Spring Break
International faculty members share their stories
Katie Stoneback
Issue date: 4/23/09 Section: Features
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"The idea of today's program was to talk about Asian cultures and American cultures and the transformations from one to the other," said program organizer Sylvie Henning.
The program was broken up into two parts. The first was about resources for international faculty and students, and the second part included participants telling stories on their adaptations from Asian to American culture.
John Tucker, the director of Asian studies on campus, stated that approximately three students are in the Asian Studies program, but expects to see the Asian Studies curriculum expand in the years to come.
Panelists Bill Mallett and Monika Wojciechowski from the office of International Affairs, spoke on behalf of the students in their department.
Wojciechowski has traveled to different countries across the world educating and recruiting students to study at ECU.
"We had to recruit students in countries that could actually afford to come to ECU," said Wojciechowski. "The numbers of international students have grown, especially from China and South Korea."
The second part of the program had two main discussion questions,"what kind of situations are the ECU Asian faculty members facing?" and "how can the situations be made better?"
"My students will sometimes giggle about the way I say some things but it's something I cannot control, so I just let it go and continue with what I am supposed to do; I don't take it personally," said Korean professor Okmyung Bin, Ph.D.
Indian native Priti Desari, Ph.D., said that having an Indian passport gets her into trouble at a lot of airports.
"No matter what, I have to go through extra security when I am at the airport," said Desari.
Chinese immigrant, Rosina Chia, Ph.D., has been at ECU for over 30 years. She was only the fifth Chinese professor to ever teach at ECU.
"I will not go looking for discrimination, if you look for it, it will be there," said Chia. "I didn't look for it, therefore I did not see it and I am very happy."
International studies graduate student Gulzhan Elkin came to the United States from Kazakhstan in 1999.
"When I came to America, I had to find positive things, start meeting different people and seeing new things; my life changed," said Elkin. "If you want to meet prejudice people then you will, but I'm glad to be here. I love North Carolina, and I love ECU."
This writer can be contacted at features@theeastcaroli
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