Students at the center, culture at the core

Josef A. Mestenhauser’s first decades of work, thought, and writing grew from his personal history and his experiences as an international student, as well his role in the university international student adviser’s office, from graduate student in the 1950s to director in the 1980s. Schwartz and Chikate document his conception of the international student—any student in a foreign educational setting—as an agent of change and cultural diplomacy, the locus of teaching and learning in formal and informal settings. Schwartz and Chikate draw on his early writings, interviews, and their own work with student leadership influenced by his scholarship.