Inaugural International Student Conference Focuses on Creation of National Organization

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Nearly 80 international students attended the first national conference of international student organiations

When Danilo Tchoupe was elected president of the International Students Organization at the University of Arkansas last spring, he had a goal to develop connections with international university students across the United States.

By the fall, Tchoupe and three international students from other campuses set their sights on hosting the first national conference of international student organizations. Everyone told them it was a good idea but it would be a lot of hard work.

“I don’t like someone telling me, ‘This is too much,’” said Tchoupe, who is from Cameroon. “I like to go for it. This was my dream. I just had faith that I could get this going.”

Their dream became a reality this month when student delegates representing almost 40 colleges and universities came to Fayetteville to attend the inaugural conference of international student organizations. The student-run event was held March 15-17 on the U of A campus and featured speakers, planning sessions and presentations, all with a goal to bring together different ideas for programs and activities for international students.

Tchoupe, who will graduate in May with a bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture, planned for a gathering of 50 attendees, but the conference drew nearly 80 from 21 states.

“When Danilo called me to tell me about this conference, I thought it was a tremendous idea,” University of Arkansas Chancellor G. David Gearhart said in his remarks to the group the morning of March 16.

“Our international students are an extremely important part of our campus community,” Gearhart said. “They attend classes and enrich class discussions. They frequently teach classes, too, and they also conduct groundbreaking research as graduate students and postdoctoral students. They share different values, ideas, cultures, and practices with our campus community, and they make it a better place to study and learn about the world.

“I’m proud of the fact that we have almost 1,300 international students from 121 countries at the University of Arkansas, in addition to another 300 visiting researchers and professors,” he said.

A mission of the conference was to gain momentum for establishing the United States Association of International Students’ Organization. According to the conference organizers, the association will “facilitate the networking between organizations, giving them an opportunity to learn from each other.” It will also “promote diversity and cultural awareness and advocate on issues that international students may be facing on a local and national level.”

The ideas for the conference and the association came after long conversations and meetings between international students Tchoupe, Leiya Watanabe at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, Eleni Christou at the University of Florida and Martha G. Vargas Bogliani at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York.

Bogliani traveled two days by car to attend the conference. She said the conference was not an isolated event, rather the “start of something much greater.”

“I believe in the possibility of achieving global mutual understanding and think that we, as international students, have the power and responsibility to help promote this value,” she said. “My hope is that students like the ones who attended this conference will continue to put their minds and hands together to make something bigger — eventually becoming an international organization in itself.”

Michael Freeman, director of the office of international students and scholars at the University of Arkansas, said he was “thrilled” by how the students organized the conference.

“The leaders representing their institutions were engaged in the process and were enthusiastic about the possibility of being founding members of a national organization that would serve future international students,” he said. “The committee created a national conference that, as a byproduct, highlighted the role of the University of Arkansas and the state of Arkansas in the advancement of international education in the United States. The participants left the conference with a positive impression of the school and the state.”

Mohamed Boudhoum, a graduate student at the U of A who served on the conference planning committee, said the next steps toward founding the national association are to complete the legal paperwork and ratify a constitution.

The hope is to establish the association within the next six months, he said, adding that there are already plans underway for the second national conference in spring 2014.

Major universities were represented at the conference, such as Indiana University, Texas A&M, Iowa State, Purdue, and the universities of Maryland and South Carolina. The University of Arkansas at Little Rock had a delegation. So did the University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Louisiana State.

Boudhoum, who is from Morocco, said he was impressed by the breadth and depth of programming for international students on other campuses.

“A goal was to connect different international student organizations; see what they do on their campuses and exchange ideas,” Boudhoum said. “We saw that a lot of people around the country are doing some great things. We feel like the students really enjoyed those sessions and the interaction.”

The U of A offices of international students and scholars, chancellor, international recruitment and admissions, and student affairs, along with the university’s Spring International Language Center and Center for Multicultural and Diversity Education, provided financial support for the conference.

The local chapters of Christ on Campus, Chi Alpha campus ministries and Baptist Collegiate Ministry also were supporters. InternshipDesk, an international career development company, and NAFSA: Association of International Educators, also provided funding.