What should be done?

         My Op-ed claim is answering the BIG question “What should we do?”. My claim is answering this BIG question by informing the audience that their should be a stronger effort put on both persuading international students to attend college in the U.S., and U.S. students to participate in study abroad programs. 

Although my main BIG question is “what should we do?”, the other BIG questions, “What exists?” and “What is good?” will be used in my report as well for a few basic reasons. By answering the question “what exists?” my audience will be given a background on international students and study abroad programs. Though my claim is mostly answering “what should we do?”, I will be answering the question “what is good?” quite frequently in order to give my audience examples and reasons to why my claim should be acted upon, which hopefully influences them to act upon it [my claim] themselves.

Along with answering the three BIG question “what should we do?”, “what exists?” and “what is good?” I will also be answering the questions “why we should do it?” and “how should we do it?”. The answers to these other two questions will impact the audience by giving them a background on how international students effect the world as a whole and also on the much smaller scale of how they effect individuals. By using the question “how should we do it?” I will inform my audience on small things they can participate in in order to help increase the number of international students, as well as the number of American students participating in study abroad programs.

Through research I will show how international students effect their host countries and also how they positively effect their hosting institutions. For example, according to the Department of Commerce, international students brought roughly $25 billion dollars into the  United States as of last year. 

In terms of study abroad students I will show the audience how their[the students] participation abroad helped give them a better resume and gave an edge in the competitive job market system. 

I will also inform the audience of what international students bring to their host institutions in cultural standpoints, along with how they effect the rising generation in their home countries. For example how the increased literacy rate in some countries is proportional to the increase in international students coming out of those same countries.