Magnifying the importance of creating connections to be successful in different verticals - Interview with Amanda Hager

The journey from being a student to becoming an International admissions counselor has been a thrilling experience

My name is Amanda Hager, and I am the International Admissions Counselor at the University of St. Thomas in Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA. I began as a graduate assistant in the Office of International Students and Scholars (OISS) in 2017 and worked there while I completed my master’s degree in Student Affairs Leadership. Once I completed my Master’s in May 2019, I was hired full time at OISS as an international admissions counselor. I am thrilled to work at St. Thomas because the international student community is amazing and has made me love my job so much.

Our Stem programs are highly accredited and provide international students with hands-on learning experiences

The University of St. Thomas is a Private, Liberal Arts university with strong science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) programs. We often highlight the STEM programs as they are highly accredited and provide international students with hands-on learning opportunities that they can apply to their three-year Optional Practical Training (OPT) with the STEM extension. Our Engineering program is ranked #38 in the U.S. and is ABET accredited with 1 in 7 of our undergraduate students being Engineering majors. Our Actuarial Science program is one of only 33 schools in the world that is distinguished as a Center for Actuarial Excellence.

Indian students experience the combination of practical and theoretical knowledge differently from India

The combination of theoretical and practical knowledge is the foremost difference that makes the U.S different from that of India. Students often have more informal relationships with their professors, even calling them by their first name. Students widely use office hours to ask questions and connect with their professors. This implies that students have opportunities to potentially be invited to the professor's homes for holidays or complete paid research jobs with them. Often in the U.S., especially at large universities, professors focus their attention on research and utilize graduate students for those research opportunities. However, at St. Thomas, professors are evaluated both on their contribution to research and their teaching ability. Additionally, St. Thomas is an undergraduate-focused institution and students can access research opportunities starting from the first year of their undergraduate degree. These research opportunities, with highly qualified professors, help students to be better prepared for graduate school and the workforce once they graduate.

We have introduced changes in our curriculum to better understand and meet the requirements of the students

The classes are taught by professors and not by graduate students. This helps students to learn from the best-seasoned professionals. Additionally, we have brought changes in our curriculum to better understand and meet the requirement of the students.The curriculum now includes a capstone research project that all students complete, more flexibility to take elective courses that support their major, and a tuition model that allow students to take additional credits to complete a second major or minor for no additional cost. This new curriculum model also incorporates learning inside and outside the classroom by including Living Learning Communities (LLCs) and Theme-Based Learning Communities (TBLC) in the residence halls where students choose to live near or with other students with similar interests and courses based on those interests.

The university is aiming to work on specific efforts focussing on diversity, equity, and inclusion

The University of St. Thomas is aiming to work on specific efforts focussing on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Each department/office has a group of faculty and staff leading their growth in diversity, equity, and inclusion. Students on-campus are extremely involved in these efforts as they have requested and received a brand-new Intercultural Center. Additionally, the new core curriculum includes sections on globalization, diversity, equity, and inclusion in the required first-year experience course. As a part of the new core curriculum, students must fulfill a global education requirement by taking a course that meets global learning objectives. I believe that our international community is extremely welcoming, and as a University, we are always growing, learning, and supporting one another in that process.

The International One Year program is an entry ticket to the students with Low GPA or Low English proficiency scores

The International Year One (IYI) (formerly called ‘Pathway’) program is an entrance to the University of St. Thomas for the students with a slightly low GPA or low English proficiency scores. IY1 students receive a St. Thomas I-20, which helps with the visa process as well as the full support of both the University of St. Thomas and ELS since they are partners in the IY1 program. Additionally, IY1 students receive the guidance of a dedicated staff member, the International Year One Student Success Coordinator.The Student Success Coordinator works individually with each IY1 student as well as the group of IY1 students to ensure students are connected to resources on campus and succeeding academically. The IY1 program provides students with all the credits they need in their first year with a combination of English for Academic purpose courses and courses that are required to graduate (known as general education courses, or core courses at St. Thomas). These are the same courses all first-year students at St. Thomas will take and some of the courses IY1 students take will be in a cohort, while others are integrated with the rest of the St. Thomas population.

Universities should focus on helping Indian students understand the different options to help them make righteous decisions

I firmly believe that universities need to focus on helping Indian students understand and explore the different options they have for the types of universities (private, public) they can attend. Also, how that choice can help them find the right “fit” of a university that offers different opportunities to gain learning inside and outside the classroom- including internship and job opportunities. The universities should shift their focus on individualized, personal attention. St. Thomas offers personalized support, small class sizes, and classes only taught by professors (not graduate students) to provide better learning, networking, and growth opportunities that prepare students for the next step in their lives. I believe that all universities should focus their efforts on creating this level of personalized support for Indian students over the next 10 years.

The vision was to connect future incoming students with the current students at the campus

When I commenced my journey, the vision was to connect the current students with future incoming students. To make the vision come true, I created the International Student Ambassadors, and I am very pleased with how it has evolved over the last few years where we can see the impact of students who were called and emailed by Ambassadors. Incoming St. Thomas students have begun immediately expressing that the Ambassador made a big impact on them and their choice to attend St. Thomas, and now they too want to be an Ambassador to help other incoming international students. This commitment to creating a positive experience for incoming students speaks to the type of community we have at St. Thomas.

We make sure our future students interact with the current students to understand the University better

Community and campus culture are extremely important to a student’s academic and success. It is often difficult to understand from a website. The University of St. Thomas has an amazing international community that strongly contributes to the reason I work there. When international students arrive, they are greeted by the community through a series of outreach events both from our Office of International Student Services and by the university as a whole and students’ specific programs. We have over 140 clubs on campus, many of which are based on students’ culture. It is these cultural clubs that put on the large cultural dinners that mostly occur in the Spring semester. These dinners are a celebration and reflection of the different cultures present on our campus and in our community.

