How a book changed my life
A Year in Review
December 31, 2022
When I began to market and publicize my book in spring 2021, about six months before its publication date, I was reluctant to share it widely with my professional network—with people like you—most of whom work at colleges and universities or are people whose work touches students. This book that I had written—America Calling—was always meant to be a very personal book, one that was different from my research publications. I was also very conscious of the fact that a lot of my personal life would be revealed in the book; it is, after all, a memoir.
Every author has been confronted by the dreaded “audience” and “market” section of their book proposal where they are required to answer this question in great detail and with supporting statistics: Who will want to read your book and who will want to buy your book?
And while my imagined audience included all sorts of potential readers—Indian immigrants in the U.S. who had walked the same path as me; readers who like immigrant literature; women who enjoy coming-of-age narratives—it never included anyone who worked on a U.S. campus, and it certainly never included international students themselves. I intended this book for a much wider, mainstream audience and one who perhaps had not crossed paths with an international student and who certainly did not understand their journeys or their value. So—even though the book title has the word “student” in it—I never ever saw how or why the book would appeal to those I work with, let alone students themselves.
But all this changed...
…a couple of months before the book’s release, when Miriam Feldblum, the head of an organization called the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, suggested that they would like to do a launch event for the book and provide a copy of it to all 23 university presidents and chancellors that sit on their Steering Committee. Not only did the launch event include university leaders who—like me—were former international students, but it also included a scholar of international student trends, and one of the top journalists writing on international student issues. Almost 250 people registered for the event. Suddenly, what had seemed to be my small little secret that I had been reluctant to share, began to seem like part of a larger story, and one that could perhaps resonate with my colleagues and with international students—former, current, and future ones.
Fast forward…
2022 comes to a close today and the only way I can sum up the past 15 months since the book’s release is that it changed my life. I know that sounds trite and melodramatic, but it is true, and here’s why.
Writing the book helped me…
Find My Purpose. The book has helped me embrace a new and evolved role as an advocate for international student issues, and to lend my voice to things that I have cared deeply about for many years but that were always sublimated in the interest of being neutral and objective. I can now be authentic to who I am—a former international student and an Indian American immigrant—and what I believe in. This was not possible when I was simply a researcher, studying from my detached perch the issues that matter to me, all the while knowing from my lived experience that there was a deeper, untold narrative behind the data and numbers.
Redefine and Re-frame Impact. Something I have been reflecting on a great deal over the past few years is the notion of leadership and personal impact. Can you be a leader if you’re not leading in a traditional, hierarchical way? I think we all instinctively know that the answer is “yes,” but how do we actualize this idea? This came into sharper focus for me once the book came out and I began to see that there is room to lead through presenting bold ideas, starting necessary and overdue conversations, and inspiring others to be authentic by being so oneself. Between 2021 and 2022, I’ve done ten campus events and keynoted eight industry events, all of which have enabled me to be a champion for international education and to problem-solve alongside colleagues and students on how to strengthen our field, particularly when it comes to serving international students.
Reconnect with students. This is perhaps the best thing that has happened this year! I have always loved working with young people, both as a teacher and as a mentor to future international education professionals. I had never imagined that this book would be embraced by students—that today’s TikTok generation with short attention spans would have the patience or interest to engage in a book by a former international student whose experience preceded theirs by a couple of decades! But it turns out that many of the social, cultural, and academic issues that international students faced back then are just as relevant today and in fact touch a broader swathe of students, including those of immigrant origin and those who are refugees. This past year, I have woken up to many messages in my inbox sent by international and other students across the country who have read the book or heard about it and want to connect, and to be heard. For those of us in international higher education whose work is not situated on a campus, it is often easy to forget that at the heart of much of our work is the student. This past year has helped me bridge this gap and to be closer to students and their issues as never before.
Deepen my professional relationships. Something about the book seems to have opened the door to deeper and more candid conversations with colleagues on issues of mutual interest. These conversations have ranged from the substance of our work, to career changes and professional transitions, and to lots else in between. Perhaps this had to do with the book, or with this particular global moment in time we find ourselves in, or that I am now an independent entity, representing only myself, which likely makes these exchanges more possible and accessible. I have also felt supported in my work and ideas as never before, with colleagues stepping up and offering to organize book events at a local bookstore in their hometown or proposing the book for a book festival. It also felt as if the book was able to give voice to and surface issues that many of those who work directly with international students on campuses care about, and whom I’ve gotten to know much better this past year. It reaffirmed my feeling that the book and specific journey within it was mine, but the broader narrative belongs to us all, albeit in different ways.
