Global Experiences

Cultural Heritage

My family is originally from the island of Lánqi, Fuzhou within the Fujian Province of China. Both of my parents immigrated to the United States in their early 20s along with their siblings. Much of their distant family remains in China and I had the honor of visiting them a few summers ago as well as this upcoming summer, 2025. In their community, generations of relatives lived nearby and nearly everyone knew each other in the village.

Visiting the village my parents grew up in changed the way I view everything I currently have. They were so proud of the place they’re from showing me each aspect of the way they grew up. My mom was reminiscent of her adventures by the sea and jumping on the roof of my dad’s house. The structure was only a few square feet and a single room that housed six people. While it may look small now, it was their life and something so grand. It was also incredible to see the emotion it brought back and the difference from the life I currently live.

My parents taught me to understand and speak Mandarin Chinese growing up and surrounded me with the Fujian dialect. It has been truly rewarding years later to understand and conversate with others even if my grammar pronunciation is not the best. I have learned to appreciate it much more and be confident in my heritage. It has not only connected me with family members but also with a community and shared experience of Chinese Americans.

I’ve met Chinese Americans from around the United States and a mutual bond is formed from the shared cultural experiences we’ve felt. As a child I never fully resonated with this community or opened to my friends about my culture. I thought it was unusual and atypical from their lives or what I saw on television. However, in college I’ve been able to meet so many others who have had the same shared emotions and family dynamics as mine. It has brought me some of my closest friends, that I consider part of my family. I have grown to understand my parents better and appreciate the way they grew up as well as how they raised me.

Campus Engagement

At the University of Florida, I have been able to dive deep into my culture as well as explore new cultures. It has been a highlight of my experience at UF and one of the main reasons why I love to be apart of this community. The rich diversity also provides spaces and organizations for many different cultures to feel a sense of belonging.

In my freshman year I joined several cultural organizations including the Chinese American Student Association, Asian American Student Association, Freshman Leadership Program of the Asian American Student Association, and Filipino Student Association. I attended general body meetings (GBMs), performances, and events regularly and became involved in their dance programs. This was an eye-opening experience, as I met so many other Asian Americans from various backgrounds, some that resembled my own. Finding commonalities and relating heavily to so many individuals made the large university feel like a family.

These experiences also helped me to be bold and not afraid to explore events from other organizations outside of my own identity. I enjoyed performances by the Caribbean Student Association, Vietnamese Student Association, Korean Undergraduate Student Association, Hispanic Student Association, Indian Student Association, and so many more. It was incredible to witness the rich culture thriving in many American minority groups and how accepting everyone was to embrace anyone who participated. There was no separation or discomfort, but instead encouragement and joy in seeing others celebrate together.

Throughout college I continued to value these experiences and attended as many performances and events as possible. In my second year, I became the Dance Coordinator for the Chinese American Student Association (CASA) where I was able to use my talents to grow in leadership as well as cultural awareness.

As Dance Coordinator, I was able to learn more about Chinese tradition from performing, traditional choreography, and gaining sensitivity to Chinese history. Growing up, I was not taught much about Chinese history, and I had never participated in traditional dance or performance. However, while training for the dance coordinator role I learned many traditional techniques, styles, and performance factors that Chinese dance requires. Many of these performance factors stem from Chinese superstition and opera where dancers where the most prevalent. Each region of China produces various styles that contribute to the diverse dance culture. During my time in CASA, I worked with various props and learned about their origins, including various types of fans, umbrellas, and clothing that accentuate the movements. In particular, I fell in love with watersleeve dancing due to its grace, fluidity, and the strength of movement it requires. CASA changed my perspective on Chinese traditions and helped me learn to appreciate ancient culture in an interactive way.

International Coursework

In my sophomore spring semester, I took one of the most engaging Quest 2 courses, Chemistry in La Cocina Latina, IDS 2334. This course transformed my perspective on quest courses and enriched my educational experience as well as cultural awareness. I took this course as a STEM major, hoping it would align with my strengths having already taken chemistry. Additionally, I have a deep love for food and wanted to learn how to cook better. Without any previous knowledge of the course, I was thrilled to learn about Latin culture, cuisine, and science.

Throughout the semester we participated in lectures, chemistry labs, and food kitchen labs. In lectures I learned about the origin of various dishes such as paella, maduros, and ceviche including the region they came from and the people who created them. It was fascinating to see how dishes evolved over time, and conversation often struck around various renditions of the same dish in from different regions. I also found it intriguing to compare my own cultural background to Latin culture, noting the similarities and differences in food and cooking styles.

It was incredible getting to cook in the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences kitchen and bring textbook/cookbook recipes to life. I learned a lot about typical ingredients used in Latin kitchens including plantains, yuca, and poblanos, which are ingredients I had never cooked with before. I also performed techniques like caramelization with Maillard reactions and chemical cooking with acids like lemon. I was in awe of the delicious dishes we were able to create and broadened my pallet with new flavors. Each group also produced similar yet different final dishes that contributed to a unique experience with each dish.

In the chemistry lab we learned to accurately measure ingredients, observe chemical reactions, and even make cheese. Although we could not consume the products produced in the lab, I was thrilled to apply skills I learned in chemistry and biology to help my teammates and combine my interests. I was particularly proud of the cheese we created through carefully heated milk and acid addition. The process was slow and required patience, precision, and teamwork to ensure the curds were at the right temperature to create a well-balanced texture, elasticity, and strength. The cheese was then stretched through tensile testing, which is quite common in mechanical engineering labs and related to core classes I was taking.

Throughout the course, I was also able to learn a small amount of Spanish and explore linguistics. Linguistics was a new subset of language that I had never been taught or thought about previously. I was intrigued to learn how different languages form consonants and vowels through different tongue placement, which helped me understand how accents are formed and why it can be challenging for people with different accents to pronounce certain English sounds. This really resonated with me, as I had always wondered why my Chinese relatives struggled to pronounce the “L” consonant. Learning about linguistics also aligned with my interest in singing and helped me to improve!

Overall, this transformative course not only deepened my understanding of chemistry and Latin culture but also fostered a new appreciation for the combination of science, culture, and language. It has highlighted the significance of intersections in various fields, and demonstrated how vital blending of different cultural perspectives can be in academia, industry, and modern life.