Xinmeng Yang - Week 4 SS1

In this week's reading, Ping Wang used his poetic words to describe her tough situation as a academic worker on campus. She has suffered from severe mental issues, but she couldn't speak anything or she would be fired. What supported her was her care towards her students and teaching. After reading this poem, it reminded me a class I took last quarter: the professor was from China, joined UC Davis in 2016. The classroom was always empty, and many students complained that her lectures were boring. At the end of the quarter, she sent us a email that she really wish we can give her a positive comment on course evaluation if we like her class. To be honest, I don't think her lectures were attractive, but I can feel that she put much efforts on class, and she didn't trick us on exams. I don't usually do course evaluation unless I have some complaints, but this time I filled the evaluation for her.

The reading by Yoo emphasizes the importance of care work on campus. I want to connect the survey result of the reading to my personal experience at UC Davis: as an international student here, sometimes I suffer from emotional problems. Loneliness, homesick... these can be factors that affect my mental health. I wanted to seek mental health counseling on campus, but the counselors only speak English. I felt tired to state my mental issues in my 2nd language, so I lost my willingness to see mental health counseling. I'm always wondering, since we pay much more tuitions than local students, why school don't hire a mental health counselor that speaks another language? The video we watched in class also indicated that Chinese students will reach 20% in the future, why there's no mental health counselor that can speak Chinese?

Question: Since students are encouraged to see mental health counseling, are professor encouraged as well?

Wang, P. (n.d.). She Shall Not Be Moved. Retrieved 7/14/2019, from https://canvas.ucdavis.edu/courses/392140/files/folder/Weekly Readings/Week4?preview=6353500
Yoo, G. et al. Care work: The Invisible Labor of Asian American Women in Academia. Retrieved 7/14/2019, from https://canvas.ucdavis.edu/courses/392140/files/folder/Weekly%20Readings/Week4?preview=6353486

Image: https://adaa.org/asian-americans