Guiding the world’s students through Caltech with Laura Flower Kim.

A profile by Necef Kavrut. Photo by Caltech Magazine.

When Laura Flower Kim, now Associate Director at International Student Programs at Caltech, took over the office on the second floor of the Center for Student Services sixteen years ago, most of it was occupied by one giant red file-cabinet filled to the brim with immigration paperwork for international undergraduate and graduate students. Her first action was to get rid of it, and soon all its contents were online, leaving behind an empty office. But after years of helping hundreds of international students navigate life at Caltech, there’s hardly an empty spot to be found.

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Laura was born in Huntington, West Virginia. She had a nursing school educated stay-at-home mom and a half-Materials Engineer, half-businessman father. When she was in kindergarten, they moved to New Jersey, where Laura attended middle and high school up till her junior year. They then moved back to Huntington. After graduating, she attended** Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania. Though her major was sociology, she also participated in a semester abroad language program in Spain the spring of her junior year. She traveled **to France, Germany, Portugal and more while improving her Spanish. This “exposure to other languages and people” made her realize the value of intercultural exchange. After college, she spent half a year in Mexico visiting a friend’s home and volunteering, and then returned to Marshall University at Huntington, where she obtained a Masters in Education for teaching Spanish. Her real objective was to become a study abroad adviser, but at that time there were no official positions for those sorts of programs as they were typically handled by foreign language faculties.

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Immediately after completing her Masters, Laura jumped into a PhD in Higher Education Studies at Vanderbilt University. Her focus was on the “brain drain” phenomenon, which refers to the consequences of highly trained professionals migrating in large numbers to other geographies. Five years into her thesis research, 9/11 threw the US immigration system into chaos, driving her research to an impasse. As she already had working relationships with the international office at Vanderbilt, she was able to pivot into a job as an International Student Advisor. Early on into the job, Laura found herself thrusted onto a stage to lead International Student Orientation in front of hundreds of international freshmen. Standing there, she remembered the many boring classes and presentations she had suffered throughout her life. “I just thought, ‘I don’t want to be boring,’” she recalls as she describes the moment her extroverted and fun personality crystallized. After another four years at Vanderbilt, she moved to Pasadena to work at ArtCenter** **College of Design. She handled immigration procedures of international students there while also helping them find a community. Laura describes ArtCenter as an art version of Caltech in terms of intensity and competition. She believes it prepared her well to handle the transition international students face as they start a difficult program so far away from home. Since Laura was already at Pasadena, she also reached out to Caltech’s International Office to introduce herself and network. Four years later she came to Caltech and joined ISP.

Outside of work, Laura enjoys watching movies and going to theater with her older daughter, who participates in high-school theater. Even with two teenage daughters and hundreds of Caltech students to do paperwork and counseling for, Laura still does the occasional art project for her own enjoyment.

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According to their website, in addition to immigration-related advising, ISP also strives to “provide opportunities for international students to establish a sense of community at Caltech.” Laura wholly embraces both of these distinct duties. Consequently, in addition to a computer and a desk often filled with paperwork, her office features comfy furniture for long talks with students, flags and numerous cultural decorations, paper tissues for crying, a picture of one of her two daughters and at least eight teddy bears of varying sizes, the largest being life-sized. “You are on the other side of the world, away from everyone you know. Who do you go to for hugs?” Laura asks me, an international student from Turkey, in order to illustrate the importance of ISP’s community building efforts. She adds that the teddy bears in her office can be borrowed for this very purpose.

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International students first meet ISP through the non-personal e-mail address of isp@caltech.edu, with which they communicate for the most banal yet stressful task of visa application. These emails are mostly informative, communicating to students the required tasks, relevant websites and recent regulations that may affect their visa situation. Yet even through this most dry medium, the welcoming character of Laura and her colleagues at ISP sometimes shines through. Otieno “Otis” Robert, a Caltech freshman from Kenya, remembers these initial communications as some** **of the most helpful and warm emails he has received. On the other hand, Chi Hoang, an international student from Vietnam, notes that these communications can feel frustrating especially when there are bureaucratic troubles within the visa process, even if ISP wasn’t the responsible party.

Photo: A World Map with pins for each home-country of current Caltech students, currently hanging in the corridor outside Laura’s office.

One interplay between Laura’s two-fold role on campus is that even the international students most disinterested in ISP must eventually visit her, as immigration paperwork is inescapable. The drudgery of filling out forms, which is a routine Laura appreciates, is contrasted by Laura’s warm manner. “Students come to talk about paperwork and immigration, but soon enough we are talking about life at Caltech, beaches of Croatia or places to visit in Europe.” she notes. Such routine paperwork visits are often enough for Laura to kindle a bond with the student. In this manner, paperwork becomes an unlikely tinder for campfire conversations.

Laura describes the international student orientation as “the heart of what we [ISP] do.” Every year, she works to make this first experience of Caltech entertaining, fun and informative. “I want the students to know that we are excited to have them here.” After the two-year hiatus on orientations due to Covid-19, Laura is glad to have the yearly event back. Unlike other events ISP hosts, international student orientation is required. Otis, who works at ISP part time, estimates that only about 50 percent of the international student population partake in these various events. “Students don’t realize there is a lot more to these offices than their main official duties,” he laments. ISP, he says, is a “source of support for international students more than any other office.”

Photo: Another glimpse of the corridor outside Laura’s office.

However, ISP work is not always fun and games. There are times Laura has to help students navigate academic troubles, personal problems, getting scammed, grief, homesickness and other heavy issues. The most difficult moments in her recent memory were helping students navigate the fear of vanishing futures through former President Trump’s “muslim ban,” attempts to assuage distressed students in visa limbo during the pandemic through Zoom, and reaching out to students affected by the ongoing wars around the world.

Laura acknowledges that the office’s ability to learn and deal with student troubles is limited, and the global situations affecting them are often way beyond their control. Undeterred, Laura heads ISP as an apolitical but ever-present safe space. She brings an “options first” approach to aiding students. By illustrating the possible paths ahead, she works to ensure students don’t lose hope and can continue their lives on the driving seat. To this end, she has expanded the Alumni relations ISP has, as she views international alumni as an invaluable source of advice for students grappling with issues similar to those of their predecessors. How willing are alumni to help current students through ISP? “I have never had someone [an alumni] say no,” she says.

Laura says an upcoming challenge ISP faces is “work.” More precisely, an increase in its amount. International student numbers have increased dramatically in recent years.

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In addition to a steady increase to the number of international degree students at Caltech, ISP has also welcomed a growing number of international non-degree students through SURF, exchange programs and visiting student programs. Yet ISP still has only two full-time workers and one part time worker. Consequently, Laura and her coworkers spend more time dealing with paperwork, which takes time away from the other aforementioned endeavors. As the specter of the red file cabinet threatens to return to her friendly** **office, Laura hopes ISP can grow to match the needs of the growing international student body of Caltech.