In the summer of my junior year, I worked as an International Student Orientation (ISO) Intern for the Office of International Student Affairs (OISA). As an ISO intern, I organized and facilitated pre-arrival and orientation programming for incoming international students, helping them adjust to their new life at Wesleyan.
One of many events I organized, collaborating with the office of Student Academic Resources, was an event catered for international students who are American citizens or permanent residents who have lived abroad titled “Culture Shift Happens: A Discussion for Non-Visa Holding International Students”. Both the other international student orientation intern and I fall under the broad definition of international students (i.e., while both hold U.S. citizenship but predominantly grew up abroad). Something that we realized during our time at Wesleyan is that much of the focus on international students falls on visa holders. We thought that this session would be a good opportunity to discuss and provide insight into the adjustments that we have personally experienced.
In a classroom in Exley, we arranged the seating in a circle to foster an environment conducive to open dialogue, covering a variety of pertinent topics. Beginning with academic disparities such as classroom dynamics, grading systems, and available support structures, the discussion progressed to delve into more nuanced issues like discrimination, microaggressions, and the sense of otherness experienced by individuals navigating multiple cultural worlds. To prompt further reflection, we screened a video that discusses the dilemmas of those who are in between cultures, and this sparked a thoughtful discussion on the concept of “home” and the complexities of cultural identity.
I explained that for me, the feeling of “home” as a more nuanced construct rather than a physical tangible place is definitely something I experience. Certain scents or specific layouts of rooms give me nostalgia, but if someone were to ask me which country or countries I felt most at home or comfortable, I could not give any names. Home has always been where my family were, and certain moments in life remind me of that.
We further discussed experiences of feeling a sense of in-betweenness or like an outsider at times because of the fact that you have straddled both or multiple worlds, as well as feelings of feeling ostracized or being ostracized by people who fall more-wholly under one of your “worlds”. We continued to share personal anecdotes and experiences that shed light on themes such as cultural rejection, identity crises, and the influence of language, offering insight into the complexities of international student life. While this session was designed for the incoming freshman, I personally found this session to be healing; it allowed me to contemplate the intricacies of my own personal identity amidst diverse cultural backgrounds and a deeper self-awareness of my position within the international student community at Wesleyan.
