Hey! I am Shriyaa and I am currently nearing the end of my first year as a graduate student in the Biophysics program. This being my first post for the ISSS blog, I am excited to write about how my experience has been over the past 10 months that I have been at the university. I would love to hear your views and experiences too, so just send me an email!
One of the issues that international students frequently face is being unable to find a sense of belonging at the university. These thoughts can be extended onto the twin cities, Urbana and Champaign, as Champaign-Urbana is predominantly a university town.
I can understand that recognizing that the US as your home is difficult and can seem impossible. However, the university is your home. You will forever be an Illinois alum once you graduate, and hence, having a sense of belonging, a feeling of attachment to the university, albeit not natural, is something that you should actively try to inculcate. Friends, a support network, classmates and counselors can only help you to get familiar with your surroundings, which will help you to get past the inevitable homesickness. But, I believe that a sense of belonging is a very personal experience, meaning that it cannot be the same for different individuals. Nevertheless, I am sure that I can list some of the things that I have done to make sure that I identify myself more as an Illini.
First, I started reading the Daily Illini. Until Fall 2015, the independent student newspaper was published daily, at least from MTWR (whoops, I just used the class timetable shorthand for days!) and a Buzz edition for Friday. Then, in Spring 2016, the newspaper turned bi-weekly (MR). Nevertheless, reading all of the news pieces twice a week is sufficient to keep you engaged with what is going around on campus. Not only is it informative, but rather often, you will read about something that you did or attended in the past week. What are the chances of that happening in a national daily newspaper?
Although I could never bring myself to read any of the national newspapers since I would still prefer my own country’s news, it was satisfying to be aware of what was happening around town. Doing the crossword with a friend over lunch was an added bonus. Daily Illini also has a website and you can subscribe to their RSS feeds if you are more tech reading inclined, but most buildings on campus have copies of the Daily Illini for you to grab while on the way to class. Also, if you forgot to pick it up on Monday, you can find them lying there later in the week too, as the stands are usually never cleaned out.
Second, I became aware of the holidays celebrated in the US. This may not be your culture, but one of the reasons that you probably came to the US was to gain a different experience from your own. So, during Halloween, pumpkin carving may be a great activity for you and your friends to try. The Illini Union also organizes an event in the week close to Halloween. It is a nice idea to celebrate unofficial St. Patrick’s day. Reading up on the history of how it came to become an annual celebration on our campus was a wonderful read for me. Since then I have told the story to so many oblivious others. I will refer the reader to this link from the University of Illinois archives.
At the same time, celebrate your own festivals and get together with others from your community during the festive season. Include and invite your American friends and international students from other countries to your festivities. I speak (write!) from personal experience that they are open to such exposure too. In fact, I have invited one of my professors to an Indian cultural night. I have been on campus for less than a year and I know that I have a lot more to explore on this multi-cultural aspect on campus. More on this in another post later, keep checking the blog!
If you ask me what gave me a sense of belonging to this place? Well, it was during the cooldown session of an hour-long Zumba class at CRCE, when Nicole (my instructor) joked about remembering how we all went to Espresso Royale to get their Wednesday $2 Lattes. Like many others in the class, I giggled as I had and still do sometimes.
Do let me know of your own experiences of when you felt that you are part of a bigger community, a tiny yet all-important part of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus. You can write to me at: smittal6@illinois.edu
Happy weekend!
