Center for Global Education | Help for Students - Colleges and Universities Respond

As you near the end of the fall semester, many students who have been displaced by hurricane Katrina are preparing to return to their home states and institutions. Just as they went through a period of adjustment to temporary homes and universities, they will now have to re-adjust to going home. It is important to begin preparing for your return home in advance; as you re-adjust to being home it may be helpful to know a little more about what you are going through and some positive ways of dealing with it.

The feelings you may experience upon returning home are similar to those of students who have returned home from studying in another country. The feelings and stresses they encounter upon returning home are known as “re-entry culture shock”. Many resources have been developed to assist such students with the process of ‘re-entry’. While your experience has not necessarily been abroad, in the traditional sense, many of you have spent the last semester in a completely different geographic area and a local culture that may have been unfamiliar to you until now. Others of you may have been closer to home, perhaps even with family members, but going home will still have its challenges. As a result, you may very well experience the process of re-entry, much like those who have gone abroad. In order to assist you in making this transition, the Center for Global Education has compiled information and coping strategies to help you prepare for going home and beyond.