‘Fighting for this dream’: PSU international student helps change policy to allow 200+ to extend US stay

For months, Penn State senior Esha Pathak felt as if she was running for her life. She tossed and turned at night, unable to think about anything except whether she’d be able to remain in the U.S. She felt more scared with every passing day.

As an international student — a 22-year-old woman who grew up in Mumbai, India — she knew last summer her time in the U.S. was limited. With her student visa, she could stay in the U.S. for about a year after her May 2022 graduation. Even if she lined up a job, she would still have to leave after that year, unless she received an H-1B visa during a random lottery to extend her stay. She feared her time was running out.

But, on a recent afternoon inside Penn State’s HUB-Robeson Center, Pathak smiled as she explained that she can now breathe again. She didn’t receive that H-1B visa — not yet — but through her own research and help from both Penn State and the undergraduate student government, she found a way to temporarily extend her stay in the U.S. by two years. And not just her stay, but every Penn State economics major on a student visa — 231 current students in all.

“It’s a relief; there’s literally no other way to describe it,” said Pathak, who’s set to become a financial consultant. “I felt like I was fighting for this dream. ... And I’ve gotten such an overwhelmingly positive response from other kids that have reached out to me. There’s so many texts I’ve gotten, like, ‘You changed my life.’ “

The change proved to be a small, bureaucratic one to the federal code. But that minor change will allow countless future economics majors in Pathak’s position a better opportunity to pursue their dreams in America.

The small change wasn’t simple, or quick, but it should be long-lasting. Here’s how it all happened.

A Confusing Start

Pathak knew she wanted to live in the U.S. since the eighth grade.

Her eyes would dart from one American YouTuber to another back in India. She especially loved one vlogger, who’d position herself in front of a colorful bookcase while sharing her finds from a Manhattan Barnes & Noble. She’d romanticize sipping coffee inside cafes. And people-watching in the bustling city. Pathak’s parents would remind her that Mumbai had bookstores. And coffee.

But Pathak would tell them it just wasn’t the same. She wanted to see the world. She wanted to attend what she deemed a world-class university. And she wanted to eventually move to New York City. That dream stuck throughout high school, culminating in her acceptance to Penn State’s University Park campus for the 2018-19 school year.

She understood then how being an international student worked. She would receive a student visa, which entitled her to four years at Penn State and then one more year in the U.S. for “optional practical training.” That OPT would allow her to hold, at minimum, a short-term job and to have one shot at an H-1B visa, a three-year visa (with a potential extension) for working professionals, given out randomly in a lottery every year.

Fewer than 3 in 10 applicants receive those visas, based on the most recent data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. And Pathak knew, if she didn’t get the H-1B visa on her first try, her OPT would be over in 2023 and she’d be forced to return to Mumbai, India’s financial center.

At least, that’s what she assumed.

It wasn’t until a conversation with her cousin that she started to see everything differently. Most, but not all, international students receive just one year in the U.S. after graduation; the exception is STEM students, those in science, technology, engineering and math. They get three years instead of one because of the high demand for such employees.

And it turned out that Pathak’s cousin, an economics major at Washington University in St. Louis, was considered a STEM student. He qualified for the three-year stay in the U.S. after graduation.

Surely, Pathak thought, that must mean she’d get the three-year stay, too. They both shared the same major.

She didn’t.

From phone calls, research and meetings, Pathak was told — sometimes by puzzled officials — that WashU’s economics major was characterized as “Econometrics and Quantitative Economics” with the federal code one digit different than Penn State’s, which was defined as “General Economics.” The former was considered a STEM major; the latter was not. When presenting the information to one of her professors, she can still remember the instructor scrunching his face up before managing, “Why?”

“That frustrated me because I realized that, at Penn State, I was doing a lot of technical heavy-lifting for my classes,” she said. “And so, for me, that was a disconnect. I was confused about why a major that should be technical and is recognized as a STEM major at Ivy League schools and other Big Ten schools wasn’t STEM at Penn State. That’s why I started this process of advocating for that.

“I had friends that came in, and are my year, and they came in solely passionate about econ. But they took majors in physics and computer science only to get the STEM extension. ... I didn’t want to do that.”

Making a change

This past July, Pathak decided something needed to change. And since she refused to adjust to the system — she had always declined to switch majors just for the STEM extension — she aimed to reform the system.

She initially visited a handful of Penn State outreach departments, speaking with employees that could tell her that economics wasn’t considered a STEM major — but not why. Employees often seemed equally confused, Pathak said, but routinely told her economics likely wasn’t considered technical enough.

“It was just systemic,” Pathak said, adding she doesn’t blame anyone there. “Nobody knew enough about it.”

Undeterred, Pathak reached out to the University Park Undergraduate Association, where she found a friendly ear in former student President Erin Boas. She soon learned a better plan on how to elicit reform: They needed to reach out to university officials who could change policies, not just recite them. So they began emailing officials in both the College of the Liberal Arts, which houses economics, and the Schreyer Honors College, which Pathak was a part of.

Many didn’t know it was an issue.

“I would not have been aware of it if Prof. (S.J.) Jun and Esha hadn’t brought that to my attention,” acknowledged Richard Page, the College of the Liberal Arts’ associate dean for undergraduate studies. “And, of course, when we saw that was the case and that some other economics departments across the country changed their STEM code, we said, well, we should do the same thing.”

The change didn’t happen overnight. Pathak and the UPUA met either between themselves, or with university officials, at least twice a week. Emails were constantly exchanged. For months.

Page said the College of the Liberal Arts quickly realized Pathak was correct and worked to amend the federal code, known as the Classification of Instruction Programs (CIP). While Page worked behind the scenes to justify why the program should be reclassified, Pathak felt as if a barbell was placed across her chest. Time was running out. Pressure was mounting. “The fear was consuming,” she said.

Then came the good news.

After class in February, she felt a familiar buzz from her vibrating cellphone — an email from the university. It let her know that her economics major was officially reclassified. She was now a STEM student. She had changed the system.

Pathak let out a deep sigh of relief while recalling the story. And she smiled again.

“It was like a pinch-me moment,” she said. “You’re just working toward something for so long. And you finally get it.

“I feel like I can breathe again now. It’s just a relief.”

Looking ahead

Pathak is set to graduate next month, and she’s set to live her dream shortly thereafter.

She took a job with Ernst & Young, one of the world’s Big Four accounting firms, in New York City. She’ll now be able to stay in the U.S. until at least 2025, allowing her three total chances at an H-1B visa and many more opportunities for book-reading and coffee-sipping.

It even turns out the change is retroactive. So Pathak’s close friend, an international student who graduated last year as a Penn State economics major, will also get to stay an additional two years. She already lives in NYC — and plans to help Pathak navigate the area when she moves there.

Pathak hoped to share her story to inspire other international students not to take the first “no” they hear. She also wanted to spread awareness of the fact international economics majors now get the STEM extension at Penn State. And a UPUA official told the CDT it hoped this would spark further advocacy for international students, who have historically been overlooked.

Page said he welcomed students who see something amiss not to keep it to themselves. Changing the CIP wasn’t a difficult decision, he said; it just wasn’t something they were initially aware of.

“This will have a huge impact on our international students who are majoring in economics,” Page added. “It just really opens up a lot more opportunities for them.”

Pathak doesn’t know if she’ll try for citizenship or a green card if she gets that H-1B visa. For now, she’s relishing in the extra time she’ll have in the U.S. She’s happy — and content that she’ll be able to live the dream she first thought of back in eighth grade.

“I felt like my dream was being taken away from me, and I needed to fix that,” she said. “I had to do something.”

And, in the process, she helped hundreds of others.