The students participating in the “Coming to America” panel were united by two facts: They were all MU students and were from different countries.
The panel, put together by MSA chairwoman Lakeisha Williams and hosted by MSA senator JoMarie Infranca, was a part of the Missouri Students Association Multicultural Issues Committee’s first Multicultural Week. The festivities started April 20 with a charity drive allowing students to donate their meal plan swipes for food to contribute to Rainbow House.
The panel provided five students born in different countries with the opportunity to speak about their experiences in the United States and at MU.
“My favorite thing about Mizzou would probably be all the different ways you can get involved, all the organizations that are available here on campus,” said Ana Whitaker, a sophomore from Bucharest, Romania.
After delving a bit deeper into their cultural and personal backgrounds, the panelists were asked what initial differences they discovered between their birthplaces and the United States and whether they felt accepted in their new environment.
“In Canada I never really knew who was an international student and I never really was aware of different groups,” graduate student Juanita Kwarteng said. “It was pretty rare to see a group of all black or all white. It was just a huge mixing pot. When I came here I noticed a lot of segregation, typically based on race. It was really surprising for me and something I didn’t really understand.”
Several students spoke of their childhoods with high degrees of harsh discipline, controls and restrictions in their home countries.
“You guys have child laws,” Whitaker said. “You can’t beat a child if they won’t go take a nap, but in Romania there’s no such thing. When I was in the orphanage they could do whatever the heck they want to you. One of the first times my parents spanked me, I thought they were going to beat the crap out of me.”
A member from the audience addressed the question of whether the students have experienced any significant cultural surprises once they began attending MU.
“In Mexico there’s only one religion, and it’s Catholicism,” freshman Alberto Baltazar said. “Here there are religions I have never heard about. I’ll just talk to people and say, ‘Wow, I’ve never heard of that, tell me more about it.’”
To conclude the panel, Infranca asked the international students about stereotypes. The panel did not hesitate to express how misguided American actions and words can be toward foreign members of society.
“I think the danger of stereotyping is it only shows one side of the story,” Kwarteng said. “I think that if you see people all the same, you can’t see the diversity within groups. Every person in a group has a different story and a different way of representing their own culture. Stereotypes tend to be a lot more dangerous than positive.”
