Browsing by Author "DePauw, Karen P."

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    2010-2011 Annual Report of the Graduate School
    DePauw, Karen P. (Virginia Tech Graduate School, 2011)
    The Graduate School, led by Vice President and Dean for Graduate Education Karen P. DePauw, annually publishes online a descriptive narrative of its activities, accomplishments and ongoing efforts. This report includes a holistic schoolwide account of Graduate School activities in 2010-2011.
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    2011-2012 Annual Report of the Graduate School
    DePauw, Karen P. (Virginia Tech Graduate School, 2012)
    The Graduate School, led by Vice President and Dean for Graduate Education Karen P. DePauw, annually publishes online a descriptive narrative of its activities, accomplishments and ongoing efforts. This report includes a holistic schoolwide account of Graduate School activities in 2011-2012.
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    2012-2013 Annual Report of the Graduate School
    DePauw, Karen P. (Virginia Tech Graduate School, 2013)
    The Graduate School, led by Vice President and Dean for Graduate Education Karen P. DePauw, annually publishes online a descriptive narrative of its activities, accomplishments and ongoing efforts. This report includes a holistic schoolwide account of Graduate School activities in 2012-2013.
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    2015-2016 Annual Report of the Graduate School
    DePauw, Karen P. (Virginia Tech Graduate School, 2016)
    The Graduate School, led by Vice President and Dean for Graduate Education Karen P. DePauw, annually publishes online a descriptive narrative of its activities, accomplishments and ongoing efforts. This report includes a holistic schoolwide account of Graduate School activities in 2015-2016.
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    Annual Progress Report of the Graduate School 2007-2008
    DePauw, Karen P. (Virginia Tech Graduate School, 2008)
    The Graduate School, led by Vice President and Dean for Graduate Education Karen P. DePauw, annually publishes online a descriptive narrative of its activities, accomplishments and ongoing efforts. This report includes a holistic schoolwide account of Graduate School activities in 2007-2008.
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    Changes in Resident Perceptions Over Time: A Theoretical Examination of a Mega-Event
    Blosser, Phillip E. (Virginia Tech, 2009-08-05)
    Cities and countries increasingly seek mega-events to boost tourism, update local infrastructure, and improve the international standing of the host community. Benefits are actively promoted by the organizing committees, but these large-scale events also create significant economic, environmental and social costs for the host community. Measuring resident support is necessary because their support is required to secure the rights to the event, and to provide the necessary economic and human resources needed for hosting the event. This study utilized existing data on the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games to investigate the impact of a mega-event on the host community, and to measure resident support for the event. Social exchange theory provided the theoretical background for this dissertation. The theory states that the costs and benefits of an exchange are continually re-evaluated by the actors in the exchange relationship. The primary contribution of this study is support for the notion that social exchanges are temporal in nature; residents continually monitored the positive and negative impacts of the event on themselves and on their community. To reach this conclusion, this study utilized four data points in the year leading up to the Olympics to assess the changes in residents’ perceptions of the impacts of the event over time. These changes were evaluated in light of residents’ support for the event. A factor analysis reduced the fifteen impact statements into three factors: Benefits, Local Problems, and External Problems. Residents were segmented according to their assessment of the event impacts, resulting in three clusters: Supporters, Cynics, and Realists. Proximity to the main event location also was evaluated since this variable has had mixed results in previous resident studies. Results showed that resident perceptions varied over time, thus providing support for monitoring residents over multiple time periods. In addition, residents’ support and residents’ plans to attend the event were contributing factors in the assessment of the Benefits and Local Problems. Supporters, Cynics, and Realists demonstrated significant differences over time in their assessment of External Problems, and proximity to the event was found to be a significant factor in residents’ assessment of Local Problems.
