Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2018-11-27T11:19:18Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Caroline de Souza Umbelino.pdf: 2400954 bytes, checksum: 0ceab6ec37567185e27dd74a987576a9 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-11-27T11:19:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Caroline de Souza Umbelino.pdf: 2400954 bytes, checksum: 0ceab6ec37567185e27dd74a987576a9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-09-14 / The student assistantship has provided lodging and boarding programs to students since 1930. The selection criteria are based upon socioeconomic analysis and profile classifications, which are based upon social indicators punctuation. Nevertheless, the profile analysis does not take the racial question into consideration as a problem of structural poverty, which reinforces the racial democracy discourse. In this regard, this thesis seeks to take into consideration edictal and resolution analysis, scholarship grant methods, and federal university grants through comparison among the most utilized criteria / Desde 1930 a assistência estudantil atende estudantes com programas de moradia e alimentação. A seleção dos estudantes é realizada mediante análise socioeconômica e a classificação por perfis de acordo com a pontuação gerada por indicadores sociais. Contudo, a análise de perfil não considera a questão racial como problema estruturante da pobreza, dessa forma o discurso da democracia racial é reforçado. Neste âmbito, o presente trabalho procura discutir mediante análise de editais e resoluções, o processo de concessão de bolsas e auxílios nas universidades federais através da comparação dos critérios mais utilizados

Globalization and sociopolitical factors impact migration patterns all over the world. In Puerto Rico, these factors created superdiverse environments where languages users have pushed the boundaries of language in order to make sense of their worlds. Even though this language dynamic is natural for locals, it is those who visit from different countries, specifically international graduate students, that have a difficult time adjusting to Puerto Rico’s rich use of English and Spanish. Understanding how international graduate students perceive the language used at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez (UPRM) upon arrival is essential to provide a better experience for future students. As of this writing, this study is the first to investigate the language perceptions of incoming international graduate students at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez. This descriptive exploratory case study explores language perceptions of first semester international graduate students with an assistantship. I interviewed 3 first-semester students at a large, public, research university, located on the west coast of Puerto Rico. I carried out two semi-structured individual interviews and one semi-structure focus group interview. I employed data triangulation and member checked to ensure validity and trustworthiness of data. Study findings reveal that participants did not initially perceive English as being the main language of use during their graduate studies. Participants mentioned struggles throughout their semester due to the heavy presence of English in their coursework and assistantship. Participants suggested that the university should provide more English language support to ensure the success of incoming international students. In this study, I addressed gaps on translanguaging at superdiverse universities, and international teaching assistants’ perceptions of language at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez campus. Based on the findings, I offer English course suggestions to enhance academic and professional opportunities for international students at UPRM.

Today’s college student body reflects, among many things, the outcome of policies geared towards increasing access and diversifying the academy, efforts to recruit international students, the vast social, political, and economic disparities among marginalized populations, and the extreme cultural polarization of our times. Students on campuses have broad and individualized perspective, approaches, and values, which are culturally rooted, embedded within our socialization and often times conflict with the experiences of other students or the student affairs professionals tasked with supporting students. Student affairs practitioners must enter the field possessing a degree of intercultural competence, defined as an appropriate skillset and mindset, to effectively work across difference and support today’s college student. While the development of intercultural competence is a life-long learning process, master’s-level preparatory programs serve as a critical space for aspiring student affairs practitioners to engage in intercultural learning and skill development. Utilizing pre and post data result from the Intercultural Development Inventory and information gathered from post-graduation interviews, this mixed-methods study examined the intercultural competence development of students in Higher Education within a student affairs master’s level preparatory and their intercultural learning experiences at the assistantship site. The study found that across assistantship sites and observed developmental change, intercultural learning was dictated by the three themes: influential relationships, impactful factors, and depth of engagement.