Diversity at Bryn Mawr 6 Week Project

Changing Our Story 6 Week Project Proposal

Significance of the Issue: While there are many Asian students, international and from the US, we have noticed that there aren’t very many students who identify as Asian American. We want to bring attention to this minority at Bryn Mawr and examine the individual struggles that are associated with being caught in between Asian and American culture.

Objective: To portray the issues that Asian American students at Bryn Mawr face and to give insights about how they see themselves and fit into the community at Bryn Mawr. We believe that by observing this topic, we will be able to encourage discussion about a group of students that is not usually focused upon.

Plan / Approach: There are several methods in order to answer various questions about what it means to be Asian American, especially at Bryn Mawr College. These options include possible interviews with students who identify as Asian American, an analysis of the population of Asian American students compared to international students and other ethnicities, and possible insights into various culture groups on campus and examine the diversity within those groups. Using this information we plan to create either a video or an article that would help to exemplify individual experiences that occur on campus.               

References: Our resources will be primary sources, interviews conducted by us from students at Bryn Mawr College as well as archives that are held within the school.

Questions:

How is the term “Asian American” defined? Does being born and raised in America mean you are automatically Asian American? What if you are only ethnically Asian but have not partaken in any of the culture?

Did you always identify as Asian American?

Do you feel as if your Asian background and your American background are equal?

What are some issues concerning being Asian American? Is there anything specifically in terms of stereotypes?

For my six week project with my partner, Dorothy Kim, we plan to look at Asian American representation and the Asian American experience at Bryn Mawr. I am interested in pursuing this project because I rarely hear the perspective of Asian Americans at Bryn Mawr, just as I rarely heard it at my high school. In addition, I haven’t met very many Asian American students, mostly Asian students. I am also interested because of my own personal experience and identity. I’m curious about how many Asian American students there are at Bryn Mawr total especially because I recently spoke to an upperclassman who told me that there were very few. This sparked my interested because it’s curious that with such a high percentage of students of color, there aren’t very many Asian American students.

I expect that it will be difficult to find student to talk to because neither I or my partner know very many Asian American students. In addition, it can be very uncomfortable or cause anxiety to speak to people about your race, ethnicity, identity, and experiences. I anticipate people being shy and desiring anonymity or not wanting to speak with us at all.

We hope to interview these students and either record their voices or film them. I would like to film them because I believe that it will be more authentic to have people addressing the audience and speaking about their own experiences. It’s like having a primary source, which is much more compelling than having a secondary source. Hopefully, if the students allow us, we will film their interviews and then, edit them into a short movie that we will show to the class.

To begin, we plan to create a survey to find some self-identified Asian Americans. We will post the survey on Facebook to attract responses. Then, we will sort through the answers and contact people who respond that they would be willing to help us with our project. From there, we will edit the video clips into a film.