of being invited by the University of Maine to engage in a salon talk about my book and my thoughts on how to ensure that we help international students thrive.

• In 2023, the university's Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning had adopted my book as a group read and so this in-person event was a wonderful opportunity to interact with many in the university who had read the book, and to also learn directly from the university's international students.

• To my great delight, there were also several attendees from the local American Association for University Women (AAUW) chapter who had read about my AAUW International Fellowship in the book and had decided to come to the event.

• The Fogler Library used the occasion of my visit to showcase the University's history of hosting international students since 1891. The display also included all sorts of cool artifacts and displays representing students from around the world.

• The evening ended with a raffle of a gift basket for an international student that contained, among other things, a one-hour coaching session with me. I'm so pleased that the winner was an Indian woman, which felt like a wonderful coincidence.

Connect with Rajika Bhandari Advisors if you’d like to learn more about hosting a workshop or talk on your campus!

CLIENT & PARTNER SPOTLIGHT!

Given the theme of this issue, we are but naturally featuring our very first and most longstanding client and partner—the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, an alliance of American college and university leaders dedicated to increasing public understanding of how immigration policies and practices impact their students, campuses and communities. Led by its co-founder, Miriam Feldblum, herself an immigrant scholar and former university leader, the organization is the only of its kind that it tackles the nexus of higher education and immigration issues. I’ve had the immense privilege of working closely with them as a Senior Advisor ever since I launched my firm and—over the past three years—we have addressed through research many of the barriers that international students face in the U.S., including visa denials; OPT; how to enumerate international students who are refugees; and funding and financing challenges.

Get your copy of America Calling

Amazon U.S.

Amazon India

Barnes & Noble

Signed copies (for sale in the U.S. only)

Episode highlights:

• Marlene’s reflections about her life’s journey and how the book came about.

• How Marlene’s career in politics and business and her early international exposure prepared her to be a non-traditional candidate yet a good fit for the role of NAFSA’s CEO and Executive Director.

• The “ability to punt” and how this attribute served Marlene well while leading NAFSA, whether it was weathering the Asian financial crisis that impacted Asian international students or the impact of 9/11 on the international education sector.

• Marlene’s legacy of calling for a national policy on international education and her thoughts on where we stand now.

• Is the U.S. poised to have its first woman president and one whose life—coincidentally—reflects the legacy of international education? Marlene weighs in.

• The poignant love story of Marlene’s life with her husband, Peter, and how their relationship influenced her and shaped her as a leader.

• Marlene’s top 2-3 pieces of advice for women leaders.

Episode Resources:

• Get Marlene’s new book here or from Amazon

• Listen to: Episode 8 with LaNitra Berger and Episode 36 with Fanta Aw of NAFSA

• MPOWER Financing’s Social Impact Report

• My book:  ⁠⁠America Calling: A Foreign Student in a Country of Possibility

• Sign up for ⁠⁠America Calling: my take on the intersection of education, culture and migration⁠⁠

• Connect with me: ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠, ⁠⁠X⁠⁠, ⁠Instagram

This episode was made possible by the generous support of MPOWER Financing.

All eyes are on the U.S. Democratic nominee for President, Kamala Harris. And while her Black and South Asian heritage is the main topic of discussion in many circles, there’s another reason why her ascent in the U.S. political landscape resonates with many of us in the field of international education. It also brings to mind another U.S. leader whose nomination not only stirred the imagination of many Americans but whose heritage also speaks to how American universities have helped the U.S. connect to the world.

Here’s what Kamala Harris and Barack Obama have in common beyond their shared racial background…

Obama’s father and Harris’s parents came to the U.S. as foreign students from Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. The senior Obama arrived in the U.S. in the 1960s during the “African Airlift,” an ambitious scholarship program, which was the brainchild of Tom Mboya, a trade unionist and Kenyan leader, and John F. Kennedy, who asked the Kennedy Foundation to pay for the airfare of 250 Kenyan scholars, including the senior Obama.

The group of 81 East African students after landing in New York and before dispersing to colleges throughout the United States and Canada. Photo courtesy of the Airlift to America project.

