ABSTRACT
In this personal account by an art education professor, Enid Zimmerman describes her own experiences growing up and later how she, as a non-Asian art educator at Indiana University, developed a program focusing on the needs of doctoral students from Asian countries. She presents the outcomes of a study in which she interviewed art education doctoral students from Asian countries about their challenges living and studying at a university in the Midwestern United States. She shares advice for those from Asian countries seeking to be doctoral students. Her concern was for these students to have transformational experiences so they could become integrated into a nurturing academic community. She explains how she created a compassionate, family-like environment for them and other doctoral students in the art education department. She also reports visiting these students after they completed their doctoral degrees and returned to their native countries, and the rewards of forming lifelong bonds with them and their families.
