Many international scholarship programs expect that graduates will return home to apply their education for socioeconomic development, yet national contextual factors shape these anticipated outcomes. Through comparing Georgia and Moldova, this research examines how one contextual factor—the home government’s reforms—influenced U.S. higher education graduates’ pathways. Notably, the decade-old, pro-democratic revolutions in each country were identified as “critical moments” that shaped how international scholarship alumni estimated their role and responsibility in their country’s progress. Findings contribute to nuanced understanding of how student mobility influences change in post-Soviet countries, leading to improved international education programs.

中文翻译：

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探索母国政府改革与国际高等教育奖学金计划参与者选择的关系

许多国际奖学金计划期望毕业生返回家园，将他们的教育应用于社会经济发展，但是国家背景因素决定了这些预期结果。通过比较佐治亚州和摩尔多瓦州，这项研究检验了一个背景因素（内政的改革）如何影响美国高等教育毕业生的升学途径。值得注意的是，每个国家十年来的民主革命都被认为是“关键时刻”，它塑造了国际学术界校友如何评估自己在国家进步中的作用和责任。这些发现有助于对后苏联国家学生流动性如何影响变化的细致理解，从而改善了国际教育计划。