Between 1959 and 1963, 800 postgraduate students from Kenya received scholarships to study in the U.S. and Canada, including the Nobel Prize winner, Wangari Maathai, whose stirring remarks at the 2006 NAFSA Annual Conference left a deep impression on me as it was also my first-ever international education conference. While Obama senior was not officially part of the airlift since he had other funds for his air travel to the University of Hawaii, he is nonetheless considered part of the “airlift generation” from Africa.

What happened after Tom Mboya launched the African airlift captures the impact of international education beyond any numbers…

Susan Mboya,Tom Mboya’s daughter, grew up with the strong influence of an American education in their home and circle. When I interviewed her for my book, she described her own educational path as “decidedly American,” obtaining all her degrees at universities in Connecticut and Massachusetts. Before Susan, her mother, who was part of the airlift, had obtained a degree from Ohio. But the influence of an American education did not end with these two generations of Mboyas. Dr. Susan Mboya has not only encouraged all her nephews and nieces to study in the U.S., but she went on to found the Zawadi Africa Education Fund that was inspired by her parents’ legacy and gives underprivileged Kenyan girls an opportunity to study abroad in the U.S. What grew out of an idea her father had in the 1960s is continuing to have an impact on generations of Kenyan students today.

For Shyamala Gopalan, Kamala Harris’s mother, the path as an international student to the U.S. was different and, unlike the senior Obama, she ended up staying and joining the ranks of skilled immigrants who could once again come to the U.S. in the 1950s and 1960s when the country overhauled its immigration policies to attract the world’s best and brightest.

This is a path I know well, having arrived in the U.S. as a female international student from India in 1992, 34 years after Dr. Gopalan, but carrying the same educational aspirations and the dreams of my forbearers. And even before Dr. Gopalan and 83 years before I received my doctorate from an American university, there was a Miss. K. Tulaskar, an Indian graduate student at UC Berkeley, who in a 1915 article titled, Why Should Hindu Girls Go to America described what drew her to the U.S.: the broadening of the mind through travel and education, and the fluidity of the American education system that encouraged flexibility and experimentation as opposed to rigid doctrines.This is what had attracted international students like Shyamala Gopalan and remains true for the over 1 million international students who study in the U.S. today.

The similar journeys to America but the different outcomes for the senior Obama, Gopalan, and the Mboyas also underscore the importance of international students whether they stay on in the U.S. and become valuable immigrants, or return to their home countries and become cultural ambassadors for the U.S., widening America’s influence and helping build bridges. By remaining in the U.S. Dr. Gopalan contributed to ground-breaking research on breast cancer, one among many immigrants who today constitute half of the doctoral-level science workforce in the U.S. and are indispensable to U.S.science and innovation. As Kamala Harris said in her 2020 victory speech upon becoming Vice President: America is a “…country of possibility,” words that inspired the sub-title of my book.

Read & Listen!

Episode 43: Four African Students, MIT, and dreams of a Made-in-America degree: Arthur Musah on his new film, Brief Tender Light

Episode 44: The trifecta of being a Black, Undocumented, and Immigrant Student: Dr. Felecia Russell on her new book

Check out all episodes of the World Wise podcast on Spotify, Apple or on my website, or wherever you get your podcasts!

On the Road…Events, Talks & Workshops

In June I was invited back a second time by Yale University’s Office of International Students and Scholars, this time around to do a workshop on Diversity Equity Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) issues for a campus-wide global division whose work touches international students, international scholars, and other newcomers to the campus from other countries.

In early August I joined the Rutgers Global team at their annual retreat to talk about the intersecting areas of international higher education and current trends. Rutgers University has always been a leader in the internationalization space and it was a great learning opportunity for me as well.

Connect with us if you’d like to learn more about hosting a workshop or talk on your campus!

CLIENT & PARTNER SPOTLIGHT!

