Week 6: Raylph Evangelista - A01

Raylph Evangelista

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A01

I feel like the readings for this week are pretty relatable to most of the people in our class, especially those that identify as Asian American. After going through the articles, I'm starting to realize that other Asians on campus probably share the stress that most of us have from just being an Asian in higher education. To be completely honest I felt a strong sense of relatability with the article On Some College Campuses, A Focus On Asian American Mental Health and the article What Asian Americans Are Bringing to Campus Movements for Racial Justice. The reason being that they both address the problem of being a model minority and the stresses that a good amount of Asian Americans face. I personally do not have depression, but I know people that do and I know that this does not help with that. There was a certain part of the article that spoke about an Asian man who chose to go with civil engineering not because he liked it, but because all the pressure from his family made him succumb to it. Even though this is unfortunate, I feel like this happens quite a bit among Asian Americans in higher educations. I feel like some people just choose a major in STEM because their parents tell the to pick a good major that will "make good money", which is sad in the sense that these same people will be studying something that they might not even be interested in. What boggles my mind even more is that the article that was based on Asian American mental health was written in late 2013, which is a little over 5 years ago. I feel like the problem of mental health among Asian Americans needs to be addressed and I believe there needs to be more resources for Asian Americans. It sucks having to live up to societal standards and I can't even begin to imagine how people who do have depression and anxiety, from all these standards, feel about all this.

What percent of Asian American students choose a major in the STEM field to make their parents proud?

References

Putterman, Mark T. What Asian Americans Are Bringing to Campus Movements for Racial Justice, Race Files, 2016.

On Some College Campuses, A Focus On Asian American Mental Health, New America Media, 2013.