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    Connecting the Opens: Open Access, Open Education, Open Data
    Potter, Peter J.; Walz, Anita R.; DePauw, Karen P.; Jhangiani, Rajiv; Artiles, Mayra S.; Abbas, Montasir M.; Petters, Jonathan L.; Young, Philip (Virginia Tech. University Libraries, 2018-03-19)
    Open practices represent opportunities to align scholarly and instructional processes with scholarly ideals, ethical stances, real work impacts, and aspirations for a more just and equitable world. There are many types of “open.” The three we will discuss, open access, open education, and open data practices may appear distinct and siloed from each other; This is only a surface-level view. In reality, these open practices areas have tremendous areas of overlap. Their underlying values reflect similar aspirations for the common good, and aims of overcoming some shared problems found in research and instruction in higher education and in society in general. This panel features students, faculty, and administrators with wide range of expertise in the three areas of open access, open education, and open data. Join us for a stimulating conversation in which we come to understand the differences and similarities between the opens, their purposes, and their potential. Presenters: Peter Potter, Anita Walz Panelists: Karen DePauw, Rajiv Jhangiani, Philip Young, Jon Petters, Mayra Artiles, Monty Abbas This event was part of Virginia Tech’s Open Education 2018 Symposium and was attended by many graduate students from Preparing the Future Professoriate. Video credit: Abram Diaz-Strandberg
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    Dance For Life: Exploring Dance Choreography and Performance as a tool for Educating the University Community about College Student Suicide
    Fournillier, Jandelle Lu-Ann (Virginia Tech, 2013-01-11)
    Looking for ways that dance could be used as a tool for health promotion, I sought to explore dance choreography and performance as an alternative medium for educating and increasing awareness about college student suicide. Suicide is the second leading cause of death amongst college students and while research suggests that suicide is decreasing, in terms of attempted suicides, the problem may be increasing. While attempts to understand, predict and prevent the loss of lives have resulted in extensive literature, there has been very little systematic research completed. Compounded by limited proposed models for addressing college student suicide, and lack of evidence there remains a growing need to find effective health communication practices and best health promotion practices. This research study is an autobiographical case study that explores my embodied experience of choreographing and performing a dance about college student suicide. As a health promotion professional and a trained dance artist, I assumed the role of researcher and dance choreographer and I and my experience became the subject of this research study. I launched and conducted a six-week project on my university campus called "Dance For Life" and worked with a small group of three female undergraduate dancers to make the new dance piece. This dance project was the case under investigation out of which I presented an autobiographical narrative in the findings and discussion section of this paper. Reviewed health information, research findings, and data, as well as knowledge extracted from the dance group became in part material used to make the dance. As the choreographer, my role in the choreographic process spanned from expert to collaborator and rested on my vision for the story told that would be told through the dance. I collected m data in the form of:- video recordings; audio recordings; pictures; journal entries; field/ observational notes; video diaries; drawings; interviews with community-based artists; and memory recall. I then worked to sort, label, group, and analyze the data, piecing together my findings to write an autobiography that answered my research questions. My exploration highlighted the importance of community involvement in community-based health programming.Through participation in this project the dancers\' knowledge and awareness of college student suicide increased and positively affected their empathetic response toward members of the community. Using non professional dancers with varied dance skill levels did not inhibit creativity or diminish the quality of work produced. Instead it brought together real life people with diverse perspectives, creative solutions, and a passion for dance to produce a piece of art effective in its ability to \'touch\' the audience and draw them in to a place of greater awareness. Stigmas, and the lack of  education and visibility about this particular health challenge, have resulted in a low community response to affecting change. The post performance discussion, brought the greatest gains, in terms of educating the audience. They interacted with the project, asked questions, gave feedback and provided comments about what they experienced, learned, and understood. The overall success of the project, points toward the possibility of dance as an art form playing a more significant role in educating communities about sensitive, and difficult to talk about, health challenges. Being able to affect the knowledge, attitudes, and empathetic response of communities is a beginning step  towards overcoming the health challenge of college student suicide. Future research needs to focus on best choreographing techniques as it relates to audience interpretation.
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    Dynamics of Concealed Disabilities among Students at a Major Research University in a Rural Area
    King, James Michael (Virginia Tech, 2004-04-21)
    This research explores the experiences and attitudes of nine full-time students with disabilities at Virginia Tech who choose to conceal their identity as individuals with disabilities in various contexts. The definition of disability is expanded to include those individuals who perceive themselves to be disabled, with or without meeting diagnostic or legal criteria, since many of those who conceal their differences may choose not to pursue such forms of official classification and identification. In a series of interviews, participants provide insight into their experiences, labels and discourse that have shaped those experiences, and outcomes of identification as individuals with disabilities. A variety of themes emerging from the interviews, under the categories of experiences, labels and discourse, and outcomes of disability, are analyzed and discussed. This research aims to explore and develop a greater understanding of these individuals and what their stories have to offer through an emic perspective.
