Claudius Hardrick, a first-year economics major, was walking down a familiar path at NIU when he spotted the Asian American Resource Center and remembered his goal to connect with his grandpa’s culture, which he hopes to make his own.
Hardrick recently found out from his grandma that his grandpa was Asian American. Living his whole life involved in African American culture, Hardrick was curious to venture out and see what he could learn about his Asian heritage at the AARC.
“I thought I was only African American, but apparently I have some Asian in me as well. So I was like, OK, I actually want to get into that,” Hardrick said.
Located on 375 Wirtz Drive, the resource center aims to enhance the quality of college life for Asian American students on campus through heritage programs, academic support and student organization events that foster inclusion.
For students like Hardrick, reconnecting with the past is important. Even though he can’t reconnect with his grandpa, he can try to understand the customs and traditions that his grandpa valued through NIU’s Asian American community.
The AARC provides a place to learn about and connect with people who share Asian cultures and help it thrive at NIU.
“I want to be able to actually find more Asian American people and actually talk to them, you know, to like, see how their family works and stuff, because I didn’t get to experience it fully because they both (his grandpa and great grandma) passed away,” Hardrick said. “So it’s just stories, you know.”
With about 6% of students at NIU being Asian, the AARC provides resources and support for a significant number of students.
Cultural resource centers give students a chance to find a home away from home. There is comfort in connecting with people who have similar backgrounds and understand things in the same way you do.
While the AARC serves as a vital support system for students interested in Asian American culture by offering a space to connect with their heritage and build community, it also sets a contrast to a broader issue.
The experience of finding a community that shares your background, traditions and values is a universal need. For students like Hardrick, reconnecting with an identity that wasn’t fully understood or explored is a meaningful goal – something that the AARC helps facilitate by offering a home away from home.
But, what about the students who don’t have such a dedicated space?
International students and first-generation students, especially those with Eastern European backgrounds, are often overlooked when it comes to cultural resources on campus.
Although they may not fit directly into the categories of domestic ethnic minorities, these students also face challenges related to cultural adjustment, language barriers and identity crises.
Many are away from their families for the first time and lack the support systems that other groups might have.
Many have to look outside of NIU to find this familiarity through cultural connection, which is difficult as DeKalb is somewhat an isolated place.
Just as the AARC gives Asian American students a space to learn about their culture and feel a sense of belonging, the same type of center could be transformative for first, second and third- generation Americans and European international students.
These students are also looking for ways to connect, share experiences and adjust to an academic environment that may seem alien at first. Often, they are left in the dark.
Asa Kuatzhanov, a junior marketing major, immigrated as a 16-year-old from Kazakhstan, a country that spans through Eastern Europe and Central Asia. He feels that these regions are underrepresented at NIU.
“I know about the Asian American (Resource) Center, like, I don’t think, like countries like Kazakhstan are, like, represented there, like at all,” Kuatzhanov said. “They mostly mean like, East and Southeast Asian. So yeah, I don’t feel any connection to them.”
Kuatzhanov went on to express the disappointment he felt as a first-year, trying to find a community that could understand his unique experience.
“It’s, like, disappointing for me, yeah. Like freshman year, like, my goal was to find, like, people from my country, or just like Russian-speaking people,” Kuatzhanov said. “I was just like, trying to find, like, friends from there. But like, I just gave up. I couldn’t, so I just joined Greek Life and everything.”
In this way, Eastern European and European immigrant students, as well as Americans with these cultural backgrounds, are underrepresented at NIU.
While there are no specific statistics available on their population at NIU, their presence and perspectives could significantly diversify and enhance the cultural experience at NIU, as well as enhance their own collegiate experience.
By bringing these student cultures to life at NIU, administration would surely see people from all kinds of cultures engaging with a center for people from a variety of European backgrounds. This would be similar to the European Union Center at UIUC and the Center for East European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies at the University of Chicago.