I’m delighted that my firm, Rajika Bhandari Advisors, has the opportunity to partner with a wide range of mission-driven organizations and institutions in the field of international education. In each newsletter issue, I will be featuring one of our clients and partners, and our work with them. This month, it’s the Alliance for International Exchange, the collective public policy voice of the exchange community in the U.S. We are privileged to have the opportunity to implement a large-scale impact study of the alumni and hosts/employers of four significant J-1 exchange programs: Au Pair; Camp Counselor; Summer Work Travel, and Intern and Trainee. Stay tuned as we begin to release findings from this important study in the fall!

VOTE FOR MY SXSW EDU 2025 PANEL!

I’m thrilled to be partnering with Dr. Andrea Golato, Dean of the Graduate College at Texas State University, on a proposed panel at next year’s SXSW EDU conference. Panels are picked on the basis of votes (among other criteria). Could you do me a favor and please take a minute to vote for my panel titled America Calling: The Impact of Global Higher Education?

VOTE HERE!

Get your copy of America Calling

Amazon U.S.

Amazon India

Barnes & Noble

Signed copies (for sale in the U.S. only)

Episode Themes:

• Felecia’s journey from Jamaica to Los Angeles, and eventually discovering that she was undocumented.

• Experiences of black undocumented students in the US, their feelings of invisibility and the interplay of race and immigrant status.   

• What Felecia learned from interviewing other Black undocumented students for her book.

• Black immigrant identity and the Black diaspora in the U.S.

• Felecia’s experience with writing a book that is both research and a personal narrative.

• Advocacy for undocumented black students. What can campuses do to support Black undocumented students?

• Felecia’s advice for young, undocumented Black students today.

Episode Resources:

• Follow ⁠⁠Felecia on LinkedIn

• Check out Felecia’s new book and the recording from the book launch

• Learn more about Embracing Undocumented

• Learn more about the Presidents’ Alliance and its resources

• Listen to episode 32 with Dip Patel

• My book:  ⁠⁠America Calling: A Foreign Student in a Country of Possibility

• Sign up for ⁠⁠America Calling: my take on the intersection of education, culture and migration⁠⁠

• Connect with me: ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠, ⁠Instagram

Episode themes:

• Arthur’s vision for Brief Tender Light and why it is a film that tells a “modern African story”

• Arthur’s family's history of studying abroad and how mobility patterns and the African diaspora have shifted over time

• The film’s themes of youthful idealism and the sense of responsibility that international students carry with them, and how this evolves as they navigate their journeys as immigrants

• How African international students navigate race and their own identities in the U.S.

• How we change once we leave home and how the experience of studying abroad is both about learning, unlearning, and re-learning

• The distance from home, the overwhelming disconnection, and the emotional, social, and psychological toll that international students pay in exchange for pursuing their American Dream and how this affects their mental health and well-being 

• Arthur’s journey from being an engineering student to becoming an artist and filmmaker.

• With almost half the world’s young talent coming from Africa by 2030, what Arthur wants American colleges and universities to take away from his film.

Episode Resources

• Learn about the PBS release of Brief Tender Light

• Follow ⁠⁠Arthur and his film company on LinkedIn, X and Instagram 

• Listen to these episodes about Africa and African students, and about film-making: episode 7; episode 13; episode 27; and episode 10 

• My book:  ⁠⁠America Calling: A Foreign Student in a Country of Possibility

• Sign up for ⁠⁠America Calling: my take on the intersection of education, culture and migration⁠⁠

• Connect with me: ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠, ⁠Instagram
  

Episode Themes:

• Zubaida’s journey as a first-generation college student in India to becoming an international student 

• How Zubaida’s international education experience in Sweden and the US transformed her and her thinking around women’s health issues

• Connecting the dots between engineering and social entrepreneurship

• What Zubaida’s leadership of the Grameen Foundation and her hopes for leading the organization into its next 25 years and beyond

• In addition to health, what are the most pressing issues that we need to address when it comes to girls and women in Global South countries?

• Zubaida’s views on the current global situation around women’s reproductive rights

• Zubaid’s experiences as a woman leader from the Global South and her advice for young women embarking on the path of social entrepreneurship and who want to create social impact

Episode Resources:

• Follow ⁠⁠Zubaida on LinkedIn 

• Listen to Zubaida’s TED Talk here.