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    The Effects of a Technological Problem Solving Activity on FIRST LEGO League Participants' Problem Solving Style and Performance
    Varnado, Terri E. (Virginia Tech, 2005-04-08)
    This study investigated the effects of a technological problem solving activity, specifically the 2004 No Limits FIRST™ LEGO™ League Robotics Challenge, on student participants' problem solving styles and performances. Previous research suggested that problem solving styles and performances could be influenced in children who are developing cognitively. Thirty-six 9-14 year old males and females were selected from officially registered FLL teams in the Virginia Department of Education Regions 6 & 7 of Southwest Virginia. Student participants self-assessed their technological problem solving confidence, approach/avoidance styles, and personal control during said activity three times over an eight week period. Two raters directly observed four dimensions of technological problem solving (problem clarification, developing a design, modeling/prototyping, and evaluating the design solution) at four points during the same eight-week time frame. Simple ANOVA, Repeated Measures ANOVA, MANOVA, Regression Analyses, and Qualitative Analyses were used to analyze the data. Female FLL student participants aged 9-14 perceived their overall technological problem solving style no differently than did 9-14 year old males. Gender alone showed no significant differences in performance; however, without any formal training or coursework, 9-14 year old FLL student participants showed significant increases in confidence, overall technological problem solving styles, problem clarification, developing a design, evaluating a design solution, and overall technological problem solving performance in only eight weeks.
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    For the Public Good: Research Impact and the Promise of Open Access
    DePauw, Karen P.; Seyam, Mohammed; Roy, Siddhartha; Abbas, Montasir M.; Hole, Brian; Potter, Peter J. (Virginia Tech. University Libraries, 2016-10-24)
    As a land-grant institution, Virginia Tech is committed to research that meaningfully engages with the vital concerns of our day such as feeding, building, and empowering a healthy world. How does Virginia Tech’s commitment to engagement fit with the Open Access vision for unrestricted online access to scholarly research? Have OA journals, public repositories, and federal mandates simply made a researcher’s life more complicated or could OA be the key to unlocking research impact on a global scale? And what are the implications for tenure and promotion? Join us for a public forum devoted to these questions and more on Monday, October 24, at 6:30 pm in Torgersen 1100. We expect a lively discussion featuring panelists from the Virginia Tech community and ample opportunity for audience Q&A. Montasir (“Monty”) Abbas is Associate Professor in the Charles E. Via, Jr. Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech, where he also serves as Coordinator of the Transportation, Infrastructure and Systems Engineering Program. His interests are in real-time traffic control, traffic flow theory, driver behavior, ITS, transportation modeling and safety, artificial intelligence and systems optimization. Abbas currently serves as President of VT’s Faculty Senate. Karen DePauw is Vice President and Dean for Graduate Education at Virginia Tech. An internationally recognized scholar in the fields of adapted physical activity, disability sport and disability studies, she holds academic appointments in the Departments of Sociology and Human Nutrition, Foods & Exercise. As an academic administrator, she has held key leadership roles in graduate education including serving as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Council of Graduate Schools (2010) and Chair of the GRE Board (2013-2014). Brian Hole is founder and CEO of Ubiquity Press, a researcher-focused publishing company that specializes in open access academic journals and open data. Prior to that, he managed the British Library’s LIFE3 project on costing digital preservation, and the DryadUK project, which developed a sustainable framework for integrating Open Data archiving into scientific publisher work flows. When not engaged in his publishing work, Hole is working on a part-time PhD at University College London, focusing on public archaeology in India, specifically at issues of community engagement and utilization of cultural heritage. Peter Potter is Director, Publishing Strategy, at Virginia Tech. In this role he is charged with assessing the research and scholarly environments at VT in order to guide the University Libraries’ long-term planning in the area of publishing services. A historian by training (B.A. Virginia Tech; M.A. University of Virginia), Potter has devoting his professional career to scholarly publishing, most recently serving as editor in chief at Cornell University Press. Siddhartha Roy is doctoral student and graduate researcher in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech. He works with Dr. Marc Edwards researching failure mechanisms in potable water infrastructure and is a member of the Virginia Tech Research Team that has been working to resolve the water quality issues in Flint, Michigan. Mohammed Seyam is a doctoral student in Computer Science at Virginia Tech. He earned an undergraduate degree in information systems from Mansoura University and a master’s degree in information systems from Cairo University, both in Egypt. Among his many activities on campus he served as the graduate student representative on the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors during the 2015-16 academic year. A vocal advocate of OA, he traveled to Washington to take part in OpenCon 2014, a conference for researchers on open access, open data, and open educational resources."
