International students are a significant and rapidly growing sub-population of students on higher education campuses, and they present a unique opportunity for campus recreation centers to benefit from their cultural, linguistic, and experiential diversities.
In my work at the University of Central Florida’s Recreation and Wellness Center (RWC), and with the support of the RWC’s Executive Director James Wilkening and professional staff members Sarah Hunt and Valerie Reed, I conducted research to look more closely at this important segment of the student population. The research helped me generate strategies to increase participation of international students as patrons and as student employees at campus recreation centers.
My research results were taken from an October 2016 survey that I designed and distributed to international students both online and at the UCF Global Building with the support of Nicole Ianieri; 155 international students participated and shared their valuable insights.
I had the opportunity to present this work at the 2016 NIRSA Region II Conference in Atlanta. That presentation received such a positive response that it was further selected as one of the featured regional educational sessions at the 2017 NIRSA Annual Conference in National Harbor, MD. The enthusiastic response from my NIRSA peers at each of these sessions inspired UCF RWC to share this work further through this infographic.
The biggest surprise in this research came from the results to the survey question on “factors inhibiting participation” of international students in campus recreation. I thought that “language barrier” or “cultural differences” would appear at the top of the list; however, neither of those ranked as the top inhibitory factors. Instead, issues such as “need a workout buddy” and “unaware of the rec facilities” were most reported. The good news about those factors is that they are addressable issues and can be solved at any campus recreation facility that seeks to reach out to and welcome more international students!
Swaran Nandini is currently a Recreation and Wellness Center Group Exercise Instructor and Diversity Committee Member at the University of Central Florida.
