Hello everyone! I hope that this blog finds you all well. I wanted to share with you all what it has been like in my experience to be an international student at Scripps and the Claremont Colleges.
Although I was born and raised in Ecuador, my mother is American, so I always understood American culture and for the most part believed that I belonged to it is many ways. When I got to Scripps, I realized that although I had been exposed to the culture of the U.S. growing up, I did feel like I was somewhat of an outsider because I had a different upbringing than the rest of students. Luckily, I was able to participate in NISSO which is the international student orientation of the 5C’s where I met other international students and even some like me who have a parent from the U.S.
One of the workshops that we had during NISSO was about culture shock, which I believed I was not going to experience. I was mistaken. The first time I experienced it was during CORE 1, all of my classmates were connecting to the topic at hand with their personal experiences and I could not relate to any because they had to do with being an American and growing up in the U.S. and for the most part, growing up in California. I had nearly no clue what they were talking about and could only share my experiences which were sometimes disregarded or ignored not in a mean manner but because they could not connect with my experiences either.
It was not all that easy for me to make friends with American student because I didn’t understand friend culture or “hang out” culture but I didn’t let this stop me from making friends and becoming a highly involved member of the Scripps community. Some of my closest friends are international, and I am grateful to have them because sometimes I don’t know how I will get through something without someone who understands how I feel. Nonetheless, I did not want to have gone abroad for college only to have international friends, so I decided to take on as many jobs I could, be involved in multiple clubs, as well as run for positions in SAS (student government).
As an international student the best advice I would give other international students is to branch out, definitely maintain relationships with your international friend because they are the only other people that can share some of you experiences but also take advantage of all the opportunities to meet new people. The Claremont Colleges are a great place to make many friends some of which you know are fun to hang out with to study, other are more adventurous so you go on hikes with, others can be the food lovers, so you always know who to ask to eat. I have so much to thank Scripps for, and one of them is definitely allowing me to meet a wide range of people and allowing me to make friends with people who can be very similar to me or very different but that make my college experience 110% better and more fun.