Align my creative and professional sides. Last but not the least, but perhaps most personal, the book allowed me to accomplish something I have attempted to do my entire life: align my creative and professional sides. If you’ve read my book then you know that my early callings were perhaps to go to art school or become a writer, but neither seemed to offer a clear-cut professional path. So, all these years, while pursuing a reasonably successful career as a researcher and authoring academic and research reports and books, I managed to write one nonfiction book on travel and history, a bunch of travel and personal essays, and put oils to canvas every now and then. But America Calling has made the accidental more intentional. Since 2021 I have been creating in one form or another. In January 2021 I launched this newsletter for which I write original content (such as this). In May 2021 I officially launched Rajika Bhandari Advisors, a data-driven international education strategy firm through which I have had the privilege of working with wonderful nonprofit, corporate, and university partners. A year later, in March 2022, I launched my podcast, something I’ve wanted to do for a few years but the book’s release provided the necessary push and inspiration. I have also received LinkedIn’s endorsement—I am apparently a “content creator” :-) And the best part is this: everything I am creating is also linked to my professional work—one feeds the other.
As I reflect on all that this year has brought, I am filled with gratitude for the support of my colleagues, of so many students, and others whom I got to know through this journey, strangers who reached out over social media and wrote to me through my website. And if someone asks me about how to change their own life and bring it into alignment, you know what my advice will be: Write a book! There is no better process for exploring internally and externally who and what you’re meant to be and what your purpose is.
Wishing you all a very Happy New Year and the very best for 2023!
Rajika
My recommended book for 2022
I first came across Arthur C. Brooks’ work in a groundbreaking article that he wrote for the Atlantic in 2019 titled, Your Professional Decline is Coming (Much) Sooner Thank You Think: Here’s how to make the most of it. His arguments made perfect sense as I too had been reflecting on issues such as professional success, career changes, the many facets of leadership, and finding alignment and purpose in one’s professional work. This year, Brooks published his excellent book, From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life. I highly recommend the book for anyone in their forties, fifties, and beyond who is asking some big picture, existentialist questions of themselves on how to redefine success, accomplishment, and impact in this phase of our lives.
America Calling updates
I was on the road and busy in October and November with several book-related talks and events. Here are two events that meant a lot to me.
Kenyon College: I was a keynote speaker for the Global Engagement Week at Kenyon College in Ohio where I got to also meet with university leaders, staff, and students to learn more about the college’s international engagement. It was also lovely to attend an annual dinner that brings together all the international students and their host families. Being a writer, I was of course delighted to be on the campus that is the home of the legendary literary journal, the Kenyon Review (housed in the lovely building in the photos), and to have my book displayed at the Kenyon College Bookstore which is the nation’s oldest continuously running college bookstore and the third oldest bookstore of any kind in America!
International Education Week (IEW) in Washington DC! Celebrating IEW in DC has always been very special for me as it’s a moment for universities, nonprofits, the government, and embassies to gather together to acknowledge the immense value of educational diplomacy and exchanges. This year, I was honored to participate in a very special event at American University hosted by Senem Bakar, the university’s longstanding and amazing Director of International Student and Scholar Services.
Holiday Picks!
I’m thrilled that the Foundation for International Understanding Through Students (FIUTS) in Seattle has picked America Calling as part of its bookshop.org Annual Holiday Booklist for 2022 alongside several bestselling and celebrity authors!
It’s podcast time!
You all know I run my own podcast, the EdUp World Wise podcast, which interviews guests whose work is at the intersection of education, culture, and migration. But I love the back and forth and exchange of ideas when I get to be a guest on other podcasts. I really enjoyed the conversation with my good friend Ben Wildavsky on his Higher Ed Spotlight show in which we talked about a range of topics relating to international students. And then I also got to be on the Rational Middle Podcast about immigration issues and where the conversation focused on international students as future skilled immigrants.
Where to buy America Calling
Signed copies (for sale in the U.S. only)
