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Third-Culture Students: An Exploratory Study Of Transition In The First Year Of College, Dottie Weigel

Higher Education Faculty Scholarship

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the experiences of third-culture students who repatriated to the United States for their first year of college. In the context of this research, third-culture students are American children who lived overseasas a result of their parents’ professions for two or more years immediately prior to returning to the United States to attend a university. Useem (1993) defines “third-culture” as the new style of life that is created, learned, and shared from blending first-culture experiences and customs from a country of origin (i.e., “home” country) with second-culture knowledge acquired from living in …