The story of Carla
Carla is a former student from Chile who graduated three years ago. Last week, at the beginning of the new school year, she took her sister, who was a new student, to see me. After our conversation, I asked her to share the experience with students in my “Introduction to Computer Systems” class. Following was what she said:
“As an international student in a U.S. university, I experienced a lot of emotions: Happy, Sad, and Uncomfortable. Three years ago, I graduated from Carnegie Mellon and became the first one in my family to earn a Bachelor’s degree. My family has been farmers for many generations. My father finished high school, but my mother did not. Since I was young, I had to help my parents to work the field to grow crops after school. Life was hard because so many things were depending on the weather and the market. In bad weather, the crops did not grow well, we were hungry, and my parents had to borrow money to take care of a family of seven. In a bad market, what we grew could not sell, even we were not hungry, but my parents did not have enough money to buy seeds for the next season. That was the farmers’ lives in Chile, and I am sure in other agricultural countries too.
My father encouraged me to pursue education as the way to escape this hard lives. After graduated from high school with top honor; my teachers encouraged me to apply for a government’s scholarship to study abroad. Even having a scholarship that pays for my tuition, I still had to apply to get into a U.S. schools. With the help of my teachers and many weeks of research on the Internet, I still did not know much about U.S. schools. I decided to apply to 10 top universities, 20 averaged universities, and 10 lesser known universities with the hope of getting accepted. To my surprise, I received 12 admissions, three of them were from top universities. (Carnegie Mellon, PennState, and Yale.) I did not know which school to choose, but my teacher said: “The future is in science and technology, why not go to the best technical school in the U.S.” That was why I decided to go to Carnegie Mellon.
Even I was happy to study in the U.S., I also felt sad to leave my family, and this homesickness lasted for several months. I had an “uncomfortable feeling” about living in a country so different from where I came from, and this feeling stayed with me throughout my years in college. While I studied in an air-conditioned library, I knew that many of my friends were working on their parents’ farm under the hot sun. While I went to movies with friends in the evening , I knew that my brothers and sisters were preparing the crops to sell in the market the next day. While I ate nutritious foods in the school dining room, many of my people were having difficulty to find clean water and food for their meal. I realized how lucky I was, but also felt very uncomfortable, as I kept thinking about my country and my people.
Being an international student in a U.S. school was not easy. In Chile, I was one of the top students, but in this school, where many students were the best from their school, I was just a student like anybody else. Even my English was excellent; it took me almost a year to feel comfortable in conversation with others. The first year was very challenging, not because of the language, but the teaching method and so much reading. Even for someone who read a lot in high school like me, I still had difficulty to complete the reading assignments. I found that reading is one of the major problems of many international students. Some believe that it was due to the English language. Since all of them passed a language proficiency test before coming here, it could not be the language problem. Even many spoke English and understood the lectures well; reading was still an issue. Anyone could have difficulty in the first year, but after two, three, or four years many were still having a problem with reading. I conclude that they did not develop a good reading habit. That was why many did not do well in school.
Another difficulty that many international students faced was their unfamiliar with the teaching method. At Carnegie Mellon, many classes were taught using the Active Learning method where students must participate in class discussion. To express your opinion requires a certain verbal ability. If you do not read well, or having a rich vocabulary, you cannot express yourselves well. I found that those who read more tend to have a variety of words to express their opinion than others. Discussions allow students to consider several viewpoints on a subject. As students share their opinions about the course materials, they also learn from others. The use of discussions allows students to explore a topic more deeply than just listening to a lecture. Through the discussion, students can explore a lot of details that sometimes get ignored during a lecture. By discussion, students go deeper on a topic and fully understand the subject better.
Like many International students, I was shy and preferred not to say much in class. I was fortunate to take the “Introduction to Computer Systems” taught by Professor Vu. That was a challenging course because there were so much reading, homework and class discussions. After a few weeks of feeling overwhelmed, I was thinking about dropping the course. When I came to see him, he said: “I am glad that you came to see me before dropping the class. You should not give up that easily. You must be courageous to overcome these obstacles and moved forward. Many students never seek help, they just dropped the course, then felt that they had failed. Sometimes this failure attitude could last for a long time. Success means efforts, the more efforts you put in learning, the better outcomes. There is no other way but putting in your efforts. Students should not be afraid of failure; the university is where they learn to conquer these fears and learn from their failure.”
After the meeting, despite the negative feeling, I did not drop the course. Since I did not talk much, he called my name all the time and forced me to express my view. Even today I still vividly remember his voice: “Carla, what is your opinion about …”; “Carla tells the class about ….”; “Carla shows the class your algorithm on ….” Even I did not do well; I continued to take three more courses from him. In each class, he continued to encourage me, and I have learned a lot from him, not just technical but also setting a clear direction for my future.”
“I am sure in this class; you will hear him say: “Many of you are only thinking about getting a job, but that is easy. Anyone can get a job because it is something you do to get paid. It is better to think about a career that you enjoy to do for the rest of your life.” When some of you are discussing job offers and the salary, he often said: “Many of you are still thinking about money. With the Computer Science degree, you will make a lot of money. Although money is necessary, it will not give you the happiness that you think you will get. It will make you feel greedy. It will make you wanting more. It will make you compare with others; it will make you do things that you do not even think of, just to get the money. It is better to have a purpose in life, living a meaningful life, you will feel richer and happier.” I have taken four classes from him and heard him said that all the time. I am sure you will hear his messages.”
“Since graduated three years ago, I went back home and got a good job with Empressa Falabella, one of the largest companies in Chile. My job involved applying my skills to improve the company’s computer systems and automate common processes to increase efficiency. Besides my job, I volunteered to teach computer programming to high school students and encouraged them to learn science and technology. For three years, I have trained many farmers’ children like me. I told them that the best way out of poverty is a good education, especially in technology. This year, several of them got scholarships to study oversea, and one of them is my Sister Carmela. She applied to many schools, but I insisted that she applied to Carnegie Mellon. That is why we are here today. I take my sister to meet professor Vu to thank him for encouraging me to achieve my educational goals and helped me to make a difference in the lives of others.”
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