• My book:  ⁠⁠America Calling: A Foreign Student in a Country of Possibility

• Sign up for ⁠⁠America Calling: my take on the intersection of education, culture and migration⁠⁠

• Connect with me: ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠, ⁠⁠X⁠⁠, ⁠Instagram

Episode Themes:

• Rohit’s own journey of taking ETS tests when coming to the U.S. to study and now coming full circle to work for the world’s largest testing and assessment organization

• Why ETS is focused on keeping the door open to international students in the U.S.

• How ETS ensures that its tests are fair, unbiased, and culturally sensitive for test-takers from diverse backgrounds

• ETS’s new focus on  upskilling and reskilling adults and why it matters

• How AI will affect the future of testing and assessment

• When it comes to higher education or jobs, what excites Rohit the most about this particular moment in time

Episode Resources:

• Follow ⁠Rohit⁠ on LinkedIn

• Check out MPOWER Financing's ⁠Social Impact Report⁠

• My book:  ⁠America Calling: A Foreign Student in a Country of Possibilit⁠y

• Sign up for ⁠America Calling: my take on the intersection of education, culture and migration⁠

• Connect with me: ⁠LinkedIn⁠, ⁠Twitter⁠, Instagram

Episode sponsor:

This episode was made possible by the generous support of ⁠MPOWER Financing⁠ which provides no-cosigner loans and scholarships for international, DACA, and refugee students. Headquartered in Washington DC, MPOWER has to date helped tens of thousands of students fund their educational dreams and journeys.

This episode’s guest is Parimala (“Pari”) Lennartz, VP of Engineering at MPOWER Financing which is also the generous sponsor of this episode. Pari is a widely recognized woman leader in the Financial Technology (Fintech) industry, was recently named to a list of top women in the Fintech industry by The Fintech Times, and is also a vocal advocate for increasing the number of girls and women who pursue STEM fields.

Episode themes:

• Pari’s personal and professional journey as a STEM student in India, to coming to the U.S. as an international student, and to eventually becoming the VP of Engineering at a major Fintech firm

• The persistent “leaky pipeline” due to which women continue to drop out of engineering education and careers

• How MPOWER’s loan model is having a unique impact on female international students from Global South countries

• When it comes to STEM education and careers, do women in emerging markets or Global South countries face more challenges than their counterparts in the U.S.?

• As a top woman leader in the Fintech industry, what Pari is doing to advance gender parity in STEM, and her excellent educational and professional advice for girls and women who dream of being scientists and engineers

Episode Resources:

• Follow Pari and MPOWER Financing on LinkedIn

• Read Pari’s op-ed in CEO World Magazine

• Listen to Episode 12 with Gloria Blackwell of AAUW and Episode 14 with Fereshteh Forough of Code to Inspire

• Check out MPOWER Financing's Social Impact Report

• My book:  America Calling: A Foreign Student in a Country of Possibility

• Sign up for America Calling: my take on the intersection of education, culture and migration

• Connect with me: LinkedIn, Twitter

Episode sponsor:

This episode was made possible by the generous support of MPOWER Financing which provides no-cosigner loans and scholarships for international, DACA, and refugee students. Headquartered in Washington DC, MPOWER has to date helped tens of thousands of students fund their educational dreams and journeys.

Episode Themes:

• The journey between Berkeley and Seoul and how these two cities figured in Stephanie's journey as a scholar of student mobility

• How Stephanie's new book, Constructing Student Mobility: How Universities Recruit Students and Shape Pathways Between Berkeley and Seoul, offers a new angle to the burgeoning field of student mobility research

• Stephanie's journey as an author and on navigating the publishing journey

• Understanding Korean international students--the third largest group of international students in the U.S.--and how their interests have evolved over time and how the pursuit of a global education begins early for many Korean students and families.

