A Global, Hopeful Mindset in 2022

As international educators, our mission is to create international learning opportunities that help students gain a global mindset or perspective. Despite the pandemic wreaking havoc on our field, I am optimistic because of what I see in the students and faculty at my college and from what I hear from my colleagues at other institutions. I know that international education will not only survive, but thrive as we move into 2022 and beyond.

Challenges Highlighted Our Resilience

Prior to the onset of the pandemic, Miami Dade College (MDC) was the top two-year institution in Florida in sending students to study abroad and number 5 in the nation. We serve one of the most diverse student populations in the United States: 57 percent are first-generation college students, 67 percent are from low-income families, and 47 percent live below the poverty level.

With the challenges our student population faces, it has taken years of commitment and dedication from the college’s faculty, administrators, and staff to get 250 of our students to study abroad in 2019. COVID quickly tested our commitment by forcing the unit to cancel all of the study abroad programs, putting at risk our ability to offer students the life-changing opportunity of learning and living in a culture other than their own.

Despite the many difficulties facing the field of international education since the pandemic began, 2021 has allowed us international educators to flex the professional skills we are known to have: resiliency, flexibility, adaptability, problem-solving, and empathy—all skills that