Use early engagement to build belonging for international students

For many international students, the most uncertain months of their university journey come before it officially begins. Between receiving an offer and arriving on campus lies a long summer of questions: what should I pack? How will I find housing? What will classes feel like? While admissions emails provide essential information, what students often crave most is human connection.

Belonging, then, shouldn’t wait until students arrive on day one. Instead, support systems such as early mentoring, digital outreach and joint-programme engagement can begin building community months – and sometimes years – before students set foot on campus.

At Pamplin College of Business, we have developed a multi-pronged approach that combines peer mentoring, virtual engagement and sustained contact across transnational programmes to support international students well before arrival.

Outreach that makes the world smaller

Each summer, trained student mentors – both domestic and international undergraduates – are paired with newly admitted international students who opt into the programme. These mentors reach out individually by email, introducing themselves, sharing photos and offering practical, firsthand advice. Messages often include reassurance such as: “I’ll be your mentor,“ “Here’s what to bring, what to expect and what I wish I’d known” and “I’m excited to meet you.”

• Peer mentoring to ease culture shock for international students
• Study abroad coordinators need more support
• Six ways to welcome students to university life

That small, personal gesture transforms an abstract institution into a network of real people. It is also often more effective than official orientation messaging. When staff communicate, it can sound instructional; when a peer shares the same information, it feels like an invitation.

We complement this outreach with optional online meet-ups, where incoming students can ask questions of mentors – both American and international – about everyday life at Virginia Tech. These sessions demystify campus culture, increase transparency and reduce the anxiety that often accompanies first impressions.

Bridging continents through technology

For students in our transnational and 3+1 joint programmes – where they spend three years at a partner institution abroad and one year at Virginia Tech – engagement begins at the start of their academic programme. We meet with these cohorts online several times each semester, sometimes years before they transition to campus.

During these sessions, we exchange perspectives on campus life, academic expectations and cultural traditions. One meeting might compare Thanksgiving with the Mid-Autumn Festival; another might explore classroom participation norms or teamwork styles across cultures. These conversations function as early orientation, but they also foster mutual understanding and trust.

We also deliver virtual workshops on topics such as academic skills, well-being and adjustment. In contexts where counselling or time-management support is less common, we frame these sessions as student success seminars. Introducing these resources early helps students feel comfortable seeking support later, when they need it most.

The pay-off of early connection

By the time these students arrive on campus, they already recognise faces, voices and shared experiences. They do not arrive as strangers; they arrive as members of a community they have been part of for months.

The benefits extend beyond emotional comfort. Students who engage early show stronger retention, are more likely to participate in co-curricular and professional development opportunities and often maintain closer ties to the institution as alumni. Mentor relationships typically continue through the student’s first academic year, with check-ins during orientation, the first semester and key transition points. Activities range from informal coffee meetings to campus events and group gatherings, depending on availability and student interest.

As one mentor reflected, it feels as though the students have “already lived here” by the time they arrive.

Lessons for other institutions

This kind of early engagement does not require new offices or sophisticated technology. Institutions can start by recruiting a small cohort of volunteer student mentors, hosting informal virtual Q&A sessions and encouraging cultural exchange through conversation rather than presentation. For example, a single monthly Zoom session where current international students answer questions from incoming peers can have an outsized impact on confidence and preparedness.

Over time, these small, consistent touchpoints can evolve into a sustainable global support network that benefits students and staff alike.

Make ‘belonging’ visible before arrival

Early engagement with international students is not simply a recruitment or orientation strategy; it is a retention and well-being investment. When universities make belonging visible before arrival, students are better equipped to navigate academic, social and cultural transitions once they reach campus.

Starting that connection early ensures that when international students arrive, they are not just enrolling in a university – they are joining a community that already knows who they are.

Jennifer Clevenger is the director of international programmes at the Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech.

If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.