The Foreign Service Journal, June 2017

62 JUNE 2017 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL EDUCATION SUPPLEMENT who are not U.S.-centric and who under- stand the complexities of leaving your family to live in an unfamiliar culture. Be a tourist in your new city. TCKs know how to move internationally, and the move to college should be met with the same expectations as any other move. Things will go wrong, it will be difficult to learn new roadways, and it can be hard to appreciate a climate different from the one you recently departed. Try to embrace your new city as a tourist, advises Barbara Chen, the China admissions representative of the Uni- versity of Tulsa, who recently published “Top 10 Tips: Advice for Parents of the College-Bound Expatriate,” posted by the International Association for College Admission Counseling. If you can, arrive in town early for ori- entation and take a few days to tour the local sites. Practice driving around town or navigating the public transport system. Build University and Local Support Systems TCK families tend to be close-knit, but college can cause complications for families due to intermittent internet con- nectivity, time zone gaps and the college lifestyle. While many college students have older friends or high school alumni already attending their institution, TCKs are less likely to have these built-in networks and should work to build them before arriving. Identify mentors. Students should identify mentors with whom they have interacted during the admissions process. Extending an invitation to meet over Skype or for tea when they arrive on cam- pus can help to build these relationships. Dr. Helen Wood, a higher education and TCK researcher, says students should identify someone to whom they can turn with questions when things get confus-