20 Countries Represented in Incoming Grad Class

20 Nations at Fall 2018 Grad Orientation

Last year was a record-setting year, with the highest number of international graduate students admitted since the Graduate School's founding in 1937. Counting the U.S., twenty-one countries were represented in the incoming class of 2017. This year, we are pleased to say that we welcomed students from twenty countries to our community.

A Group of International Students Pose for a Photo at International Graduate Student Orientation, Fall 2018

The vision of the Wheaton College Graduate School is to see "God transforming the world through scholars and practitioners rooted in Christ and equipped for global leadership." President Ryken's recent reflection in the Wheaton Magazine highlights how the College has focused its strategic efforts on becoming a more intentionally diverse and "globally connected" place of learning. As Ryken notes,

"The world is coming to Wheaton, and Wheaton is going out to the world."

Dr. Mary Yeboah, Assistant Director of Graduate Student Life, highlights the global vision of the school, "In U.S. institutions we're often tempted to 'help' international students acclimate to U.S. culture, almost as if they need to learn how to fit into our 'box.'"

"But," Mary says, "cultural adjustment actually is supposed to go both ways! My vision for International Student Life is that the Graduate School would be a unique environment of belonging, shaped and informed by dialogue.

We have so much to learn from one another, and each individual student brings a perspective that is integral to understanding the global picture of Christ's Kingdom."

One of our Graduate Student Chaplains, Nathan, is a Billy Graham Scholar from Sri Lanka studying Historical Theology. At the weekly Graduate School Chapel services, Nathan finds joy in joining his brothers and sisters from around the world in worship: "It is refreshing to be a part of the voice that emerges out of coming together in worship, to be identified with the multiplicity of voices from around the world, all united as one. In this fellowship, I am reminded that the thing I believe in my corner of the world is actually something that another person believes in a totally different context, too. Grad chapel becomes a weekly place of dwelling in that reality."

For Wheaton, "global leadership" is a journey on a two-way street. In classes, community, and chapel, God is blending the diversity of voices from around the world to shape leaders who will bring about world transformation. 

Students Assemble at Barrows Auditorium for Graduate School Orientation, Fall 2018

Thanks to our endowed scholarships and other sources of funding and support (like the Billy Graham Scholarship Program), students from (and seeking to go) around the world are able to come to Wheaton College Graduate School.

Here is the complete list of nations represented in our group of new graduate students:

1. Brazil
2. Canada
3. China
4. Colombia
5. Czech Republic
6. Egypt
7. Ethiopia
8. Hong Kong
9. India
10. Japan
11. Korea
12. Malaysia
13. Singapore
14. Spain
15. Taiwan
16. South Africa
17. Thailand
18. United Kingdom
19. United States
20. Zimbabwe

Check out more stories about the Wheaton College Graduate School here.