CGEE programs encourage thoughtful reflection during and after any study abroad experience. One student recently returned from our Central America semester program, has written a piece on her identity as a Malaysian citizen who came to the US to study as an International Student, then went on to be the only International Student in her study abroad cohort to Central America with a group of US citizens.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“Reflections of an International Student on a CGEE program”<\/p>\n
by Nicole Tan \u2013 Colorado College,\u00a0Fall Semester 2015<\/p>\n
As an international student in the U.S., I have often felt the divide between \u201cUs Internationals\u201d and \u201cThem Americans\u201d. My social circles formed in freshman year, and by luck of an all international triple [room placement], I\u00a0somehow found myself unintentionally gravitating towards the familiarity of other international students. In some sense, the\u00a0glue for this\u00a0bonding came out of anti-American sentiment. This is not something I share out of pride, just a lens\u00a0to understand part of my college experience.<\/p>\n
Coming in to this program [in Central America], I was forced to break away from this cocoon as the only international student in a group of seven. I think in some ways, it gave me my\u00a0identity as a student in the U.S, chipping that divide between \u201cUs\u201d and \u201cThem\u201d. Being a U.S. student defined my experience in a way that Nicole straight from Malaysia wouldn’t have seen. Perhaps this is not my own country’s history, but I am a student in the U.S, intertwined in some way with Central America’s history.\u00a0For instance, I was afforded certain privileges as a U.S. student. Coming in to an airport, my student visa often\u00a0allowed me easier access than my Malaysian passport. And on top of that,\u00a0in most situations, it was simply\u00a0assumed that I was from the U.S. as I moved with the other students.<\/p>\n
I think as an international, it can be easy to bash on certain\u00a0U.S. citizens who lack knowledge of their country’s foreign policy.\u00a0You share experiences of your own country’s history and its links to the U.S.\u00a0and sometimes you see blank faces and a vacuum of knowledge. For me, Central America simultaneously\u00a0fueled my critique of U.S. foreign policy, yet chipped away at my willingness to lash out at U.S. citizens.\u00a0I was surrounded by a group of well-informed, engaged students who understood the presence of U.S. influence in Central\u00a0America.\u00a0Yet together, we found ourselves constantly confronted with knowledge that we simply had not known beforehand.\u00a0In the classroom, U.S.\u00a0influence\u00a0evolved into facts on\u00a0the propping of dictators, monitoring of elections\u00a0and the\u00a0funding of wars.\u00a0I was confronted with lies, manipulation and dispersion of false information.<\/p>\n
My experience\u00a0reaffirmed to me the importance of remaining a well-informed global citizen. What happens right in front of us that we are not aware of? Yet, it also helped me understand the overwhelming task of being an informed U.S. citizen. This is not to excuse an aversion to politics and news. But this\u00a0did help me understand the daunting task in front of U.S. citizens when U.S. influence casts a wide net all over the world. This experience helped me affirm the need for education yet simultaneously created empathy by\u00a0putting me in the shoes of U.S. citizens, helping me break that divide between \u201cUs\u201d and \u201cThem\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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