Author: Yodalys Aguilar | Major: Psychology | Semester: Spring 2023
Most of us have wondered at some point in our day, what if…? or why aren’t things done better this way? But usually, they remain as ideas and never get developed. Perhaps those ideas are stored in a long list, along with other ideas that you thought would be cool to pursue but never did. Have you ever thought about why those ideas don’t come to execution? You might say that you’re too busy or that you can’t focus on them because you don’t have time. But is this really true? Or is it just a lack of motivation? I believe that to dust off that list of ideas, we need to share and collaborate with others who can support our ideas and lighten the load.
Some time ago, I had an idea about mental health and international students. It had been lingering in my mind for a long time (on my list of ideas), but I hadn’t acted upon it until I mentioned it to my mentors, and they said they would support me. At that moment, I felt that maybe this idea could work. Thanks to the support of my mentors and friends, I was able to refine my idea and develop it. Months later, after promoting the study of mental health among international students, we received good participation from the international community at the University of Arkansas, and we were able to make real-time adjustments to our project. Thanks to the honors college grant, we were able to reach a large audience and promote our study.
The study is still recruiting participants, and the findings have been significant in understanding more about mental health in the international student community at the University of Arkansas. We have come to understand that discrimination is a crucial factor affecting mental health stability in this population. In future directions, we hope to gain a better understanding of how identity, acculturation, and discrimination are related and how they can be significant factors in anxiety and depression.
This spring semester of 2023, this project was presented for the first time in two poster presentations. The first was at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, and the second was here at my university, the University of Arkansas, during Research Week. Both experiences were of great value for the development of my research and provided an excellent opportunity to share our findings with a broader population, including international students from both institutions. Seeing the interest of other international students in our project has reinforced the importance of this endeavor.
Moving forward, we are actively implementing new changes and improvements based on the feedback received from faculty members and the broader research community. Their guidance and expertise have been instrumental in shaping the direction of our study and ensuring its continued growth and relevance. We are immensely grateful for their contributions and are excited about the positive impact our research can have on understanding and addressing the mental health challenges faced by international students.
Looking ahead to the upcoming semester, fall 2023, we are eagerly preparing to relaunch our study with the added enhancements and modifications we have been diligently working on during the summer. We anticipate that these updates will further refine our methodologies and allow us to gather even more comprehensive data to deepen our understanding of the complex interplay between identity, acculturation, discrimination, and their effects on anxiety and depression among international student populations.