Asian alumni in America and their leadership skills

Abstract

In this chapter, we focus on international alumni-students from other countries who graduated from U.S. universities-and their leadership skills as they leave the university. The goals were, first, to identify the elements of leadership that international alumni found that they most needed after graduation, and second, to see how competent feel they were in these skills immediately after graduation. The research relied on both qualitative and quantitative data involving alumni from Asia. From the survey, we learned that no single skill is more important than the others, and in fact, all of the most highly rated skills represent the spectrum of soft skills that one would expect to have in a professional setting. Of these, the students wished they had learned more about communication skills, conflict resolution, and goal setting. From the interviews with Asian alumni who took a leadership program, we learned that the students had learned about themselves and had learned from each other about their different cultures. They mentioned the skills they had acquired for working in groups and the communication and interactions that helped them build confidence and take initiative, which also transferred to their workplaces after they graduated. The study results show that most of the skills alumni perceive to be important in the workplace can be learned more systematically in a leadership program. The benefits that students receive from these programs, as well as the benefits that the university can receive from graduating students with these skills, should give higher educational institutions a motivation to implement these programs, if not broadly, at least for the segments of their international population that need them the most.