Francella Ochillo, Clara Ma
4/3/2025
Johns Hopkins University
Opinion Pieces
Volume 1, Issue 1
https://doi.org/10.67419/jyi.v1i1.2
Abstract
International students in United States higher education faced a hard spring in 2025: visa revocations, suspended interviews, expanded vetting, and a broader anti-immigrant turn, at the same time as many institutions were dismantling diversity and support programs. Against that backdrop, the authors argue that leadership education belongs in the core curriculum for these students. The argument draws on a personal narrative from a women's leadership conference and on Thompson's idea of a global moral compass. Three capacities matter most, the authors contend. Students need resilience to stay grounded inside systems that pressure them toward invisibility, creativity to imagine futures their institutions have not prescribed, and ethical clarity for the moments when integrity and assimilation pull in different directions. Because such students reconcile competing cultural norms, institutional rules, and personal values every day, ethical reflection is for them a working skill. The piece closes by urging institutions to embed leadership development across disciplines, since these students will lead across borders whether they stay or return home.