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    Graduate School Annual Activity Report 2009-2010
    DePauw, Karen P. (Virginia Tech Graduate School, 2010)
    The Graduate School, led by Vice President and Dean for Graduate Education Karen P. DePauw, annually publishes online a descriptive narrative of its activities, accomplishments and ongoing efforts. This report includes a holistic schoolwide account of Graduate School activities in 2009-2010.
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    Graduate School Annual Update 2008-2009
    DePauw, Karen P. (Virginia Tech Graduate School, 2009)
    The Graduate School, led by Vice President and Dean for Graduate Education Karen P. DePauw, annually publishes online a descriptive narrative of its activities, accomplishments and ongoing efforts. This report includes a holistic schoolwide account of Graduate School activities in 2008-2009.
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    Historically Marginalized Engineering Doctoral Students' Motivation and Socialization in Graduate Education
    Huggins de Murzi, Natali Carolina (Virginia Tech, 2023-02-16)
    Doctoral education in the U.S. is essential to cultivating professionals, scientists, and researchers capable of advancing and contributing to national goals. However, the engineering field warrants diversification to respond to global, social, and demographic demands. It is necessary to support students from historically marginalized backgrounds by acknowledging their unique experiences and encouraging them to activate their agency while faculty and institutional leaders work toward dismantling systemic barriers. Such practices may aid historically marginalized students in completing their degrees which will contribute to reduced attrition rates, time to degree, and degree completion. Over the past 10 years, Blacks and African Americans, Hispanic and Latinx people, and Native Americans and Indigenous people have demonstrated steady growth in doctoral education in engineering, despite several challenges and systemic barriers encountered during their doctoral journey. Even though they are growing in the field, attrition rates, time to degree, and degree completion remain an issue. Higher education researchers, workforce stakeholders, and educational organizations have been focusing on diversifying the STEM fields. Still, little attention has focused on the psychosocial elements that influence historically marginalized doctoral students' academic journeys. For example, research shows historically marginalized doctoral students encounter various challenges in doctoral education such as isolation, tokenism, and microaggression among others. To this end, it is essential to understand historically marginalized doctoral students' motivation and experiences in doctoral engineering education to identify strategies for mitigating these challenges as well as increase degree completion and decrease the time to degree. Guided by the situated expectancy-value theory and the graduate socialization framework, this dissertation consists of two manuscripts. The first manuscript is a qualitative holistic single case study that explores Latinx students' motivations to pursue a doctoral degree in engineering by investigating the following question: What values motivate Latinx students to pursue a doctoral degree in engineering? The second manuscript applies transcendental phenomenology to explore historically marginalized engineering doctoral students' socialization experiences by considering the following question: How do historically marginalized doctoral engineering students perceive their socialization experiences? The data sources for both manuscripts consist of interviews and surveys from participants in a research boot camp conducted between 2017-2021 from a larger national science foundation (NSF) funded project named the Dissertation Institute (DI). These studies are significant because they will provide implications for students who identify as members of these populations, research, practice, and policy concerning historically marginalized doctoral students' socialization experiences in engineering. Findings from the first study revealed that Latinx student motivation to pursue and persist in engineering doctoral degrees contained different subjective task values from SEVT and was influenced by educational and research experiences, role model interactions, and socio-cultural values. The second manuscript unearthed that students' socialization occurs in progressive, sequential, and connected stages. Each stage indicates students' development, even with the possible recurrence of previous stages depending on the challenges tied to systemic issues. Both manuscripts uncovered motivation and socialization vary from person to person contemplating various dimensions, and they are interconnected and influence students' journeys. In addition, the engineering context impacts both elements with respect to funding sources, research emphasis, and the persistent White male normative culture.
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    Interracial Contact Effects on Racial Prejudice among Students at Selective Colleges and Universities
    Byrd, W. Carson (Virginia Tech, 2011-05-02)
    This dissertation examined interracial contact and racial prejudice among white, black, Asian, and Latino college students at 28 elite colleges and universities in the United States. The study used longitudinal analyses to identify how interracial contact among college students influenced students' racial prejudice. White students interacted almost exclusively with each other and with Asian students. Asian students interacted with each other and with white students. Latino students were the most integrated, they interacted with all other student groups at high rates. Black students were the most segregated in their interactions as students of other races had less interactions with them on campus. Cross-race interactions during college did not influence white students' exiting levels of traditional and modern racial prejudice. Cross-race interactions during college had limited influence on black and Asian students' exiting levels of racial prejudice, mostly for traditional forms of racial prejudice. Latino students exhibited the most interracial contact effects on their exiting levels of racial prejudice of all student groups with all traditional and modern forms of racial prejudice influenced by cross-race interactions. The consideration of race as a form of social identity was the most powerful influence on students' exiting levels of racial prejudice for all groups. The context of interracial contact at elite colleges and universities and the existence of racialized stages of interaction are discussed in the final chapter to understand the study findings. Lastly, a discussion of the potential implications of this study's results for future intergroup contact research is also presented.
