Embracing the “Giant Salad Bowl” of Diversity in the U.S.

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Seoyeon Bae came to the U.S. during third and fourth grades to learn English. By the end of her 18 months in the country, she didn’t really want to go back to Korea.

To her eight-year-old self, the U.S. was a “giant salad bowl of people.” Ever since then, she has wanted to live in the U.S. to experience that diversity.

In her three years on campus, Seoyeon has worked hard to ensure all students with marginalized identities feel welcome, whether they are from another country, LGBTQIA+, or students of color.

Deciding on a future path

Seoyeon came to the University of Minnesota set on studying psychology and becoming a therapist. Then her mom introduced her to the world of advertising, thinking it would suit her creativity.

Seoyeon was interested, but she felt like she had to choose one over the other. Attending an event held by the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication made her realize she could in fact do both.

One of the current students at the panel session was double majoring in psychology and strategic communication. She was also Asian American.

“I was telling her that I had trouble persuading my parents that I wanted to do strat comm, because in their minds strat comm wasn’t as strong of a field,” Seoyeon said. 

The other student understood. She encouraged Seoyeon to follow her own passions and told her that her parents will support her.

Seoyeon ended up dropping her statistics major, which her parents had originally insisted on, and switching to strategic communication.

Seoyeon said she is still trying to decide on a career that would combine her interests. But wherever she ends up, she knows it will involve empowering people and “trying to change the world somehow.”

Creating a welcoming environment

Seoyeon has already been working on that goal at the University of Minnesota. She received the Donald R. Zander Alumni Award for Outstanding Student Leadership for her effort to create a welcoming community for all international students.

As the marketing coordinator for the International Buddy Program (IBP), Seoyeon helped students from around the world connect, even when separated by COVID-19. She also used her IBP connections to conduct research with Richard Douglass, an assistant professor of psychology, on how COVID-19 impacted East Asian international students. 

Through the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program and Culture Corps, Seoyeon interviewed other students about their experiences during the pandemic, focusing on Asian students due to the impact of COVID-19 on their racial and ethnic identities.

“I wanted to look at how COVID-19 specifically affected East Asian international students because I was personally heavily impacted,” Seoyeon said. “I wanted to highlight that we are actually struggling in a very unique way and people need to pay attention.”

Seoyeon’s research developed into a desire to make a safe space for students that she felt were, like her, more segregated because of the nature of their identities. 

“A lot of us have family abroad or friends who are all over the place, either other international students or American students who went back home,” Seoyeon said. “It felt like our support system was kind of dispersed.” 

Bringing students together for Zoom events helped create a new kind of support system. Seoyeon and other international students may have been struggling, but they were going through similar challenges together. 

Serving marginalized identities

Seoyeon has served other identities on and off campus, as well. She became a community advisor in a residence hall her sophomore year.

“I got to interact with people from so many different backgrounds,” Seoyeon said. “I learned so much about identities, and about myself as well.”

This year, Seoyeon was a community advisor in Comstock Hall, serving the Lavender House living learning community for LGBTQIA+ students.

“[Being a community advisor] has been one of the most rewarding things that I’ve gotten to do,” she said.

In her first year on campus, Seoyeon got involved with the Minnesota chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, volunteering to be on a podcast talking about mental health and different marginalized identities. In 2020, she joined the multicultural youth advisory board.

The board has collaborated with the University of Minnesota Black Student Union to make self-care kits during the pandemic. It has also created a series of podcasts with Black Lives Matter activists, healers, and activists discussing how COVID and recent cases of police violence have impacted their work and their identities.

Seoyeon says her fellow marginalized students serve as a catalyst for all her work: “I can fight so you will feel more welcomed in this world.”