International Students International Student Stories Multicutural
Karen R.
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KAREN R. Home: California “Students don’t have to fit their identities into a neat little check box” | ||
Identifying as mixed race, Karen felt she didn’t fit perfectly into any of the ethnicity options listed on her application, nor did she feel comfortable in many of the race-delineated minority student groups on campus. Luckily, she found Fusion, a Wellesley College group designed to facilitate discussions on campus about multicultural, multilingual, international and mixed-race issues, one of several mixed-race student groups at colleges and universities all around the Boston area. Here she found a community talking about issues of identity, perception and communication that she felt were unique to mixed-race students. “You could really feel empowered here,” she says. “I was able to say what I wanted to, but be in a safe place to do so.” |
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Bianca S.
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BIANCA S. Home: California “Boston is such a huge college town. We have students coming from all over America and the world.” | ||
Bianca left her Mexican-American family in Los Angeles to pursue her dreams of a musical-theater career. Despite the fact she was thousands of miles from home and in a strange city, she immediately fit right in. “Boston is such a huge college town. We have students coming from all over America and the world,” she says. “There’s no push for any culture, for any race. It’s a big city, but you still don’t get a big city feel...I’ve never felt invisible here.” |
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