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    Life Cycle Assessment of Sustainable Road Pavements: Carbon Footprinting and Multi-attribute Analysis
    Giustozzi, Filippo (Virginia Tech, 2012-06-11)
    Sustainability is increasingly becoming a significant part of strategic asset management worldwide. Road agencies are providing guidelines to assess the relative sustainability of road projects. Unfortunately, environmental features of a road project are still considered as stand-alone evaluations, an added value. Very little has been done to integrate environmental impacts as a part of pavement management systems and other decision support tools to choose between different strategies. In this way, being awarded with a "green" certificate for a specific road project could result in the belief that recognition would correspond to the optimal strategy. Furthermore, a road project awarded with a "green" rating during the construction phase does not mean that the project results "green" if a life cycle approach is considered. Indeed, the most environmental friendly strategies may not be the ones with the highest performance. Using "greener" materials or performing recycle-related practices may lead to a lower performance over the life cycle and therefore produce an increase in maintenance needed, which could in turn result into more congestion due to work zones and higher total emissions. Therefore, construction and maintenance strategies should be analyzed according to three main parameters: cost, performance or effectiveness, and environmental impacts. The cost analysis part takes into account outflows over the service life of the pavement according to the well-known Life Cycle Cost Analysis methodology. The cheapest maintenance technique over the analysis period was expounded and sensitivity analyses to involved factors were conducted. Performance assessment was developed according to experimental on site data gathered and analyzed over several years to develop deterioration pavement models. Effectiveness of maintenance treatments is further provided and compared to the volume of traffic. In addition, environmental impacts related to maintenance and rehabilitation strategies were analyzed. Emissions were computed over the life cycle of the pavement from the manufacture of raw materials for the initial construction, placement, and maintenance phase. Finally, an optimization procedure was developed for including environmental impacts into a Pavement Management System. A methodology to set a multi-attribute approach system, computing costs, performance, and eco-efficiency over the life cycle of the pavement, is therefore proposed.
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    The Man Made World: The Social Production of Health and Disablement in Construction Workers
    Sorensen, Amy (Virginia Tech, 2011-08-04)
    This study focuses on the mechanisms through which systems of inequality operate in relationship to health and disablement processes. Using quantitative data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1979 and qualitative data from in-depth interviews with twelve construction workers in the southeastern United States, this study evaluates the relationships among race, class, gender, and occupation in the health of male construction workers. More specifically, this research examines white working-class masculinity in the context of working within the construction industry, and in relationship to health and disability processes. Each chapter in this dissertation focuses on one of three primary research questions. First, how do race, class, gender, and occupation shape the health of construction workers? Second, how does working-class masculinity and occupation affect patterns of disablement among construction workers, and how do they experience these processes? And finally, how do social inequalities shape bodies? This study finds that race, class, gender, and occupation all play multiple roles in the health and disablement processes of workers. These findings also suggest that a re-conceptualization of disability as a process is necessary to best reflect the experiences associated with occupational disability. Finally, these findings point to the body as a social process, with direct ties to the larger social structure and systems of inequality. This study extends our conceptualizations of health, disablement, and the body as processes. In addition, it illuminates the mechanisms through which systems of complex inequalities operate to create health disparities.
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    More than Money Matters: An Integrated Model of Graduate Student Persistence
    Strayhorn, Terrell Lamont (Virginia Tech, 2005-04-21)
    Graduate student persistence rarely has been studied, yet it is a very important issue for many higher education constituents—including senior administrators, academic deans, faculty members, students, and families. In light of an alarming statistic that approximately 50% of all graduate students fail to complete their degree, there have been few studies to examine this phenomenon and no new models to explain the relationship between factors that influence graduate student persistence. This dissertation examined persistence by graduate students to degree using data from the National Center for Education Statistics' Baccalaureate and Beyond (B&B:93/97) Longitudinal Survey. First, I proposed a logical model of graduate student persistence using economic, academic, and non-academic variables. Then, I tested the model's ability to predict graduate student persistence to degree. Analyses were conducted to answer the following questions: 1. Does more than money matter in predicting graduate student persistence? 2. To what extent do economic, academic and non-academic factors included in the integrated model predict graduate student persistence? a) Does this differ by graduate student status (e.g., master's and doctoral)? If so, how? 3. Using the integrated model, does the likelihood of persisting in graduate school vary by race/ethnicity? If so, how? a) How do student aid and undergraduate debt influence the observed racial/ethnic group differences in persistence? The results of this study suggest that more than money matters when predicting graduate student persistence. The integrate model of graduate student persistence, developed for this study, is statistically significantly better at predicting graduate student persistence than a model that only includes economic factors. The integrated model tested to be most fit for predicting persistence among doctoral students. And, finally, using the model, the likelihood of persisting in graduate school varies by race/ethnicity. Student aid tends to improve one's chances of persisting in graduate school while undergraduate debt is associated with failing to persist in graduate school.
