The population of international students at community colleges in the United States has increased significantly over the past decade. International students play a big role in building the cultural diversity on campus by bringing over different cultures and sharing their global perspective to the local community. However, they often face challenges adapting into American culture due to cultural differences in education system, language, lifestyle, etc. By looking into the acculturation process of international students to analyze the culture shock and cultural identity changes they experienced, this paper intends to seek ways to help this group of students to ease their acculturative stress and to maximize their study abroad experience. Two focus groups with a total of eight international students were held at a community college in California to gather ideas, opinions, and stories about their college life in the United States surrounding the topic of acculturation, culture shock, and self-identity. Results from our participants indicated that international students experience significant changes in everyday life and various level of culture shock. The results are greatly depending on the students’ personality and social support network. At the same time, results also suggested that the acculturation experience would strengthen international students’ cultural identities provided with a supportive multicultural learning environment. The acculturation experience is both bitter and sweet giving students acculturative stress yet an eye-opening global adventure.
","abstract_html":"<p>The population of international students at community colleges in the United States has increased significantly over the past decade. International students play a big role in building the cultural diversity on campus by bringing over different cultures and sharing their global perspective to the local community. However, they often face challenges adapting into American culture due to cultural differences in education system, language, lifestyle, etc. By looking into the acculturation process of international students to analyze the culture shock and cultural identity changes they experienced, this paper intends to seek ways to help this group of students to ease their acculturative stress and to maximize their study abroad experience. Two focus groups with a total of eight international students were held at a community college in California to gather ideas, opinions, and stories about their college life in the United States surrounding the topic of acculturation, culture shock, and self-identity. Results from our participants indicated that international students experience significant changes in everyday life and various level of culture shock. The results are greatly depending on the students’ personality and social support network. At the same time, results also suggested that the acculturation experience would strengthen international students’ cultural identities provided with a supportive multicultural learning environment. The acculturation experience is both bitter and sweet giving students acculturative stress yet an eye-opening global adventure.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Lam, Lai Yan Vivyan"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Arts in International and Multicultural Education (IME)","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"International and Multicultural Education (IME)","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Dr. Melissa Ann Canlas"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2017,"date_issued":"2017-12-15T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2017-12-15T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:44:20Z","subjects":["acculturation","acculturative stress","culture shock","identity transformation","California","community college","Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education","Critical and Cultural Studies","Higher Education","International and Comparative Education","International and Intercultural Communication","Multicultural Psychology","Other Education","Other Social and Behavioral Sciences","Race and Ethnicity","Social and Cultural Anthropology","Sociology of Culture"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://repository.usfca.edu/thes/261","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Dr. Melissa Ann Canlas"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Lam, Lai Yan Vivyan"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2017-12-18T08:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["International and Multicultural Education (IME)"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts in International and Multicultural Education (IME)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["acculturation","acculturative stress","culture shock","identity transformation","California","community college","Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education","Critical and Cultural Studies","Higher Education","International and Comparative Education","International and Intercultural Communication","Multicultural Psychology","Other Education","Other Social and Behavioral Sciences","Race and Ethnicity","Social and Cultural Anthropology","Sociology of Culture"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://repository.usfca.edu/thes/261"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["The population of international students at community colleges in the United States has increased significantly over the past decade. International students play a big role in building the cultural diversity on campus by bringing over different cultures and sharing their global perspective to the local community. However, they often face challenges adapting into American culture due to cultural differences in education system, language, lifestyle, etc. By looking into the acculturation process of international students to analyze the culture shock and cultural identity changes they experienced, this paper intends to seek ways to help this group of students to ease their acculturative stress and to maximize their study abroad experience. Two focus groups with a total of eight international students were held at a community college in California to gather ideas, opinions, and stories about their college life in the United States surrounding the topic of acculturation, culture shock, and self-identity. Results from our participants indicated that international students experience significant changes in everyday life and various level of culture shock. The results are greatly depending on the students’ personality and social support network. At the same time, results also suggested that the acculturation experience would strengthen international students’ cultural identities provided with a supportive multicultural learning environment. The acculturation experience is both bitter and sweet giving students acculturative stress yet an eye-opening global adventure.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Life being an International Student in the United States: Acculturation, Culture Shock, and Identity Transformation"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Dr. Melissa Ann Canlas"],"dc:creator":["Lam, Lai Yan Vivyan"],"dc:date.available":["2017-12-18T08:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["The population of international students at community colleges in the United States has increased significantly over the past decade. International students play a big role in building the cultural diversity on campus by bringing over different cultures and sharing their global perspective to the local community. However, they often face challenges adapting into American culture due to cultural differences in education system, language, lifestyle, etc. By looking into the acculturation process of international students to analyze the culture shock and cultural identity changes they experienced, this paper intends to seek ways to help this group of students to ease their acculturative stress and to maximize their study abroad experience. Two focus groups with a total of eight international students were held at a community college in California to gather ideas, opinions, and stories about their college life in the United States surrounding the topic of acculturation, culture shock, and self-identity. Results from our participants indicated that international students experience significant changes in everyday life and various level of culture shock. The results are greatly depending on the students’ personality and social support network. At the same time, results also suggested that the acculturation experience would strengthen international students’ cultural identities provided with a supportive multicultural learning environment. The acculturation experience is both bitter and sweet giving students acculturative stress yet an eye-opening global adventure.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://repository.usfca.edu/thes/261"],"dc:subject":["acculturation","acculturative stress","culture shock","identity transformation","California","community college","Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education","Critical and Cultural Studies","Higher Education","International and Comparative Education","International and Intercultural Communication","Multicultural Psychology","Other Education","Other Social and Behavioral Sciences","Race and Ethnicity","Social and Cultural Anthropology","Sociology of Culture"],"dc:title":["Life being an International Student in the United States: Acculturation, Culture Shock, and Identity Transformation"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["International and Multicultural Education (IME)"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Arts in International and Multicultural Education (IME)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:44:20Z"}