ISSS Podcast: Global Connections at USF
Episode #6: Culture, Community, and Empowerment

Transcript 


Host: Hello and welcome to our first fall 2024 episode of Global Connections at USF. I am your host, Rashi Bhatt and I'm excited for all of you to find out everything International Student and Scholar Services has planned for our listeners this semester to start us off this episode. 
 
We have Anne Lei and Sylvia Reboul in conversation with us today. 


We'll be hearing about internationalism, culture, and how their work makes integrating in the US F community for international students. A little bit more seamless. 
Can you both please introduce yourself the role you play and tell us a little bit about your background, please. 


Ann: Yeah, I'll go first.  Hello, everyone. My name is Ann. My pronouns, are she hers. I'm an assistant director here at the cultural centers. I specifically oversee all of the operations and management of the Intercultural Center. You'll see that the cultural centers is composed of two different centers, the Intercultural Center and the Gender and Sexuality Center. Specifically the IC runs programming related to race, culture, ethnicity, class and the intersections of those concepts. 


And I would wanna say that a lot of what I do and the, the work that I center myself in is around community building for a lot of different groups around campus that especially need more more resources towards like building community. So, yeah, that's a little bit about myself and I'll pass it to Sylvia. 


Sylvia: Hi. So my name is Sylvia. I am a third year public health major and I work at the intercultural center. And what I do is I'm in charge of Cafe International. 
Cafe International is an event that happens every other week on Tuesday, starting Tuesday, September 10th. And my work is to create a space for international students and for students that just care about cultures and different perspectives to come together and bond, have fun and all of that. I started this semester and it has been very fun so far. 


Host: Lovely, welcome, both. So to begin with, I guess international students may not be so familiar with the cultural nuances of race, social justice equity and the importance of these values here in the US. 
 
So can you briefly describe them for us and our listeners and how they can always reach out to your offices if they'd like to receive more information and just educate themselves a little bit more on these topics. 


Sylvia: Mhm It's really about easing international students into that space because obviously you don't really think about your culture once you're at home because it's who you are. 
You don't think about all of that. But it's when we come here and we're outside of home that there's culture nuances and different perspectives that come into contact and you stop thinking of yourself as, oh, I am this person, but I am this person from that space. 


And so with the event and my position, it's mostly about making that transition more easy allowing for students to maintain their cultural background like that side of themselves, but still be able to mix into all the different cultures that we see, be able to be open minded, share who you are. 
 
But when you come into this new place, also how to not lose yourself and your background and you may be in the United States, but you're still a person from Africa or from Asia or wherever you're from. 


Host: Yeah, I couldn't agree more Sylvia, there is a great need for this perspective that you mentioned from my experience as an international student, I'm always looking for spaces on campus where I can connect to other diverse cultures and get the full experience of being at a university from people all over the world, right? 
 
If I don't take advantage of engaging in those conversations and making those connections here, I probably would be missing out on a large part of what our university has to offer. 
Ann: Race is really this like social construction that humans have used to kind of understand and categorize people in the world based on perceived similarities and physical characteristics. And also oftentimes like, people from similar races often share a lot of cultural similarities. While also wanting to highlight that there are cultural differences and nuance between all of different ethnicities within a race, right? 


And then, for me, social justice has such a broad definition and I think it is a very personal thing to each person. So everyone might have their own different version of what they particularly think social justice is. But in a sense for me, I think social justice is when we as humans group together and work together towards the liberation of both ourselves and each other because we have the shared understanding that we live in a society that really caters to specific positionality and identities and that a lot of us will be experiencing oppression. And so really social justice is how we work together to be in community to fight against injustices that everybody faces. 


And really, sometimes you might think of that as something that is too large or too big for yourself to handle. But I think that social justice can be enacted in really small interpersonal ways where even the ways that you're interacting with one person could be a form of social justice because of you being able to validate their humanity. Being able to build community with them and be in solidarity with them. So it could be as simple as that. 
  
And that's something that I see us doing in Cafe International in ways that how are creating community space and a sense of belonging for international students when they may not feel that they have a place to call home or a place to call for refuge on campus. So really being that safe space for students on campus, for them to feel like they can explore and create connections. 


And yeah, if you want to learn more about that, we actually do run a workshop series every single fall at the cultural centers. So you can sign up to learn more about the intersections of race and social justice and equity in the US context. And I highly recommend a lot of international students sign up for that because you can get linkedin badges and certification in these concepts while also learning alongside other students and building community with them. 


Host: Thank you for sharing all the information with us and like you said, by attending the workshops or having a conversation with somebody from the cultural centers, you educate yourself a little bit more on these topics and start implementing the values on a day to day basis, right? Like in your interpersonal relationships, it starts becoming more and more approachable instead of these very big daunting topics to tackle. 


And so in the case for spaces like Cafe International, how did they come to be? Was there always a need for international conversation space like this, I'm curious to know how this program got started. 


Ann: Yeah, I think there's always been a need but these spaces haven't always existed, which is why the cultural centers eventually was something that came to fruition. And is a space that fights for these types of spaces for students of different marginalized identities. Cafe International has only been in existence to my knowledge within maybe the past five years. They wasn't really a space for Cafe Internationals that was created by a department. 


