What does belonging feel like? When Marina Uehara asks international students what makes them feel like they belong, they often speak of a person who made time to greet them, answer their questions, and get to know them.
What doesn’t help with belonging? Not surprisingly, most students cited bureaucratic processes and paperwork.
Marina and her coworkers in International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS) make it their mission to ensure students feel welcome. This includes helping them navigate the red tape that comes with crossing international borders to attend college.
Empathy rooted in personal experience
As ISSS’s director of student engagement, Marina connects students with the resources they need. She has planned educational events on topics such as how to survive Minnesota winters and how to use health insurance in the U.S. She supervises the University’s Culture Corps program, which helps international students develop leadership skills and connects them with project opportunities across the University.
A former international student herself, Marina brings a deep understanding of what students are going through. As an undergraduate at another institution, she witnessed how the school could’ve improved its treatment of international students after a distressing incident.
Marina also remembers how some of the faculty and staff at that institution “stepped up to the plate” for international students. She now uses that experience to inform her work today. “I knew how much of a difference [faculty and staff stepping up] made for me, my mental health, and my wellbeing.”
Besides the emotional support staff and faculty provide, they are also crucial for navigating bureaucratic processes. Marina likes to tell the story of getting her first Form I-20 when she was a University of Minnesota graduate student, and the staff member who helped her complete it. “I remember how he treated me in the five hundred questions I had to ask him,” she says. “And when I [joined the UMN] staff, I still remembered him as someone who had been kind to me.”
The staff member still works at the University. He and Marina once looked back on the conversation. “He pulled up the email from back then, and he was like, ‘Oh, yeah, you did ask a lot of questions.’ But now, we joke about it,” she says. Today, Marina is on the other end of the conversation, receiving the questions.
Centering students
Marina ensures that students are at the center of everything she does. “I call them my true north,” she says. “What guides me to want to be better? What puts me in check, to make sure that what I'm doing is right and right by them?”
Marina works to create programming tailored to students’ needs based on what she hears from them. For example, Marina collaborated with Global Minnesota® and other Minnesota higher ed institutions to create “Welcome to Your Home State,” a virtual orientation to living in Minnesota. The webinar covers common topics international students want to know about, including transportation, how to survive winter, and, of course, the Mall of America. The session’s content was “co-created with student voices,” per Marina.
Sometimes, a student comes with a situation that requires a personal touch. Marina and the ISSS team worked with an international student who was in remission from cancer to connect them to healthcare providers in Minnesota. Their Minnesota care team helped the student gather necessary documentation to continue their treatment plan while in the U.S.
A support network for students and staff
Facing visa delays and shifting regulations in 2025, Marina worked with colleagues across ISSS and the broader University to develop a process map to keep students moving through the system. If a student reaches out during any part of the visa process, staff can immediately help the student in completing any steps before or after that point in the process. This allows students to spend their time preparing for collegiate life rather than knocking on multiple doors for answers.
“We want you to go to the Bookstore, buy your books,” says Marina. “[We want international students] making friends, trying the dining hall.” Not chasing down paperwork and navigating red tape.
The students weren’t the only beneficiaries of the informal system. The collaboration across ISSS, undergraduate colleges, Admissions, Orientation and Transition Experiences, and Housing and Residential Life created a “support network” for University staff, according to Marina.
For her outstanding work, Marina received a 2025 President’s Award for Outstanding Service.
Marina's favorite spots on campus
Marina loves the Arboretum in Victoria, and the St. Paul side of the Twin Cities campus has a special place in her heart. “It’s peaceful,” she shares.
Oh, and of course: “Anywhere that has free food.” Once a student, always a student.