Indian Student Association

I want to help others be able define what being “Indian” means to them rather than letting other people define it. There is so much pressure from American society to be competitive and to be the best you can be. But then you combine that with being Indian, which, we're seen as the model minority and ultimately, you have this added pressure. Unfortunately, the feeling of not being good enough is all too familiar to all of us - and is what I want to talk about. ​ Growing up in

One major thing that has kept me tied to my cultural roots is Carnatic music, which I’ve been learning for the past 10 years. And in high school, I was very involved in Key Club, a service-leadership organization. I eventually served as the Governor, and throughout that journey, I learned a lot about public speaking, leadership, and communication, which helped me with my confidence and self-awareness. Key Club was an activity that wasn’t very traditional. Sometimes people wou

“My family moved to the US when I was 8. Growing up, I mostly had white friends, maybe because I went to a predominately white school? I remember how everyone would say, “You’re basically white but you just have dark skin. Your true white self is hiding underneath.” I was confused but I thought yay, I’m a white girl! I fit in. I think I was trying to surround myself with people I wanted to be like. I didn’t think that Indian culture was worth celebrating when I first came her

TW: Depression, eating disorders, self-harm, and suicide ​ When I was twelve years old, I barely exercised and was not healthy - I considered myself chubby. This led to me feeling depressed and to overcome that, I started following very unhealthy habits - I ate less, or skipped meals altogether. Later, I met a mental health advocate who talked about her journey involving self-harm. Being young, I was influenced by this and started doing it too.  I felt so alone that I even at

When I joined debate in high school, I learned a lot about systemic injustices caused by the government. This persuaded me to pursue political science. Along with knowing about injustices, I wanted to be able to write about them, thus developing an interest in journalism, too. I feel like majoring in these fields will give me the power to spread awareness about various injustices in the world, and to actually bring about change. I feel that it’s important to have an Indian pr

My dad’s job caused us to move around a lot, so I have been to many schools. Fitting in was kind of a struggle because we would live in apartments with wonderful Indian communities and I would have a lot of friends there but then I would get to school, which was majority white, and feel ostracized. We would move in the middle of the year when everyone had already made their friend groups. I had a friend in fifth grade who would always bring salad and dressing or pizza and I a

As I think about what being Indian means to me, it has shifted over time; it started with a lot of insecurity but as I’ve strayed from that mindset. Particularly, Bharatnatyam helped me find beauty in our culture.  ​ Starting in 7th grade I began to feel an onset of depression. In 9th grade, I remember telling my mom that I'm struggling with this, but she was more concerned about what others would think and its impacts on my future. During this time, I depended heavily on my

I’ve always felt uncomfortable within the Indian community. As a child, I assimilated pretty quickly because I went to a private school which was predominantly white. I was raised Christian and never found people who looked like me at my church. I didn't have a strong Indian community where I lived, so most of my friends were white. In fact, I was bullied for being Indian in kindergarten and I never really saw any Indian kids in school until I got to middle school.  ​ There I

My parents came here from India with hopes and dreams of a good life for me and my brother. This really had an impact on my love for America. It filled me with false ideals of meritocracy. I think this is something that really challenged me growing up. I started noticing differences between me and my peers in the Indian community. I moved around a lot in my life. I’ve lived in about 7 places, where I’ve had different cultural experiences, which has been really challenging for

For elementary, middle school and high school, I went to the same predominantly white school district called Wayzata. Throughout school, it was really hard to be different. When I would bring food I would try to hide it, because I didn't want people asking me what type of food I was having. It was more like "I don't want to talk to this person 'cause she's different", "her food smells weird so I'm not going to talk to her" type of thing. My issues with Indian culture started