Chasing Encounters

From a marketing career to social justice education, Meng Xiao helps us to understand the different experiences among international students who travel from China to Canada. In her research, she examines Chinese students’ engagement in higher education. She highlights that multiple intersecting identities are defined by the students themselves, their communities and their experiences when it comes to how they engage in graduate studies. She explains that factors affecting this engagement are field-related, whether they come from the hard sciences or humanities. For example, English as a second language poses linguistic challenges when students are faced with communicating their ideas via academic writing or oral engagements. Also, she argues that mental health also affects community engagement as some students feel isolated and vulnerable. To minimize these challenges, Meng created a handbook to support both administrators from institutions and graduate students to better navigate the Canadian system and enga