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    Multicultural Competence for Counseling Students Experiencing Cultural Immersion
    Jardon, Alexander Matthew (Virginia Tech, 2019-07-09)
    A number of studies have examined how counselor educators can facilitate counselor development of multicultural competence within the context of graduate counseling programs (e.g., Chu-Lien Chao, 2012; Constantine, 2001; Constantine, Juby, and Liang, 2001; Dickson and Jepsen, 2007; Sodowsky et al., 1998). Much less research has focused on counselor development occurring in students' personal lives, yet some evidence has shown that students report the impact of extracurricular experiences on counselor development (Coleman, 2006; Furr and Carroll, 2003; Rønnestad and Skovholt, 2003). Many qualitative studies have demonstrated positive effects of cultural immersion experiences, yet much less research in this area has utilized the quantitative measures related to cultural awareness. Few studies have also examined the effects of living among a different culture instead of visiting a different culture short term. After a thorough review of the literature on cultural immersion experiences, this study was designed to fill the gap that presently exists in quantitative findings exploring differences in multicultural competence and universal-diverse orientation, which is an awareness and accepting attitude for those who come from diverse backgrounds. The sample for the study consisted of students experiencing cultural immersion by means of relocation for their graduate training program. Additional analysis examined how universal-diverse orientation and duration of graduate training predicted multicultural competence scores. The results were not significant showing any differences in either multicultural competence or universal-diverse orientation scores based on cultural immersion. Similarly, no differences were found for either of these variables based on amount of multicultural training either. One finding that was statistically significant was a strong, positive correlation, as well as predictive ability, between universal-diverse orientation and multicultural knowledge and awareness. Implications of the findings could be applicable to clinicians and counselor education programs. By fostering more universal-diverse orientation, counselor educators could work towards increasing multicultural competence as well. This study was found to have some limitations, primarily a small sample size for quantitative analysis. These results do have implications for future research to continue studying multicultural competence, universal-diverse orientation, and cultural immersion.
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    Navigating the university system: The effects of Chinese and Indian graduate students' social networks on academic progression
    Harrington, Marcia A. (Virginia Tech, 2003-12-01)
    Currently more than half a million international students are enrolled at U.S. colleges and universities. All of these students face challenges associated with integrating into their new host education environments and learning how to make their way through the rules and regulations of their host university and community. Social network theories attribute behaviors to the structural and relational attributes of one's social network including access to resources and information. The social networks of most international students are insular, dense, and homogeneous and serve to reinforce cultural norms in the host society. Further, they provide little to no access to dissimilar others and limit information flow to redundant information. China and India are the countries of origin of over 20% of U.S. international students. The goal of this research was to understand the constructs of the Chinese and Indian students' social networks and ascertain factors affecting satisfaction and influencing academic progression. Support related to making their way through the university system and residing in the host community framed the social networks. Among the variables studied were tie strength, homogeneity, and roles and relationships of network members. Results indicated that while significant differences existed within the Chinese and Indian student populations, their networks contained many similarities. Males' networks were more homogeneous and dense than females' networks and weak links were more prevalent in females' networks. Chinese males had the most insular networks. The networks of Indian students and Chinese females were in many cases more similar with one another and different from those of Chinese males. Network members were predominately friends and most were students. University faculty and staff were present in only 12% of Chinese males' networks and at least 25% of all other groups. Not all students were satisfied that their networks met their needs. Despite having the largest networks, Chinese students wanted even larger networks. Just under half of Indian students wanted larger networks. Universally, students indicated their networks enabled academic progression and Chinese females rated their networks more effective than all others. Despite significant differences among and between the populations, the students were able to invoke effective networks enabling academic progression.