Anjali Bhagavatula, a junior, and Kirsha Selvakumar, a freshman, recently came to the United States from India. Bhagavatula, who used to live in California before coming here, and Selvakumar, who used to live in Illinois as a young child, have some experience of the American culture and style of education, but they are still learning and adapting to new things everyday.
Bhagavatula and Selvakumar expressed the hardships faced with moving to a new country and a new school. They both miss the elements associated with their home country, especially its religion. Religious prayers and festivals frequently occurred, and in India, they felt that it was more of a cultural unit.
They came across various other obstacles. Bhagavatula said, “My Indian accent is different from others, [so] I seriously didn’t understand what people were saying, [and] they didn’t understand what I was saying. For two months, I just struggled with language.”
To overcome the language barrier, Bhagavatula took many English classes and constructed numerous essays to improve her English. Although she indicated that these challenges were difficult to master, she also understood the benefit of the move to America.
They expressed their joy in being able to receive the high-end education offered by the United States. Education in India is not as free and specialized as the education is in the U.S. As Bhagavatula said, “They don’t actually look at what you are good [at]. They just want you to be perfect in everything, and they just give you all the knowledge, which we can’t put [it all] in our mind[s].”
Along these same lines, Selvakumar also said, “They want you to learn everything word-by-word. It’s more memorization than actual learning. If you want to express it in your own way, you can’t because everybody is the same. [We] all need to be well-rounded.”
Selvakumar and Bhagavatula both enjoy the style of learning in the U.S. as it is more slow-paced and filled with more interactions. They expressed their appreciation as they have made new friends, creating new experiences and encountering a variety of ethnicities and cultures.
Now, they have both involved themselves within the school and town. Bhagavatula is involved with the JCC and the Share-a-Smile Club, where they send gifts to cancer patients, and Selvakumar volunteers at the library. They both feel the sense of pride and responsibility since they have this chance to study in the U.S., but the burden and necessity to get into a good college with a scholarship is also there.
Both Bhagavatula and Selvakumar work hard as they also have their aspirations. Bhagavatula is pursuing in biotechnology, meanwhile Selvakumar is pursuing law.
One can see the blessing of receiving the education in the U.S., Bhagavatula said. “The education is so good, so I just don’t want to miss it. I don’t want to go back and just memorize stuff. I don’t want that.”
