An Iowa State University recruitment program geared toward international students, which was first piloted in December 2020, expanded its programming during 2021. The Office of Admissions and the Student Innovation Center’s Innovation Fellows program partnered to develop the virtual international program called Innovation Fellows-in-Training (I-FiT) in 2020 when the pandemic made it difficult to form personal connections with prospective international students. I-FiT has high school students participate in a themed two-day workshop where they complete a challenge such as designing the school of the future, like 40 students from the United Arab Emirates did in the most recent workshop held at the Expo 2020 Dubai. The students received feedback from ISU faculty and staff that attended the event in Dubai and virtually. In its first year 1,200 students from 26 countries have enrolled in the I-FiT program. The university’s international freshman applications “are at historically high levels,” according to a press release. “We can’t necessarily pinpoint yet that an increase in international applicants is only the product of this, because we do a ton of different things,” Jorge Calderon, associate director of international recruiting, said in the release. “But I do believe this plays a big part in our success. At least now when a recruiter meets with students, many have already heard of Iowa State.”