I'm not sure how long the International Student Association has been in existence, but as a department on campus, we worked with ISS and we wanted to ensure that there was some type of structural support for international students outside of the student organization. So really, we worked in tandem with ISSS to think about how we can best serve international student needs? 


And that's how Cafe International came about. And it actually came back, came out kind of organically in the beginning, the original space of Cafe International was created by our previous program manager CY. He was an international student and had a lot of connections to international students. On campus, he would have a wechat group and was just always inviting folks into the space and eventually it built into a really big space where we're like, ok, let's have something weekly for students to come by and, and hang out with each other and get to know each other and just get to talk to each other. And ever since then, it's kind of become an annual thing that we try to do as often as we can and make sure that there's space for Cafe International to let students grow relationships. 


And also as a way for us to find out if there's any particular needs that international students are going through. Like that's a way for us to be in direct contact and communication with students to find out what are their current needs of the year and how we can best support them with our departmental resources to assess what those needs are and to try to figure out how we can alleviate those issues. 


Host: Yeah, that's awesome. That's great to know that it is grown out of an organic need for a space like this from an international student themselves which brings me to you Sylvia. So as an international student, what have been your experiences so far and what do you expect students are hoping to participate this semester to take away from Cafe International.
Sylvia: I would say my experience has been good so far because when I first arrived, I was looking for places to be a part of so that this university and the city could feel more personal so that I can have a connection. That's the mindset I had coming in. I think because my sister also went to this university and she went through it. I had a lot of help. She introduced me to ASA, the African Students Association. And that's where I met a lot of other African students because I'm from Congo. And that helped me. 


I started being introduced to a lot of new groups and it was good because San Francisco is very diverse. I never felt like people looked at me differently or treated me differently because I was from another place because of my accent because I'm not American. I felt like people, it's as if people love that about me. And so that was amazing. 


And then I got to learn about the Cultural center. Just the name of the cultural center intrigued me because it's like, OK, it's cultural, I'm all about culture. So I wanted to learn more. And then I would see on Instagram all the events that they do and really the fact that they're focused on community, community for all types of students. 


Then I saw that they had a position and obviously, for me being able to work with cultures and international students was very important because I cannot imagine my first years at us f if I didn't have that community, whatever, that is a community of people that understand my struggle, know what I'm going through and being able to work at the center with Cafe International and giving that to other international students felt extremely important for me because maybe if I didn't have my sister that also went to this school, I would not have known about it. 


I say I would not have known about multiple clubs on campus. And I feel like there's a lot of people right now that have that mindset and I want them to expect Cafe International to really be a place where they can be there most cultural self because something that will happen with international students is like you wanna put that cultural side of you to the back so that it feels to you as if you're fitting in and with Caffeine International, we want students to fit in by being 100% themselves. So I want them to expect a lot of bonding, a lot of fun and a lot of conversations, especially about culture. 


Host: That's lovely. It's like a space for students, people, anybody that's participating to express their true cultural identities without feeling the pressures of acculturation and like changing yourself to fit into American academic spaces and campuses. So I really love that I'm hoping to try and participate, at least at the first one coming up in a couple of weeks myself. So I'm looking forward to it. 


Do you think visiting Cafe International is a good place for international students to start where they can explore or figure out the other clubs or like student organizations, like other places where they can start immersing into the USF community and find out information, make connections there. Do you recommend that's a good place to start for them? 


Sylvia: Definitely, because obviously there's a lot of clubs on campus for cultures, but the Cultural Center is the place where they can all come together, you know, so for cultural students to not only be with people of their own culture, but be in a space where it's all cultures because we always want to work with those clubs. It's never some type of competition. It's really a place where all the cultural clubs can come together and enjoy company and everything. 


The Cultural Center would be a great place to start because that place can introduce you to some specific other clubs when coming to the events of the Cultural Center, you can meet a lot of other people, you can meet people that are from the e board of different clubs and all of that, it's really, I feel like the Cultural Center is the foundation for when it comes to all the cultural clubs and activities on campus, you can start there and that would be an amazing way to get introduced to clubs and opportunities a bit more specific to certain cultures. 


Host: Yeah, that makes sense. Thank you for sharing. And then I know there are a ton of other programs I always see like Boba is like set up for other events and I know there's a sip and stitch. 


So, and do you wanna talk a little bit about some of the other must visit for international students? There's the Lyricist Lounge, Art programs, et. Super exciting things happening on UC four. 


Ann: Yes. Thank you for asking about those. So I definitely recommend coming to the Lyricist Lounge. It's one of our bigger monthly events. So if you aren't able to catch one of them, you can catch the other one. 


Whether you identify as a performer or not, I highly recommend coming because you get to hear about the deep rich meaningful stories of other students here at us f It's a space of student self expression and there's a lot of creativity in the space. We see a lot of poets, singers, rappers really just a space for students to come share their story in their most creative way and to be accepted and, and heard and you, you can have zero level of like performance history. 


It could be your very first performance ever. It's just highly encouraged that you come and speak your piece and we often have novice novices come and become returners. So really, you also don't even have to perform. If you just love seeing others perform, it's a great space to be in and to learn about other people's personal stories or they share a lot of things that are fun, that are sad, that are joyful. So you get to hear the range of things.


As for some other programs, I recommend international students to come to, we do host and celebrate a lot of heritage months throughout the year. So we try to uplift different cultural identities throughout the year based on their heritage month. 


So this first upcoming one in September is Latin Heritage Month for students who identify as Latina, Latino Latinx. Next one in October, we have LGBT Heritage Month as well as Filipino American History Month. And in November, we have Native American Heritage Month. So there's always gonna be some kind of cultural celebration that you can tap into. And it's really encouraged that you come and learn about other cultures and like traditions that they like to do during their cultural celebrations. 


Or if you just want to feel celebrated in your own identity, identity, because you identify with that shared identity. It's a great way to connect with others who share similar heritages to you. 


You did mention a couple of fun activity hours and one of them was called Stitch and Bitch. So we have ST and Bitch and glitter and both of those are decompression spaces that you can come and just hang out and relax and we provide all the supplies, whether it's nail painting or stitching or crocheting. It's a way for you to connect with other students in a very relaxing environment. It's a very easy place to tap into and leave. If you need to, you don't, you're not expected to, to stay for very long. You can come and go as you please. So it's a really easy going activity hour. 


And then highly recommending that y'all attend any of our end of year ceremonies. Those are also another way in which we uplift cultural heritage and celebrate all of the achievements that you've made throughout your years here at USF and it's a way for you to celebrate your graduation while also celebrating your identity. 


Host: Lovely. I think the word you were looking for was non committal. Like no pressure, don't stay until the entirety of the hour. Awesome. Thank you for going over all of those. 


I know Sylvia, like you are taking on a leadership role and very much involved in the planning and organizing for Cafe International. But are there any of these activities that you've participated in or you recommend that this is like a must visit for students. I had a lot of fun stitching, crocheting, and painting my nails. I don't know if you wanna like, plug in your favorite?


Sylvia: The cultural center does so much that it would be difficult to have a favorite. I can talk about the few that I've attended that I absolutely loved. 


My favorite one I believe was a paint and sip and it was so nice because you get to paint and it doesn't matter what level you have, whether you're a beginner or advanced. They provide everything if you don't really know how to paint. Like there's a picture of something you can follow and just paint that if you don't even know how to figure out what to paint or if you just wanna follow your vibe and do whatever they have tools for that as well and you can paint whatever and obviously you get to enjoy free B B so that's amazing. 


I loved the stitch and bitch because I don't know how to push. It was glitter hour. I love the glitter hour. We kind of mixed it. We had glitter hour but also stitch and bitch because people could do their nails and change that, but they could also crochet. I don't know how to crochet, but it was really, really, really fun. Because we have people there that know how to do it and they'll just explain it to you. We had music playing snacks at one point. We even played the movie while we were crocheting. So it was very, very fun. 


The most recent one was there is this Lyricist lounge and it was just great because you get to see the creativity that people have. I feel like I witnessed some great future artists there not even like exaggerating because I, I saw songwriters, people writing their own poems and it's like it doesn't matter like your level or how you feel, you can literally just go and follow a prompt, go up there and say it, you can get gifts. There's that one person that received a notebook with Lyricist Lounge written on it because they were the first ones to perform. So it's really great. And again, free snacks are available. 


Host: And as we come to a wrap, I'm going to ask you guys one final question. So for all our incoming international students, what's the one tip that you'd like to give them to start getting involved on campus, building those connections and integrating at the US sub communities. We'll start with Sylvia. 


Sylvia: Well, obviously my one tip to all international students would be to come to Cafe International on September 10th because it's really, really fun. We're preparing a lot of snacks, international snacks, not the American snacks that we see most of the time we're preparing international drinks. And so I feel like it would be an amazing tip because you'll get to see people from different cultures. What you get there is you won't stay in a place where it's all your culture, it's diversity. And with that, you can make a lot of connections because when you first come to university, it's all about like creating your group, your space and it would be extremely boring if your space is composed of the same people, same major, same background with Cafe International and a lot of other events from the Cultural Center. It's impossible that you would go to that event and just see the same kind of people. 


Host: Lovely. Thank you. And Ann.


Ann: For me, I think don't be afraid to take that first step and try to say yes to things more often. But try to in your first year experience as many things as possible so that you can really figure out your spaces on campus that you love. 


So I would say, yeah, just try to say yes more often. Say yes to yourself, say yes to opportunities and say yes to go into things. 


Host: Thank you Ann and Sylvia for speaking to me today and introducing our listeners to the cultural centers. It's events like Cafe International and how your role makes cultural integration at USF possible. 


Thank you to our listeners for tuning into our first fall episode, we look forward to hearing your feedback and comments via our Instagram. All of the resources mentioned along with our Instagram handle will be linked below. Thank you and see you next time.