In this week’s reading, We read the article On Some College Campuses, A Focus On Asian American Mental Health, by Katherine Kam. It is a very interesting topics to talk about because a lot of Asian American can really relate to the mental health problems. First, she talked about asians have to deal with model minority pressure. Many people assume that every asian is smart and they are good with math, it might be true to some extent because of Asian’s high academic achievement. This puts enormous pressure on the students who aren’t very good in STEM subjects. They have to deal with the stereotypes that everyone assume they are smart, and if they don’t do well academically, they might feel like that they are being judged by their peers. I remember long time ago, when I was talking a math class and I felt like I had this weight on my shoulder that I had to do well in all my exams because I’m an Asian. All the people I met that’s not Asians, they would always assume that I got straight A’s. I wasn’t feeling too bad about myself because I always ended up doing not so bad, however, I could imagine how stressful it could be when everyone assume that you are doing very well academically. Another issue many Asian Americans are facing is family expectations. The journey of many immigrated Asians to the United States was not easy, and the parents expect their children to do well in school and become doctors or engineers. In reality, not many people can become doctors or engineers. People always assume asians are so smart and they don’t struggle in school, but in reality, they are dealing with so much that no one would really understand expect themselves.
Question for this week: How can Asian Americans find their sense of purpose and belonging in college?
Kam, Katherine (2013). On Some College Campuses, A Focus on Asian American Mental Health. New American Media.
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http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/35bnki
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