Van-Anh Tran ’27, a student Leadership Educator with the Garthwait Leadership Center (GLC), co-authored a book chapter on international students’ experiences in leadership positions. Tran drew on research for an anthropology fieldwork methods class at Gettysburg College and an experiential learning opportunity through the GLC.
When Van-Anh Tran ’27 began an ethnographic project for her anthropology fieldwork methods class at Gettysburg College, she couldn’t have anticipated that the assignment would lead to a published work. Through an opportunity with the Garthwait Leadership Center (GLC) — where she worked as a student Leadership Educator — Tran turned experiential learning of leadership into scholarly insights. Her research appears in the book “International Student Experiences in the United States and Canada: A Multidisciplinary Examination of Challenges, Prospects, and Opportunities” (Star Scholars Press, 2026).
Tran, an anthropology major from Vietnam, designed her anthropology fieldwork methods project around a question that had long interested her. She examined how leadership programs help international students acculturate to U.S. campuses despite the difficulties they face. As an international student herself, she had noticed that conventional ideas of “leadership” often reflect Western cultural norms, favoring assertive, directive communication styles that did not necessarily align with her own background.
“Leadership was honestly a vague idea that’s kind of culturally and socioeconomically biased,” she explained.
Her work at the GLC changed that understanding. Through hands-on experience as a Leadership Educator, Tran learned to embrace “her authentic self and cultural insights,” while also learning how to “serve others’ needs,” she explained.
The opportunity to publish some of her research from her Gettysburg coursework came after Tran attended the 2024 Leadership Educators Institute (LEI) in Philadelphia, made possible by funding from the GLC. There, she met Laura Vaughn, a Ph.D. candidate at Florida State University who was presenting her own research on international students in leadership positions. The two discovered overlapping interests and decided to collaborate on chapter eight of Vaughn’s book.
Despite the logistical challenges of coordinating across time zones, the collaboration proved successful. “Laura was very patient with me, and everything worked out perfectly,” Tran said.
Tran also observed how program participants and colleagues from diverse backgrounds formed meaningful relationships over time. Those observations served as the foundation for her chapter, which focuses on the GLC’s strategies for fostering authentic leadership and well-being in its programs. Her key finding is that growth and belonging come from trust and autonomy, which must be intentionally built into relationships between facilitators and students.
“Good programming also takes time—lots of it,” she said, noting that educators must listen to student concerns and make appropriate changes over time.
Tran hopes her experience will encourage other international students to pursue majors in the social sciences and humanities. These fields sometimes carry stigma or financial concern among students from developing countries. “I just want to clear that hesitation,” she said. “Anthropology does have a lot of practical applications and career paths that can be lucrative, such as in tech fields.”
Trans credits Gettysburg College’s Anthropology Department—and specifically Chair Donna Lynn Perry—for supporting her academic goals.
“Gettysburg has an amazing Anthropology Department with professors who are always willing to go the extra mile to help dedicated students achieve their academic and career goals,” Tran said.
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By Awa Diop ’29
Main photo by Alyssa Riegel
Posted: 05/20/26