Final Medium Post

First I chose to interview someone who comes from a similar background as I do. I interviewed my roommate Kelsey. Kelsey and I both come from the same city (Lakeville MN). We are both the same race, have the same type of family life, living situation, and are both are part of the same socioeconomic status/class. Here is a snipet of my interview with Kelsey!

Q: Have you found being away from your family to be hard even though you are about twenty minutes away?

A: It is hard no matter what the distance for every student. The support that you are surrounded with your whole life from your family changes to phone calls & facetiming. I still see my family on the weekends and my friends that I have met at the U definitely have helped me with my adjustment.

Q: Have you experienced pressure from the University of Minnesota/peers regarding being involved with clubs/ activities on campus?

A: I had a meeting with my advisor and she asked me if I was involved on campus. I felt obligated to say yes because I felt if I did not say yes I was fulfilling the “right responsiblities” I needed to be within the first weeks of my freshman year.

Q: What has been the hardest challenge of college thus far?

A: The work load outside of the classroom that the professors expect us to teach ourselves and managing my time. The fact that a majority of my homework is now online including my text book is alot different from that of high school. I liked having my homework in front of me more than having it posted on a screen. Also the fact that teachers want us to email with questions rather than the old face to face discussion can be frustrating at times.

Kelsey discussed ideas relating to living up to expectations that she feels were set by her family, friends, and even social media. She also suggested how different the work load of college is compared to that of high school; which she anticipated. As I assumed I was able to relate with Kelsey on many fronts. Mainly because we share so many of the same morals, ethics, values, and even share a common background.

After talking with Kelsey, I later went to talk with my C.A. Apurva who is an international student attending the U of M. I really wanted to see how different our experiences would be afterall we come from contrasting backgrounds. Here are a few questions and answers that stood out to me after our talk.

Q: Were any barriers created by you coming to the University of Minnesota from a different country?

In most aerospace engineering companies there is a law (ITAR) where you cannot have foreign nationals on the base. Which makes it more difficult to pursue an internship in this field. There are other internships and scholarships which automatically disqualify you if you are not a U.S. citizen. Also if I want to pursue an internship outside of my major I am not allowed to. I would have to get permission before doing so.

Q: What was your main drive to pursue aerospace engineering and college at The University of Minnesota?

My family placed a strong value on education as a whole. My family says, “our education will become who we are”. In twenty years my family went from a village in India to pursuing our dreams in the U.S.. Many of my cousins are studying in the U.S. also. My main drive as a female is to be independent, and I do not want to rely on anyone else for the rest of my life. My dad always said, “I do not have an empire for you so you have to go make your own money.”

Q: What are three things American society puts value on as a whole that you were not used to?

I don’t like using “American society” because that generalizes the culture as a whole. Also I speak for myself, and not India as a whole.These are just observations that I noticed while I have been here.

1. Working out- there is a huge focus on working out no matter what the circumstance is. In India we worked out, but we did it by playing sports or leisurely. Not a huge focus on “going to workout”.

2. There is a huge tendency to act like they know everything about a specific place. Just from knowing one thing about that place. It really confines foreign groups. Also you cannot make judgement about a place through a movie (example: Slum Dog Millionaire).

3. Make up is a huge focus for women. I love the idea of spending time on yourself, but I am more of a naturalist. To me it is not a daily thing; it is an every once in a while type thing.

After I talked with Apurva I realized how different her experience at The U of M would be compared to mine. What really stood out to me was her response regarding internships (shown above). It opened my eyes to barriers that people can come across in college that I had not even ever thought of.

Because I chose someone who was similar to me (my roommate Kelsey) and someone who was very different than I (Apurva) I decided to choose someone in between. I chose a friend from my highschool Justin Yee. Justin is similar in that we both come from the same city and we know the same people. He differs in that he is Chinese and is a male. I was curious to see how these factors would play into how he would answer these questions:

Q: What are some things that stood out to you about growing up in a predominately white city?

A: People were mean growing up. They did not consider minorities to be American. White was considered to be normal. Anything aside from white culture is not seen as American.

Q: Do you think that being Chinese has affected your college experience in any way at The University of Minnesota?

A: In some ways it has effected meeting new people. I feel like some people assume I am an international student, and are less likely to approach me because of it. If I were walking down the street, and a white person was staring at me I would think that they are thinking I am an international student. At the same time minorities are judging white people because of that. If I were to meet a white person who is an international student that would surprise me. Minorities see white people as judging them so them so we are equally judging each other.

Q: What are some things that stood out to you about growing up in a predominately white city?

A: People were mean growing up. They did not consider minorities to be American. White was considered to be normal. Anything aside from white culture is not seen as American.

I learned that two people can experience the same high school, city, and friends in two totally different ways, and both viewpoints are 100% correct. It really opened up my eyes when Justin says he is less approachable because people assume that he is an “international student”.

I also interviewed Savannah, who is my neighbor in the dorms. Take a look at what she had to say about her favorite part of freshman year!

https://youtu.be/bTrSn0Q5jPc