Marketta describes her experiences with race growing up.

Marketta

NARRATOR: International students come to the University of California, Irvine for many reasons, from a chance to experience a place and culture far different from home, to the promise of greater opportunity and an education that will prepare them for a globalized world. However, upon arriving in the United States, many students are faced with  not only academic issues, but adjusting socially and culturally into their new environment. 

At University of California, Irvine, The International Peer Group, or IPG Mentor Program, provides freshman international students at UCI with support and guidance to help them adjust to life in the US through the building of strong social ties. Mentees are assigned “family groups” with whom they participate in various activities and programs designed to build networks and create a safe space for international students as they transition into their life in the United States. Mentors are present within each family group to guide the mentees in their adjustments to a different lifestyle. 

Hestia Liu, a freshman international student, speaks about her problems with her writing professor. Ashley, Hestia’s mentor, sat in on the interview, as Hestia had never been in front of a mic before, and was a bit nervous. 

 HESTIA: So um, because there are a lot of Asians really here, we are usually misguided as people who speak English really well, and it gets a little bit weird.

ASHLEY: Yeah? 

ELIZA: How so? 

HESTIA: Like, when the instructor assign a writing assignment, I feel like the other people write differently than I write, and when my writing teacher, he says something political, everyone kind of responded, and… instructors feel like you should know this, because I never told them that I was an international student but I didn't want to tell him because that seems like telling him that I need help like that, and I feel like I could do it on my own. 

NARRATOR: International students often encounter misunderstandings of that nature, part of the reason they feel it’s more difficult to make friends. Danna Zhu, another one of Ashley’s mentees, talks about how she experienced friendship through an event  put on by Ashley, her mentor, to help mentees bond. 

 DANNA: We had a bonfire, and we barbeque, because I love barbecue and I love beach,  I love the seawater so that’s why  I loved that event very much because I think food is a big deal for me, so.. Um,  I love it because also it’s a very good event to strengthen the bonding between mentor and mentee and also with other mentor and mentee; but actually...yeah, actually there is a thing in China, I don’t know if you guys have it in US, that is um, it doesn’t matter to which event you go, what matters is… um… what person you go with when you go to the event. Yeah, I think this is most important. If I went to the bonfire alone it’s very awkward, right - [laughs] but when I went to the beach and bonfire and enjoyed the sea water, the beautiful scenery with mentor and other people, that makes the event much more interesting.  

NARRATOR: After a thoughtful pause, Zark, another mentee who is also from China, likens the love and support he has received from the program to his meaning of “home”. 

ZARK: In China, home is the place where we do our homework. But here… home is… I think here, home is friendship and pleasure. 

NARRATOR: This is Eliza Partika for UCI Life.

This UCI Life

A podcast for This UCI Life as part of a class assignment, in which I explore the experiences of international students at UCI, and their attendant struggles.

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