• How Stephanie's personal journey as a Korean American has shaped the work that she does as a scholar and researcher of student mobility

Episode Resources:

Follow Stephanie on Twitter and LinkedIn

Listen to Episode 24 with Professor Yingyi Ma

Check out MPOWER Financing's Social Impact Report

My book:  America Calling: A Foreign Student in a Country of Possibility

Sign up for America Calling: my take on the intersection of education, culture and migration

Connect with me: LinkedIn, Twitter

Episode sponsor:

This episode was made possible by the generous support of MPOWER Financing which provides no-cosigner loans and scholarships for international, DACA, and refugee students. Headquartered in Washington DC, MPOWER has to date helped tens of thousands of students fund their educational dreams and journeys.

Episode Themes:

• Mike’s early global personal and educational journey and what sparked his interest in dabbling in entrepreneurial projects.

• Mike’s reflections on his transformational educational journey at INSEAD in France

• Why Mike has been inspired to found companies like MPOWER and Olive Tree Ridge

• Opportunities and barriers for immigrant and women entrepreneurs in the U.S.

• Why immigrants make for great entrepreneurs and why so many businesses are immigrant-owned

• Mike’s top advice for immigrant entrepreneurs

Episode Resources:

Mike's interview in Authority Magazine

Follow Mike on Twitter and LinkedIn

Listen to Episode 19 with Ronit Avni

Check out MPOWER Financing's Social Impact Report

My book:  America Calling: A Foreign Student in a Country of Possibility

Sign up for America Calling: my take on the intersection of education, culture and migration

Connect with me: LinkedIn, Twitter

Episode sponsor:

This episode was made possible by the generous support of MPOWER Financing which provides no-cosigner loans and scholarships for international, DACA, and refugee students. Headquartered in Washington DC, MPOWER has to date helped tens of thousands of students fund their educational dreams and journeys.

It’s Asian American Heritage Month in the U.S. and this past week I launched SouthAsia-IEN, the South Asia International Education Network.

If you’ve been reading this newsletter for a while and if you’ve read my book, America Calling, then you know that I spend a lot of time thinking about my status as an immigrant and my place as one speck in the vast Indian diaspora that cuts across every continent—it is believed that every sixth person in the world is of Indian origin (or perhaps this is an urban myth)! Ever since it became clear to me that the U.S. would be my home, accompanying this realization was the desire to give back in some way to my country of origin, to stay connected, while at the same time contributing as a good citizen in one’s newfound home.

As my work in international higher education continued to expand over the past two decades, it became increasingly clear to me that our colleges and universities are the obvious conduit for immigrant diasporas to share knowledge and engage with their ancestral home—a “giving back” but also re-engaging and staying in touch. With South Asians now constituting one of the fastest-growing immigrant groups in the U.S., the presence of those of South Asian heritage on our campuses is everywhere—from the 200,000+ international students from South Asian countries, to first- and second-generation South Asian immigrant students, to the thousands of faculty and administrators, to the growing numbers of presidents and chancellors who now lead U.S. institutions. An increasing number of leaders of nonprofits, think tanks, and companies that work alongside U.S. colleges and universities are also of South Asian origin. As the South Asian diaspora has grown, so have the economies and populations of our home region. The higher education sectors of many South Asian countries are expanding rapidly, with bold and innovative strategies to be global and world-class.

But while we have organizations that connect journalists, lawyers, artists, and grassroots advocates across the South Asian diaspora in the U.S., to date no network or organization has tapped into the growing collective power of those whose work in higher education connects them to South Asia. It was with this vision of connecting back to our countries of origin, but also connecting across the U.S. that the idea of SouthAsia-IEN was born. The South Asia International Education Network (SouthAsia-IEN) brings together leaders, practitioners, scholars, and entrepreneurs in the U.S. higher education space whose origins and/or work touch upon the countries of South Asia.

My co-founder in this effort is Dr. Uttiyo Raychaudhuri, Vice Provost for Internationalization at the University of Denver (pictured here at an event at DU at which I spoke), and a seasoned campus leader in internationalization efforts at other campuses such as Cornell, Clemson, and the University of Georgia. We began to talk about this idea over a coffee at a conference in mid-February in Washington DC and exactly three months later, SouthAsia-IEN was launched.

