Cultural Humility for Student Affairs Professionals

Preparing student affairs and international education professionals to support international students may seem daunting considering the cultural diversity of the international student population in the United States. However, one does not necessarily need to be an expert on international students to support them, nor do they need to have had extensive intercultural experiences to appear competent when working with students from various cultural backgrounds. Cultural humility, the process of understanding others by first critically examining our own beliefs and identities, is core to the student affairs ethos. This chapter posits that training staff to approach situations through a lens of cultural humility can be an effective way to prepare student affairs and international education professionals for working with international students.