The other piece of advice I always give prospective students is to learn more about a University. Students should ask to talk to a current international student. At the University of St. Thomas, we have International Student Ambassadors who volunteer to connect with incoming students and also are present throughout orientation to help new international students with their transition. Prospective students can connect with current students by asking either by email or by writing us on social media

The way all students are treated equally makes the university a pleasant stay

As I mentioned before, the University of St. Thomas is focused on personalized attention. This strong emphasis on personalized attention stems from St. Thomas’ seven convictions. The seven convictions can be seen are:

• Pursuit of truth
• Academic Excellence
• Faith and Reason
• Dignity
• Diversity
• Personal Attention
• Gratitude

Some of these seven convictions have roots in the Catholic tradition, but what makes it wonderful is that the University of St. Thomas welcomes all students with open arms from a faith background or no faith background. This forms a great strength of pillar, as students feel welcomed and celebrated. Personalized attention is seen in conjunction with academic excellence as all our classes are taught by professors with an average class size of 21. This means that students will all be well-known by their professors and be able to take advantage of the networking, internship, research, and learning opportunities that come with personalized attention from faculty. It is this personalized attention and academic excellence that contributes to our ranking as the best university in Minnesota for employment.

The university is under an amazing growth phase at present, and with several exciting events the intake is bound to increase

The University of St. Thomas is actually under an amazing phase of growth right now. We have had several exciting new events happen recently that will increase student intake in the next few years and provide a great experience for the current students as well.

• • International Year One (IY1). The University of St. Thomas has partnered with ELS to create an International Year One (IY1) program (formerly called “Pathway”). This program is designed to provide students who previously would not have qualified to enter St. Thomas due to lower GPA or English proficiency, to start their 4-year degree at St. Thomas with their first year being a part of the IY1 program and receiving additional academic support and English courses.
  • Morrison College of Health. We are currently building a new Morrison College of Health which will consist of our social work program, psychology program and will be home of our new nursing program that is currently being built.
  • Division 1. The University of St. Thomas is currently a Division III school for athletics but has been invited to join Division I conferences and is currently waiting for final approval from the NCAA to make the move to Division I. We are very excited about this opportunity and know it will bring increased attention to St. Thomas.

• New Residence Halls. The University of St. Thomas is currently building two new residence halls that will be open Fall 2020.

For the students enrolling now, we have a huge influx of Indian students to take admission

I am the in-charge of UG programs. Thus, I have specific data on UG applicants. For the current students enrolling in our university, we have 97 Indian students, which is the second-largest international population at 18% of our total international student population (both UG and PG). For Fall 2020 UG admissions, about 6% of our applicants are from India. For Fall 2020 PG admissions, there are 45 students from India in the application process. The application cycle for PG tends to also come later, typically after April.

The Career Development Center helps guide the students in their job search and internship process

In the U.S., students do not get placed in internships or jobs, but do receive the full support of the Career Development Center. At St. Thomas, 66% of UG students complete at least one internship and 94% of UG students are either employed or in graduate school six months after graduation. Where St. Thomas is located, the Twin Cities, is the second highest concentration of colleges and universities in the US, and out of a very crowded area, St. Thomas has the highest rate of employment for students in the state. The Career Development Center works very hard to help guide students in their internship and job search process. They conduct mock interviews, resume workshops, individual appointments, career fairs, and reverse career fairs. They also partner with our Office of International Students and Services (OISS) to have a graduate-focused alumni panel for international alumni who are employed in the area to come and do a panel and networking session with current international students.

We are proud to be recognized as one of the high ranking universities

The University of St. Thomas is a research institution that is ranked #139 nationally with the UG Engineering program ranking #38 nationally and the business program ranking #147. Our Actuarial Science program is one of only 33 internationally recognized Centers for Actuarial Excellence. These programs tend to be very popular with international students as well as our many liberal arts and computer and natural science programs due to the amount of hands-on experience and research opportunities students receive. While rankings do not reflect everything about a University, there are over 2,500 four-year universities in the U.S. and we are proud to be recognized with such high rankings as it reflects the strong reputation we have in Minnesota and throughout the United States.

We understand that every possible situation must be looked carefully and providing students with options is pivotal

At present, we are hoping that by Fall 2020 the COVID19 crisis dissolves, and students can attend St. Thomas normally. However, we understand that every scenario must be looked at to provide options for students. There can be a situation where there are chances of visa delays. Our university’s emergency response team is currently running every scenario possible for Fall 2020. I expect St. Thomas will release more information about Fall 2020 in May because that is the time when our current stay-at-home order is set to expire (it could be extended through).

Minnesota as a state is doing extremely well at staying home and therefore, we have very few cases than other states and expect to recover quickly due to the state’s efforts.As of now, if there are COVID19 related delays, we are offering students the option to defer to Spring 2021 (arriving at the end of January instead of the end of August) in order to accommodate any delays due to COVID19. We are determined to help all our incoming students make plans that consider their current situation and are happy to help answer any questions regarding their personal plans for Fall 2020

With the on-going pandemic we have moved our spring and summer semester coursework online

Currently, the University of St. Thomas has moved all Spring and Summer semester coursework online. We are planning for Fall semester, depending on the situation in the U.S. We are hoping to conduct offline classes in September. Also, we are making preparations for any potential scenario for Fall 2020.