The reception has been tremendous: our inbox has quickly filled up with requests to connect and learn more about SouthAsia-IEN, both by those of South Asian origin but also by those whose work relates to South Asia. SouthAsia-IEN is not limited to those of South Asian heritage. Rather, we recognize the extensive engagement in South Asia by a large number of scholars and practitioners who themselves may or may not be of South Asian heritage.

You might ask, “Why South Asian and why not just Indian?”

After all, Uttiyo and I are both of Indian origin and—just in terms of sheer numbers and representation—India often dwarfs any conversation about South Asia. One of our early advisors—a seasoned university leader in the U.S. and India—pushed us to think hard about this: Could we realistically have representation from South Asian countries, or would this simply turn into yet another token effort where we call ourselves “South Asian” but are mostly focused on India?

We went back to the drawing board to reconsider this…

…but came back with a renewed commitment to our original vision that this effort is about South Asia. We aim to be inclusive, recognizing the wide and deep historical, geographical, and cultural connections between the countries of South Asia, and across the widespread South Asian diaspora. For many South Asians their family’s history cuts across different countries in the region, all of which were cleaved from a more singular identity and culture through a series of wars and ruptures. This was true for my family as well, one half of which was originally from what became Pakistan.

Yet in our day-to-day lives, particularly as part of a large diaspora here in the U.S., we are more connected than different.

I think this resonates with our colleagues. I’m thrilled that our launch meeting in DC next week, taking place on the fringes of the annual NAFSA conference, has attendees whose heritage and/or work cuts across Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and, of course, the U.S.

So what will SouthAsian-IEN be all about? This idea is still taking shape, but we imagine that it will cut across four areas:

• Peer-to-peer networking

• Higher education partnerships

• Educational diplomacy

• Mentoring and professional development

I’m excited yet nervous about our new endeavor!

If you’d like to learn more and would like to connect, please write to us at: connect@southasia-ien.org or you can write to me here with your thoughts. We also invite you to subscribe through our website to receive exciting updates as this idea takes shape and develops. And if you know someone who you think should be involved, please share this with them.

And last but not the least, we need your support, so if you have ideas on how to grow and sustain SouthAsia-IEN, please get in touch.

Stunning Statistic!

Did you know that…

With almost half of its population of 1.8 billion below the age of 24, led by India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, South Asia will have the largest youth labour force in the world until 2040, which also means that this region will have some of the largest demand for a college education (source: UNICEF).

May is graduation time in the U.S.

This year I had the huge honor and privilege of addressing graduates at the Kean University 2023 Honors Convocation. Through the process, I also learned much about Kean, including that it is the only U.S. public university to offer a full campus in China; that it is a top-ranked institution for the social mobility and diversity of its students; and, it was the first public post-secondary institution in NJ. As an immigrant myself, it was also special to be with Kean students and their families during graduation as a third of the area's population is foreign-born. Earlier in the day I also had the opportunity to speak with senior leaders at Kean about the takeaways from my book and my work with international students. 𝐋𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐨/𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐲 below (my remarks begin at 33:50 mins)

Listen: Asia & Asian Americans on the World Wise Podcast!

In honor of all things Asian this month, I’m highlighting World Wise Podcast episodes whose guests include individuals of Asian American and Pacific Islander descent or whose work involves the Asian American diaspora. These thought-provoking conversations are a must-listen!
Episode 23: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐀𝐬𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐀𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚: Neil Ruiz 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 Pew Research Center
Episode 24: 𝐃𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬? 𝐀 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐫 Yingyi Ma of Syracuse University
Episode 20: 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐠𝐞𝐬 𝐁𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔.𝐒. 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐚, 𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐚𝐭 𝐚 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞: Author Dori Jones Yang
Episode 2: 𝐀 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐌𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐁𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: Vishakha N. Desai

Listen to the entire podcast on Apple, Spotify, on my website, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Where to buy America Calling

Amazon U.S.

Amazon India

Barnes & Noble

Signed copies (for sale in the U.S. only)