Invitation Email to Interview Research on International Students

Greetings,

We are a research team interested in international students and their experience in college. Our research team consists of Dr. Jungmin Lee and three Ph.D. students (Nina Marijanovic, Sheryl Means, and Thomas Teague) in the College of Education. We are looking for undergraduate freshman international students between 18 and 24 years old who would like to share their college experience with us.

Once you participate in this research, we will contact you three times. In this fall and the next spring semesters, you will be invited to talk with one of our research team members. Each interview will take about an hour to complete. During the interview, we will ask you about your friendship, social interaction, and adjustment to college. Lastly, we will contact you in 2018 fall just to see whether you are enrolled in the university. As a token of our appreciation, you will be paid $15 value of a gift card of your choiceper each interview for this study.

Although you will not get personal benefit from taking part in this research, your responses may help us understand more about international students’ college experience and retention. We hope to recruit at least 16 students, so your answers are important to us. Of course, you have a choice about whether or not to complete the interview, but if you participate, you are free to skip any questions or discontinue at any time.

There are no known risks to participating in this study. Although we have tried to minimize this, some questions may make you feel upset or uncomfortable and you may choose not to answer them. If some questions do upset you, we can tell you about some people who may be able to help you with these feelings.

Your response to the interview will be kept confidential. We will record the interview conversation upon your agreement, but no one other than our research team members (as specified above) will have access to your interview data. We will use pseudonyms in all research documents, presentations, and publications to protect your identity.

If you have questions about the study, please feel free to ask; my contact information is given below. If you have complaints, suggestions, or questions about your rights as a research volunteer, contact the staff in the University of Kentucky Office of Research Integrity at 859-257-9428 or toll-free at 1-866-400-9428.

Thank you in advance for your assistance with this important project. If you are interested, please contact me via email at .

Sincerely,

Jungmin Lee

Assistant professor

Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation, College of Education, University of Kentucky

PHONE: 859-257-7836

E-MAIL: