Cultivating a Sense of Community: International Students Navigating Community Engaged Learning Opportunities in Line with Their Social Goals

International students often envision their time studying abroad with particular academic, professional, social, linguistic, and identity-related goals in mind (Fong, 2011; Jones, 2013; Montgomery & McDowell, 2009; Page, 2019; Page & Chahboun, 2019). Post-secondary institutions can provide resources and opportunities to help this heterogeneous group of students bring their vision into fruition. One such opportunity is community engaged learning (CEL), which has been shown to help students expand their social and academic abilities as they make contributions to an organization (Arnold, 2019; Greenberg, London & McKay, 2020; Mayer et al., 2019). Through in-depth interviews with 25 new international students who participated in optional course-based CEL programming at a large Canadian research university, we document the ways participants interpreted and navigated this experience in line with their social goals. We show how students’ CEL meaning-making processes align with McMillan and Chavis’ (1986) four dimensions of a perceived sense of community: membership, influence, fulfillment of needs, and shared emotional connection. We conclude with recommendations for educators designing socially-oriented CEL opportunities with new international students.